javajunkienc

I have heard that some salons will rotate bulbs top to bottom at half the life and put new ones in the top. Does anyone do this? If so, does it keep customers happy? Do you use cheaper bulbs?

hometan

basically what happens is when you get ready to buy new bulbs for your bed you just rotate your lamps in the top canopy to the bench and replace them with new bulbs. The reason this works is because most people usually burn on the bottom and back, this way they still get tan but not burnt on the back and bottom and get the extra sun in the front where most people want the difference.....this is if your old bulbs are not shot and have 1500 hours on them, it usually is better if the bulbs have 500 or so hours on them. This whole technique is called "top dropping". The customers usually dont even notice and it saves you a lot of money especially if you have several beds.

Neon Beach

You can read the Cosmedico white paper on top dropping.
It can be found at www.cosmedico.com

There is no good answer. It all depends on the bed type, lamp type, & personal preferance of the salon owner.

As an example:

If you use a high quality lamp & your bed has the same 100W lamps top & bottom, then yes, it can be a good thing. With new lamps on top & lamps that have 300-350 hrs on the bottom will give a good quality tan. Then you pitch the bench lamps at 600-700 hours & Drop the top & put fresh ones in.

javajunkienc

Thanks Guys!!

dcjjp2

I have never done it with my base beds (only ones that I can do it to anyway) but it sounds like the cost effective way to go about it at like 400 hours

Neon Beach

Yup, as long as the bed you are changing out has the same lamps top and bottom.