Dear TanningBeds.org,

We have a Wolff Montego Bay 3200 tanning bed. The cable in the back of the bed has a connector with 4 wires that go to a timing system that the tanning salon was using. If I wanted to convert this to home use, what should the wiring be for the 4 wires. The bed had a separate connector to the 220V. Wolff tanning wants me to buy a $200.00 timer that comes with a cable. I want to make a switch to do this manually as since this is only for home use.

Thanks,
Jennifer C.
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Dear Jennifer,

$200 is a little high but not that bad. I would make sure to get it from PC Marketing, Inc. who owns Montego Bay, or from a company that knows the bed well, like Tan Systems or UVA SunSystems. Fortunately, I know those beds pretty well as I sold and worked on them back in the mid 90s. There are two another option if you don’t mind doing a little work, and assuming you still have several feet of cable on the timer cord. First, let us quickly cover the incoming power for the whole bed.

On the power cord side, there are 4 wires, red, black, green and white. Red and black are HOT wires, white is neutral, green is ground.

On the timer cord side (assuming this is an analog system) you also have red, black, white and green. The green is ground, the white is neutral, the black is hot and the red is the “trigger” wire. Basically, you can not use the green and white (should be capped off properly), and when the red and black are connected, the bed is on. When disconnected, they are off. 120V flows through here. One option is to buy a TMax timer and connect it yourself. We sell them for $100, as do many others. You would connect the red and black wires to the “J3 Contact” on the timer board, either wire to either terminal.

What you should NOT do is a manual on/off switch with no timer, which is exceedingly dangerous. If you really want to get by on the cheap, you could buy a Siebel 120V timer (this is what is inside the timer they want to sell you) for $25 plus shipping, and add another $5 for a knob. You would have to make your own box, put connectors on the wires coming out of the timer cable, use a strain relief, etc. but all those parts can be bought for around $20-$30 at Home Depot or Lowes home improvement. You need a little technical skill to do this, but it isn’t brain surgery. Most people would choose to NOT do this, by the way, as it is work.

You would need something like a 6″x6″x6″ box, one strain relief, sized for your timer cable, some female blade connectors, small screws, a voltmeter and a drill with bits. You would drill a small hole in the front for the shaft of the timer, plus two small holes to connect the timer to the front plate. Next drill a hole in the side of the box, larger, for the cable and strain relief.

Push the cable through the big hole, crimp the female blade connectors on the ends of the 4 wires. On the timer, you will see 4 male blade connectors. It is best to just get advice from whoever you buy the timer from, but you will only be using 3 of them. The green ground wire from the cable is only connected to the casing of the timer if the housing is steel. Otherwise, it would be capped off.

In short, if you can get an exact timer for $200, it would have the cord with the AMP plug, etc. and that is a so-so deal. A TMax can be used for about $100 plus shipping with a little work. For a lot of work, you can make your own for around $50-$65 if you are pretty technical and have some time on your hands. Let me know which you choose! If you do build your own, a picture would be appreciated.

Dennis