Can a Tanning Bed Be Fixed Over Video?

There used to be a tanning tech in most regions. Now a salon in a small town, or a family with a bed in the basement, can wait weeks for anyone to come look at it, and pay for the drive when they do. A live video session closes most of that gap. Here is what one can do, what it can't, and how to get the most from it.

What a video session can diagnose

Tanning beds fail in a small number of predictable ways, and most of them show on camera if the person holding the phone is guided to the right spot.

• No power at all. Breaker, fuse, plug, outlet, door switch, thermal cutoff. Start with our won't turn on checklist.
• Breaker keeps tripping. An undersized circuit, a shorted component, or a failing fan motor. The pattern of when it trips tells a lot.
• Lamps dark, dim or flickering. Which lamps, how many and in what pattern points to a lamp, a starter or a ballast. See lamp, ballast or starter.
• Timer and control faults. Front-desk controllers, remote timers and lockouts that make a good bed look dead.
• Overheating and shutdowns. Fans, filters and airflow.
• Mechanical problems. Canopies that won't stay up, worn struts and hinges, cracked acrylics.

What you can usually fix yourself, with guidance

With the bed off and unplugged: resetting breakers and thermal cutoffs, replacing fuses, swapping lamps and starters, cleaning fans and filters, and replacing gas struts. These are the jobs where a technician talking you through it saves you a service call.

What still needs hands on the bed

Ballast replacement, internal rewiring, control board work, and anything on the electrical service side, like running a new 220V circuit, belong to a licensed electrician or an on-site technician. A good virtual session tells you that plainly, and tells you exactly what to ask for so the person you hire fixes the right thing. See tanning bed electrical requirements.

How to get ready for the call

1. Photograph the serial plate. Make and model change everything.
2. Write down what the bed does: when it fails, what you hear, which lamps are out.
3. Charge your phone, install Zoom or Google Meet, and set up good light. A headlamp or work light helps.
4. Have a screwdriver set and, if you own one, a basic multimeter.
5. Turn the bed off and unplug it before the call starts.

Buying a used bed? Bring a tech along on video

Lamp hours, acrylic condition, and how the bed runs at full output decide whether a used bed is a deal or a money pit. A session while you are standing at the seller's bed costs far less than finding out later. Read repair or replace first.

Book a session

Sun Systems and Service offers paid live video sessions over Zoom or Google Meet with Stan Pope for salons and home owners anywhere in the US, every brand, open 7 days. The fee is quoted when you book. In Michigan, Ohio and Indiana, if the bed needs hands on it, we can take the job on-site too. How virtual sessions work.