Dear TanningBeds.org,

I recently bought a 1984 SunTana SunSystems SB-3. During moving I broke the hinge on one side. Where can I find that part?

Crazy
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Dear Crazy,

You probably won’t find that part. I would say the best solution is to take the good hinge and the bad hinge to a welder or muffler shop, and let them repair it. They can use the good hinge as a reference. This will probably set you back in the $50 to $100 range.

You can try asking a Sun distributor, but I don’t know any that were in business back in 1984. My employer starting selling those in 1985, but I know we don’t have one in stock and they aren’t available. You would end up paying about the same or more for the new part if you could find it. This would hold true for just about any bed from the 1980s or early 90s. Expect to have any BODY part custom made. There are exceptions, of course, but for most, that is your only alternative.

Dennis

Dear Dennis,

I own a Sunquest 24rsp and I want to relamp it with some more intense bulbs. I was looking into VHR bulbs, since I loved the results they gave me in a salon. Would the Cosmolux VLR 100watt bulbs be ok to use in this 24 lamp bed without striping? (There are 12 bulbs in the canopy and 12 bulbs in the bench)

Thanks,
Brandon

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Dear Brandon,

There are two schools of thought on what is more intense, and I will cover both of them. First, it won’t help to put the 160W VHR lamps in your bed. How many watts the lamp gets isn’t regulated by the lamp the way it is in an incandecent lamp. Any device that uses fluorescent lamps has the power regulated by a ballast. Regardless of lamp, it will deliver 100w of power, no less, no more. You would be spending money for nothing.

Now, if by intense you mean “get red faster”, then you want a higher UVB lamp. This isn’t my preferred method, although this is extremely popular. In this case, I would go with a higher UVB rated lamp. One I just designed is the SunMaster Wildcat (disclaimer: yes, these are made by the company I work for but I know these lamps best since I am in on the design stage). They are a 8.5% UVB lamp and would time out in the 12-15 minute range in your bed.

Another way (my prefered way) would be to use a RUVA lamp. This would be similar to the VHR lamp in that it has a reflector, but is designed for the 100w ballasts. I would prefer a lower UVB reflector like the SunMaster Pro Reflector. It has a 2.6% UVB rating, but with the RUVA, comes out to about the same UVB as a typical 20 minute lamp. The big difference is in the UVA region, which would be 30% or more than your existing lamp.

UVB is what burns you, but stimulates the skin to produce melanin. UVA is what does the actual work, turning melanin brown, thus giving you a tan. If the bed is at home, there is no reason to demand a 10 minute tanning session. You are better off with daily tanning that doesn’t burn you (burn also equals risk) and that has much more actual BRONZING (UVA is the bronzing ray). As with any RUVA/reflector lamp, there is a chance of striping, but a lower UVB lamp is much less likely to stripe you, much less likely to burn you, and is more likely to give you a deeper, more sun-like tan anyway.

To give you an idea, I can use any lamp I want in my bed, but I use a 2.6% lamp because it gives me a darker tan over time. If you want quick results, the Wildcat is your best bet. If you want QUALITY results, the Pro Reflector is a better lamp. They both cost about the same, under $15 each.

Dennis

Dear TanningBeds.org,

Hi, i just recently came accross a wolff tanning bed on the back it has cosmos as the model name and was built in 1991 it is a 24 bulb bed, not real sure what is wrong with it but it will not turn on. I have surfed the web, which has lead me no were, the lady i got it from backed her car into it not doing any damage to the bed physically but now it will not turn on, i was wondering if you might now were i could possiablly find a wiring diagram of some sort for the bed to maybe check out the wiring. If you have any information that would be great. thanks so much for your time.

Thanks again!
Brandy

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Dear Brandy,

That sounds like a Klafsun Cosmo to me. Pretty basic bed. You can go to www.klafsun.com and get their phone number. The company has changed a bunch over the years (I think new owners) but they should be able to provide a copy of the owners manual pretty cheap.

Dennis

Which is better, a 230 volt tanning bed or a 120 volt tanning bed? I get this question a lot, and thought I would answer several emails at once. There are a great number of electricians who give their ‘advice’ on this matter, and unfortunately, they are usually wrong. Because of this, I will try to explain with some detail. And yes, I oversimply a little to keep it readable, so if you are an electrican engineer, don’t scream.

