Carla Plazas

Okay, so it seems that you are the authority when it comes to the technical aspect of tanning. Here is my question-

What sort of questions should I be asking tanning bed manufacturers to determine which is the best quality unit? I know the basics, but what internal components such as the gauge of the wire, the ballast(I know it drives the lamps, but I need details), etc...???

Also, where is the best place to get information on spectral irradiance?(Not sure if that is the correct term) I see the little charts, and I can't make heads or tails of it? When you are looking at that, what are you looking for?

I'd like to consider myself an intelligent person, but I've never really grasped these two things, and I've never known where to get the information so that I can learn. Hope I'm not the only idiot out there. Thanks!

Carla Plazas
New Life Tanning Center
Columbus, GA[ This Message was edited by: Carla Plazas on 2002-04-23 23:13 ]

Don Smith

Carla:

Welcome to TanTalk and thank you for asking your perceptive questions.

First of all, I believe that there are two things that should be done WITHOUT FAIL before spending your hard-earned money buying one or more tanning beds.

1. Try it yourself! NOTHING beats making sure that YOU know what your clients will find out about the sunbed after you buy it BEFORE you buy it.

2. Talk to your peers who own one! I have found that salon owners are brutally honest about the sunbeds that they have purchased. IF they think they made a mistake, they will tell you; if, on the other hand, they are satisfied with their purchase decision, they will tell you that too!

Personally, I found it VERY enlightening to have our electrician look at the components of the various sunbeds. He pointed out where some of the manufacturers "cut costs" to save money and the "little things" (wire size, couplings, etc.,) that make up a quality product.

Some questions to ask before buying are:

1. What is the te (time to 4.0 MED) time for the sunbed. Get a copy of the documents that they filed with FDA. If you are buying a 20 minute MTI (maximum timer interval) sunbed, you want to know (for competitive reasons) if they are shipping it to you with sunlamps that reach 4.0 MED in 25 minutes (because you REALLY bought a 25 minute MTI sunbed!).

2. How many different sunlamps are "compatible" in the tanning unit. I would NEVER, EVER buy a sunbed that lists only one sunlamp (their PL sunlamp) as compatible. (In addition, I always ask the manufacturer if they will "certify" a sunlamp for me if a new one comes out that I would like to use.)

3. What is their "policy" on replacement parts (this is at the heart of the "Amendment 3 - Definition of a Manufacturer" controversy)? Will you make their warranty and product liability insurance "null and void" if you use a replacement part that they don't certify?

Finally, don't worry about "spectral irradiance" unless you are a techno-kook like me! LOL After 2 years of research, we believe that the te (time to 4.0 MED) time is STILL the best single "unit of measure" for evaluating the performance of a sunbed. We (and others) have been working on a TAS (tanning action spectrum) that appears to be very promising. Then, we will be able to get a "handle" on both the sunburning characteristics (what is measured when you determine the time to 4.0 MED) and the tanning characteristics (what is measured with the TAS) of the sunlamp/sunbed combination.

I hope that this helps. Feel free to call me (1-520-975-0180) if I can be of assistance.

Don

Carla Plazas

Is there a particular place that I can learn the technical aspect of tanning? A website or book? I really want to learn more, so that I can make the most educated decision possible. Also, whatever happened to your plans of testing equipment out? Have you done that yet? I wish I had someone in my area(electrician) that knew a thing or two when it comes to tanning beds, but alas, there is no one.

Mori

Don, IF 4 MEDs seems to be the standard, how long does it take to reach 4 Meds on an HP, both old and "new".

Carla Plazas

In my Omegas, they read 3.1MED/Hr.(Using Solarmeter 7.0) at a high, 2.9 average during a session. So, that would be roughly 83 minutes, correct? How DO they determine maximum session times on HP beds?

Don Smith

Carla:

What you (and Mori) are focusing in on is VERY important.

When we speak of the te (time to 4.0 MED) time of a sunbed, we are measuring the sunburning "power" of the unit and the way we "determine" the MTI (maximum timer interval) of the unit. Therefore, it is easy to see that a "traditional" HP system has much less propensity to cause a sunburn than does a LP sunbed. [Note: Keep in mind that some of the "new" HP systems have much higher UVB% (1.5 - 2.0% vs
What the te (time to 4.0 MEd) time DOES NOT tell you is how well that sunbed will tan your clients. That's why we (and others) are experimenting with a TAS (tanning action spectrum) whereby we "weight" the values to reflect the "tanning power" rather than the "sunburning power" of a sunlamp.

In summary, we have learned a great deal about sunlamps over the past year but we still have a lot to learn!

Good question - hope this helps you (and Mori) better understand this fascinating subject.

Don

solarmeter

Carla,

This was the subject I was trying to recall while on phone with you today. It's on the "Time to 4 MED" thread in HP section on the other site.

Please see new May Looking Fit pg 64, where you can see spectral plot of typical HP lamp/filter. They say in the piece that although it really takes a long time to reach 4 MED, the beds are often labeled as 12-20 min. As said above, the high UVA low erythemal output will give low numbers on MED/hr meter.

Having said that, 3 seems quite low, so your filters must limit UVB to really small amount. And remember to bump up the reading by 1.34 while we are waiting for FDA to make their mind up on how "big" a MED will be. So the 3 = 4.02, or 60 min Te in theory. But follow bed label Te, not one hour.

If and when a hand-held meter is available that follows what Don is calling "tanning action spectrum", it will be helpful for HP.
Meantime just use a model 5.0 for HP, because it's response curve is fairly close to HP output.

Don for LP, using 240/MED reading correlates well to Te. I wonder if there is a relationship with 5.0 reading to HP label max session time?

Like a really strong one can read 199, and a more typical one say 100. If I pick a numerator of 2000 out of thin air:

2000/199 = 10 min
2000/150 = 13 min
2000/100 = 20 min
2000/80 = 25 min

Would probly only work for a certain percentage UVB system however...

Steve