Saturday, November 7, 2009

Tanning Lamps

By Gail Jones

Tanning bed bulbs are used in every tan bed or suntan lamp on the market. When you are buying a new or especially a used suntan bed, take a good look at the bulbs. Make sure that they are real tanning lamps and meet the FDA guidelines for health and safety. You should also consider how easy it is to get at the bulbs. Make sure that the lamps are not difficult to change when the time comes. It is quite important and a lot cheaper if you can perform such simple maintenance yourself, if you have a home tanning bed.

There are two very different, non-interchangeable kinds of bulbs used in low pressure and high pressure beds. You need to ensure you buy the right sun bed lamps for your sun bed, because you cannot use just any bulb you like. If you are purchasing replacement bulbs on the Internet, check the make and model of your existing lamps very carefully, because you have to make sure that the lamps you are ordering are made for your bed.

High Pressure Bulbs: high pressure beds use quartz lamps in various sizes. The gases inside these bulbs have a pressure that is slightly higher than atmospheric pressure. The lamps in these beds are located in the canopy of the bed, so that you tan from above only. When you have tanned the skin on one side of your body for about 10-12 minutes, you turn over and tan the other side. The bed of these devices is much more comfortable than a conventional tanning bed.

One of the biggest advantage of these HP bulbs is the amount of time you have to spend on the tanning bed. Since you tan more quickly, you need to spend less time in the tanning salon, which means it works out cheaper. You can achieve the level of tan you want in about three weeks of three to five sessions each week. However, with a low pressure bed, it would take you at least a month to achieve the same level of colour. Maintaining your tan is a lot easier too. You only need two or three sessions a month to maintain the colour, as opposed to four times that many visits to a conventional salon bed. Many of these bulbs use UVA rays only, not UVB rays which cause sunburn.

Conventional Sun Bed Lamps: Conventional, or low pressure beds use long tube lamps that look like normal fluorescent tubes. The lamps are located in the top and the bottom of the sun bed, which means that all the body areas are tanned at the same time, without needing to roll over during the tanning session.

Conventional beds use UVA and UVB rays in varying levels. Some use both rays and others emit mostly UVA with some UVB rays. UVA rays are responsible for the (premature) ageing effects on the skin and UVB rays are the burning rays that cause sun burn when you are outside in the sun. It is very important to discover which kind of rays your sun bed's bulbs emit. You must ensure you replace your existing bulbs with the same new lamps after about 1,000 hours of use.

Something else to think about when selecting the type of bed you use at home or in the salon, is the tanning bed lotion you will use. Different lotions suit different sorts of beds. The owner of your tanning salon will be able to help you select a lotion that will work for the bed you are using and your skin type. Regardless of the bed you use, you ought to definitely always use a lotion or a cream, because they will nourish your skin and help you get a Hollywood tan more quickly.

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