Short answer: It doesn’t matter if the bed is 120V or 230V, and this will not affect the tanning. The tanning lamps don’t about the voltage, only that you supply enough total watts for them to light.

Long answer: While there is basically no difference in powering the SAME bed with 230V or 120V, there is a difference in the electronics that beds use. In general, the 120V electronics tend to be more advanced and of a newer design. There are several different kinds of ballasts that beds use. (Note: the ballast is the part that limits and delivers power to the lamps, thus is a very important and often ignored part of the tanning bed.)

Choke ballast: Oldest type, ballast is basically wire wrapped around an iron core, which produces a magnetic field that limits the current passing through it. Very cheap and reliable but requires the use of lamp starters and runs very hot, meaning it wastes a great deal of electricity. All are 230V, although there is no reason they couldn’t be 120V. No one makes them in 120V for tanning bed use. One ballast per lamp.

Magnetic ballast:Big, heavy bricks, used in many 4 wire 240V beds, although they are usually 120V ballasts. Very reliable, and they can take a great deal of abuse from miswiring, voltage spikes, etc. as they have thermal protection built in. Not the best performers. Two lamps per ballast. Best known are Magnetek and Valmont, although GE also build some of these. Used in many of the older Montego Bay, SonnenBraune, original SCA, Sundash, Tan America and many others. Not as popular now as they once were, party due to their weight and moderate to moderately high cost.

Electronic ballast: This is a general class of ballasts that covers everything from Triad(tm) ballasts to single and double electronic ballasts (look like computer cards) and even Kesio. Some are more efficient than others, they tend to power the lamp nicely but are a bit delicate. Miswiring will almost always fry them, and they are sensitive to voltage spikes. Most are 120V. Most are very light, some are efficient, some are very inefficient (Kesio, for example). Usually powering 2 lamps per ballast. Most are 120V.

High Frequency electronic ballast: Newest generation of ballasts. Super efficient, requiring 30% to 50% less electricity to power a bulb. This means as little as 65 watts to power a 100 watt lamp. They operate at a frequency of over 100,000 hertz, and have almost no thermal loss (3% or less). They can power 2, 3, 4 or more lamps, depending on design. They come in 100V, 120V, 220v, 288v and universal voltages. They work very different than regular ballasts, and the resulting UV output of a tanning bed using them is very different as well. It is difficult to compare to a standard ballast. During the first few minutes of use, the lamps will put out LESS UV than a traditional ballast. After 10-25 minutes, they will put out significantly more UV than a traditional ballast. This means you can just compare the output of systems using the different ballasts with a quick test, and instead must compare entire sessions. These use technology so new it is still under patent, so there are few companies making these ballasts, and few companies selling beds that use them. They are also somewhat expensive.

I have actually done a great deal of lab work comparing the new high frequency ballasts to more traditional ballasts, and in the interest of full disclosure, the company I work for switched to using only high frequency ballasts due to those tests. SunMaster started testing new generation ballasts back in the mid 1990s, with the goal of making a 24 lamp tanning bed that could plug in the wall. We tested many different ballasts for output, durability, cycle testing and the like. We also conducted tests in a couple of different labs for comparison. So yes, I have a bias when it comes to ballasts, but it is based on years of testing.

So, in the end there is a difference in 120V and 230V beds, but generally you will get the same tan with either. The main difference is how much electricity they soak up to get the job done. Me, of course I’m partial to the HF ballasts that SunMaster uses, which are mainly 120V for home tanning beds. The tan is the same, but you end up spending up to half the money to actually power the bed, which saves you money in the long run.

As for other 120V brands and ballasts, they still should do the same job as the 230V systems. Many electrians will mistakenly tell people that “230V is more efficient” but that simply isn’t true for tanning beds. Yes, for your air conditioner or other devices that have heavy, moving motors, then 230V is more efficient only because of the armature design (I won’t elaborate, trust me on this) but a tanning bed is primarily a ‘light fixture that you lay on’, and has almost no moving parts.

So buy based on your needs and if you can get a 24 lamp bed that runs on 120V, that is a good thing. You will pay a little more for the bed, but you will save money on the install since you don’t need an electrician to install it. In the long run, you will save some money on electricity, and yes, the bed will have a lower carbon footprint.

Dennis

I have received several emails over the last few weeks about this subject, and I want to nip it in the bud right now. Several people have bought beds and were ‘told’ that they can just use a buckboost transformer to change a 120V circuit to a 230V circuit, or vice versa. This is used as a premise on how ‘easy’ it will be to install if they just buy this used bed.

