Tanning Bed Lamps and Bulbs

Lamps are the part every tanning bed needs on a schedule, and the part most often bought wrong. Sun Systems & Service sources tanning bed lamps by request. Send the make, model and the code printed on your current lamps, and Stan Pope confirms the right lamp for that bed and quotes a full set. In Michigan we install and test. Elsewhere we ship after a video session.

What fails and how you can tell

• Weak tans at normal session times. The first sign. Output drops steadily through the lamp's rated life even though the lamps still look lit.
• Dark ends. Gray or black bands at the ends of the tube. The lamp is near the end.
• Flicker, swirl or slow strike. Could be the lamp, could be the starter or the ballast. One dead lamp in a pair often takes its partner with it on older magnetic systems. Our guide to lamp, ballast or starter walks through the difference.
• Hour meter past the lamp rating. Most salon lamps are rated in the hundreds of hours. If the meter says you are past it, the lamps are done whether they look it or not. See how often to replace tanning bed lamps.

How to identify the part

Read the code printed near one end of a current lamp. It has three pieces of information.

• Size. F71 and F73 are the two common lengths in a T12 tube, 71 and 73 inches. There are shorter lamps for facial units and canopies, and longer ones in some stand-up booths.
• Wattage. 100 watt is the standard class for most residential and many commercial beds. 160 watt and higher are high-output classes for commercial beds built for them. A bed's ballasts are matched to one wattage class. Putting a higher wattage lamp into a bed not built for it does not make it tan harder. It stresses the ballast.
• End type. Bi-pin ends have two pins. Recessed double contact, written RDC, has a single recessed contact at each end. They do not interchange, and the lamp holders in the bed decide which one you need.

Then check the bed's own requirement. It is on the model plate or on a label inside the canopy. The lamp in the bed and the lamp the bed calls for should agree. If a previous owner changed them, that is worth knowing before you buy 24 more. We describe these classes generally here because the only safe compatibility call is one made against your specific bed, which is what the request form is for.

Bronzing, high pressure and facial lamps

Some beds mix lamp types: standard tubes on the bench, higher output tubes in the canopy, and quartz high pressure lamps for the face. High pressure lamps have their own filters and their own replacement schedule, and the filter glass matters as much as the lamp. Tell us what your bed has and we will source the full set.

Installing lamps

Lamps swap with the power off and no tools beyond a quarter turn. In Michigan we come out, relamp, reset the hour meter and test every lamp at full output. National customers get the lamps shipped and a short video walk-through if they want one, including how to seat an RDC lamp so it strikes the first time. We also check the acrylics at the same visit, because hazed acrylic undoes a lot of what new lamps give you.

More parts by request

• Tanning bed lamps and bulbs
• Ballasts
• Starters
• Acrylics
• Gas springs and canopy shocks
• Timers and controllers
• Fans and cooling
• Electrical parts

Parts by brand

Wolff, ESB, Sunquest, SunFire, ProSun, Sunmaster, Ergoline and KBL, plus every other make we have seen in 35 years.

Request this part

Send the make, model and what the bed is doing. Stan confirms the part and quotes it, usually the same day.