corvette

who honestly has best beds or booths besides tanning performance-ease of acrylic removal,cooling,paint or plastic integrity,electronic failure,ease of opening canopy,lamp change fustrations,6 foot lamps top and bottom please address these in your response.

Tut

Hello,You ask the million dollar question!!For an honest answer you need to find out what your needs are!There are some general considerations that can be responed to for any situation.I am a bed tech with 12 yrs. experience. I have installed or worked on most of the low pressure systems and quite a few high pressure systems on the market. I have also installed or serviced several hundred stand ups or booths.First Metal beds unarguably last longer and hold up better to heavy usage.Plastic beds just cannot hold up to the physical abuse of customer usage but, they also cannot hold up to the constant exposure to uv light.Discolorization(yellowing)is a constant factor that has not been solved by any manufacturer that I know of!The uv also causes many types of plastic to become brittle over time and causes cracks,In a structual situation this can be critical!Typically beds that have acrylics with multiple bends in them need to be replaced more often because of the bending procedure,the bends tend to get star cracks, or fractures along the bend lines over time.Beds with hindged acrylics, from my experience seem to be better suited for salon owners and their employees, I have found that most acrylic breakage occurs when removing or installing the acrylics. Remember the salon employees usually end up having to change a lamp or clean an acrylic.room sizes are usually very tight.Pull out ballast trays are also something that needs to be considered when purchasing a bed! Sometimes it takes me longer to get to a problem than it does to repair it.the type of built in timer is also something to consider! alot of manufacturers are going with O.E.M. versions of existing remote timing systems. If you are already running 0ne type of remote system at an existing salon, and your purchasing a new unit the timing system inside the unit needs to be compatible,or,easily modified.As you can tell there is much to consider about this issue! My suggestion is to compare ,compare, compare!The biggest thing to consider about what the best bed is would actually be Who supports their units the best! Their are alot of good beds on the market!Anything that runs up to 12 hours a day everyday will sooner or later have some type of malfunction, maybe minor, maybe major!The after sale support will determine a good bed or a great bed simple as that!I have built beds at the factory level and I have repaired,or, installed beds all over the U.S. The needs of salon owners vary from place to place but, there is one constant!When a bed is down for whatever reason they are losing money.Getting that bed up and running and keeping it that way becomes the most important factor!I hope this comes close to answering your question in an honest truthful non-sales pitch kind a way.good luck!

Chippp

Booths are the very reliableno starters no acrylics very large selection of lamps you can use. Ballast's that last for ever, in the very rare case if needed can easily be replaced by you.The ballast's and lamp sockets for booths can be purchased at any local lighting wholesalers.We have never had to pay for service in the 18 years we have been using them.We had to replace 2 ballasts, we did that easily our self and we had to replace 1 lamp socket also easily done ourselves.The design makes them ware free. They are built for public use.>> Most tanning beds used in salons, if the manufacture is honest will tell you they are designed and built for light home use.That's why they make them from plastic and they have a problem with over heating in a salon environment if heavily used.

Tut

Chipp is that the best you can do?that response was very weak.You need to know that commercial beds to be considerd for sale as a commercial unit, arerated by a minimum E.T.L. rating or a U.L.rating this gives the manufacturer the right to sell beds commercially and in Canada it is a C.S.A. rating. Telling people that beds are made for home is a down right lie!I suggest you find another way to sell your stand ups!!!!Remember that here in the states any unit booth or bed must comply with a plus or minus 10% of the origional lamp configuration so your booths are subject to the same lamp type limitations as all beds out there!We could also discuss the limitations of magnetic ballasts systems in todays market.Every year beds and booths are getting more powerful.Using one ballast to power two lamps has its limitations.Many boothes out on the market are using choke ballast systems and getting a higher output per lamp,same in the beds.Once again, your limited response does not do our industry justice people need to realize thayt their are many viable available to them not just the ones you think they need!