First, let me clearly state that you can’t do this for a tanning bed. Yes, you can buy a transformer that will convert 120V to 230V (or 220V, 240V, etc.) or one that does the exact opposite and convert the higher 230V down to 120V, but this will not work for a tanning bed.

Short answer: Hire an electrician, wire a dedicated circuit. A transformer won’t work for this and can cause a fire, electrocution and/or death. I am not overstating this, you can’t do this with a transformer, no matter who told you this, and no matter how “smart” he thought he was.

Long answer: Now, for those who want to know WHY you can’t use a tranformer like this for a tanning bed, let me explain in more detail. Warning, this is technical so if you eyes glaze over while reading it, don’t worry as your electrician’s eyes shouldn’t. Understand that all electrical devices use power measured in WATTS. Watts = Volts x Amps. A tanning bed that uses 24 lamps at 100W each = 2400 watts. (yes, it has fans and other electronics that draw a little, but we will keep the math simple for this example). So 2400W is the total power used. Now, how many amps it will draw depends on the voltage, here is quick table:

2400W at 120V (volts) = 20 amps
2400W at 240V = 10 amps
2400W at 2400V = 1 amp

So the higher the voltage is, the lower the amp draw is to get the total wattage needed to power the bed. This is all Electricity 101 stuff, and there is no escaping it. The problem is that most beds need more than 100W per lamp, so the above numbers don’t apply to a read world situation. This is because most beds use MORE than 100W per lamp to get the lamp started, and then just 100W to keep it lit. Instead, you need to look at the rated amp draw.

For an example (see image as well), lets look at an Alpha Sun Sunny 24, which is a typical ‘choke ballast’ 24 x 100w lamp system. At 230V, it requires a 20 amp breaker. If you take 120V at the wall, then double it to 240V to power the system, you have to DOUBLE the amp draw. This means you need about 40 amps of power. This would be 8 gauge wire. All homes use 14 gauge wire (15 amp) or 12 gauge wire (20 amp), which is considerably smaller and carries a much lower load. In short, the breaker will trip as soon as you power on the bed, every time. That or if the breaker fails, the electrical load is so high it will melt the wires, which can (and likely will) cause a fire.

There is another example where someone wants to take a 230V circuit, and use it to power a 120V tanning bed using a transformer. In this situation, you will take the two 120V hot legs (which combined = 240V) and cut the power in half. Now you have two 60V legs that equal 120V, but you have NO neutral wire. Not only will this create a dangerous situation, but you will likely burn out some of the electronics inside that are expecting a neutral wire. Besides, if you have a dedicated 240V/20A circuit, an electrician can change this into a dedicated 120V/20A circuit by simply swapping out the breaker and outlet. It is a about 30 minutes of work at most.

In conclusion: Buckboost transformers are designed to bump the voltage up or down by a small amount, like 8 to 24 volts. Trying to use one to double the voltage, or cut the voltage in half only works in theory. In practice, it will damage the bed and can cause a fire and you can be seriously injured. Don’t do it, hire an electrician and just wire the bed right the first time.

Dennis

Dear Dennis,

Thank you for taking the time to offer your advice! I have an older (approx. 12 yrs) Sunquest Pro 16S tanning bed and would like to replace the metal reflectors this year when I replace the lamps. Mine have several dings and dents in them from previous cleanings. I find numerous web sites offering replacement parts, but none of them offer replacement reflectors. Any suggestions?

Thank you again,
LaDonna

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Dear LaDonna,

Honestly, I would not bother for several reasons. One, it will not make a difference in how the bed tans. The best reflectors actually have thousands of pings in them on purpose, it is just more expensive. Second, what really makes a difference in how effective the reflector is, is how clean it is. Third, only ETS will sell those, as they are a specific size, not generic. That means they will be expensive.

If the reflectors are badly damaged, any thin aluminum and two sided tape would work fine as a patch. Really, if I had a gaping HOLE in the refectors, I would be patching with some aluminum foil, but then again, I’m a cheap son-of-a-gun and would rather spend the money on something that would actually make the bed tan BETTER. If I thought you could get at least 10% difference in the tanning, I would agree that they might be worthwhile, but I can’t see how it will make 3% difference in the tan, even if they are a bit beat up. Good questions, though. Haven’t been asked that before.

Dennis