New bulbs for a home canopy

[Elfmaze]

Part two of my home tanning bed rebuild is to get some new bulbs, I don't know much about the old bulbs(velocity plus VLP71) in there except I only have 11 working bulbs and buying one bulb seems silly. I bought the unit used so i don't know how many hours.


The two options I'm currently looking over are a relatively local ebay seller who will sell me 12 Super Sun Reflector 6.5's shipped for 16.46 a bulb.

OR The Cleartec 120R's from another website seller, The bulbs make a lot of bold claims about superiority in the frequency of the output and power due to special "sol glass".... Maby its just the cool green phosphor they use drawing me in. But 1600 hour life span also sounds good. BUT $23 a bulb shipped. the websites owner was super helpful explaining stuff to me hence why i wouldn't mind giving him business.

Should I be eliminating one of these or looking at another option? We both have light olive skin I tan fairly quickly she tans very slow. but we are both getting very slow results with the "crippled" canopy(only 9 bulbs working until new ballast and bulbs get in) at 15 to 20 mins per side.

Thanks for any advice!

[parrot head]

You're asking local tanning salon owners here, for advice, so don't expect much help. My suggestion would be, save the money you're about to spend, trying to upgrade a cheap home unit, and visit your local tanning salon. There, you should get a nice tan, and be able to keep it for what you're going to spend on that home unit. When you get done trying to upgrade that unit, you still have nothing.

[SunseraWarman]

Sell the hunk of junk! Keep a look out for non-certified sellers of tanning LAMPS (not bulbs) as with anything, there's cheap knockoffs. To get decent lamps to re-lamp your entire bed your going to spend atleast $500+ plus you have to pay for any parts that go. Get rid of it and join your local tanning salon.

[Black Sun]

So, you have an 11 lamp bed?

What are they, 80/100w lamps? Salons have beds that give more output in the facials alone.

Don't expect much results out of that...you could get darker standing next to the toaster.

[bronzeman11]

If you do wind up re-lamping- be veryyyyy careful. New bulbs (especially any over a 5% UVB) will be much more likely to burn you. Start @ a very low amount of minutes & work up VERY gradually. Really, you should just visit your local tanning salon PROFESSIONALS, as they know all of this & will TAKE CARE of your skin. At home it's a guessing game & a dangerous one @ that!