Tanning beds generally use one of three available types of electronics to power the lamp: choke, magnetic or electronic.

Choke style are the most common, primarily because they are the least expensive. This is what is found in 90% of 24 lamp or more tanning beds. They use a choke ballast, which is actually a current limiter to only allow a certain amount of current through, capicitors for filtering and lamp starters to preheat the lamp. Choke tend to have a more complex wiring diagram and can be a bit harder to troubleshoot, and is the oldest form of power source for fluorescent lamps still in use today.

All choke ballasts are made in Europe (usually Germany) and thus require voltages to be from 220VAC to 230VAC. Voltages below this will result in the failure of lamps to ignite, while voltages above this can cause damage and premature failure of the lamps and starters. Because most home have 240-245VAC and most businesses have 208-211VAC, a buckboost transformer is needed to adjust the voltage to the proper range, adding about $150 to $200 to the cost of an installation.

Magnetics are a form (but different) of standard electronic ballasts. They are the big, heavy brick like boxes that connect to 2 lamps each. They are much less complex, use slightly less electricity, but offer the worst performance of the available choices. Because of the cost and weight, they are not used very often. In their day, they were considered state of the art. One of the nice features of the magnetic system is that it was nearly indestructible. Thermal protection would allow you to wire it wrong without blowing it up, and you could literally drive over it with a car without hurting it. Magnetics have wide tolorances for incoming voltages, with most being designed to run on 120VAC

Electronic ballast systems are not a single type, but rather include several different types of ballsts that are electronic in nature. They were introduced into tanning in the mid to late 80s with “single electronic” or double electonic circuit board looking ballasts. The original designs, still in limited production, were too sensitive to bad voltage and tended to break often. Kasio introduced a reliable ballast, but it was very inefficient, requiring about 50% more electricity than any other system, and they are very expensive.

The Triad ballast was patented in the late 1980s and although it had a few problems in its initial release, ended up being a very reliable system. They are more efficient than choke or magnetic, very reliable. The Triad is not tolorant of being connected wrong (instant death) but it is remarkably tolorant of low or high voltages and is a strong performer. While the results in a tanning bed are not quite as high as choke ballasts, it is very close and offers a significantly simpler design and is only slightly more expensive than choke.

A newer name in electronic ballasts are the Workhorse series. Very few manufacturers use this ballast because it is such a different beast. If a tanning bed is engineered to use this ballast properly, it provides results better than Triad and almost as good as choke style. Of all the different ballast systems available, it is the simplest to install and is fairly cost effective. I have personally conducted extensive tests with this ballast and learned a great deal on how to engineer system to get maximum results, but can not disclose the information due to a confidentiality clause.

Suffice it to say that these ballasts use the least amount of electricity and operate using UHF rather than brute power, which makes the tanning bed run cooler and peform well, when designed properly. If the system is designed improperly, performance is very poor.

It is possible to replace one kind of ballast with another in some circumstances. Say, if you had an old Suntana with single or double electronics and wanted to replace a failed ballast with a Triad, this can be done IF you are familiar enough to read wiring diagrams. Switching to or from either choke or Workhorse systems is not so easy.