Tanning Bed Supplies - Supplies for your Tanning Bed

There are many different types of tanning supplies for your tanning bed. Some are:

• Tanning Bed Parts
• Tanning Bed Bulbs or Lamps
• Tanning Bed Pillows
• Tanning Bed Cleaner
• Tanning Bed Stickers
• Tanning Bed Acrylics

• Tanning Lotions

and much more.The usual supplies you would need for just daily use would be the tanning bed cleaner, stickers and tanning lotion.

Some of the most popular tanning bed parts are the starters, lamps, acrylics, buck boosters, and ballasts.

Lamps and Starters should be replaced most often. Most tanning lamps have a life of about 1000 hours and should be replaced just before that. If you have a home tanning bed, then that time would take probably years before you need a tanning bulb replacement. For example, if you have a 20 minute tanning bed, and it was used 3 times per day or "1" hour per day, it would take the entire year to use 365 hours of the lamp life. At this rate, you would need a lamp change in about 3 years.

The time it takes to replace lamps in a commercial setting such as a tanning salon is a lot less. Obviously. If the tanning bed is getting used 10, 12, 15 times per day, you would be using up a lot more hours of the lamp life, faster.

Lamp Starters: The lamp starters are what ignite the tanning lamp. If you notice, it makes the lamp flicker just a bit right before the lamp comes completely on. Without the starter, the lamp won't turn on. WIth a bad starter, it could burn out the lamp. You will typically notice extreme black ends on the lamp if the starter isn't working too well. Please note that tanning bed bulbs will usually have some brownish looking color on the ends. You can definitely notice the "extreme" blackening of the ends if the starter is bad.

Replace your tanning bed starters every other lamp change. They now also make "electronic" starters that have a life of 10 years. With these electronic starters, you wouldnt need to worry about replacing those for 10 years. It would save you time and money.

Tanning bed cleaners usually come in a concentrated form that needs to be mixed with water. Instructions on how to mix the solution is found on the bottles of the concentrated tanning bed cleaner. Most tanning salons will usually buy a few 32 ounce plastic spray bottles and pour our mix the cleaner right in these bottles. The spray bottle makes it easy for you to spray the cleaner on the tanning bed.

Note: A lot of employees at tanning salons do not know that you are supposed to leave the cleaner on the tanning bed for a good 30 seconds to 1 minute. They usually spray and wipe right up. When I go tanning at a tanning salon, I usually take one of their spray bottles and clean the bed up again myself. I do get a few dirty looks, but I'd rather be safe. Their look on their faces is usually "don't trust me?". Of course my answer would be no. Just take a look at the top of the canopy (the part you don't lay on). They never clean this! Hello. I am staring right at this, but I guess they're too lazy to clean the tops!

These tanning bed cleaners are medical grade cleaners and would kill any bacteria, virus or disease on contact. It is always best to use these specific cleaners for your tanning bed. If you have a home tanning bed, please do not use window cleaner as it has ammonia in it and that can actually start breaking down the acrylic over time. These acrylics are usually somewhat expensive and you wouldn't want to be replacing these before their time.

A tanning bed acrylic usually has a life of about 2000 to 2500 hours. These should last you quite a bit of time unless you are not using the tanning bed correctly. When tanning bed acrylics break are usually when someone gets into a tanning bed with their knees and applies all the pressure in one spot. The acrylic will crack or break.

The other reason I've seen acrylics needing to be replaced before their time is the way you get out of the tanning bed. Instead of using the handle on the side of the bed. A lot of people usually just "push" up on the top acrylic to open the bed. If you have a face tanner in this area....the acrylic gets real hot, the cools down, then hot again. All this and then pressure from pushing on it. This will usually cause the tanning bed acrylic to break.

Other things you may see with your acrylics: Over time, an acrylic will get stress cracks in it. These are tiny like cracks that if you were to look closely at it, it would look as though the crack was inside or inbetween the acrylics. As this acrylic sheet gets older, you will have more and more of these tiny little cracks. What happens now is that your sweat, tanning lotion, etc gets into these little cracks and basically prevents some of the UV light from coming through. If this is happening to your tanning bed acrylic already, then it may be time for a replacement because you are not getting the full effects of the tanning bed anymore.

Replacing your Tanning Bed Acrylic: Always have the model number, make and year of the tanning bed when ordering. It makes it easier to identify the correct acrylic. Also measure with a tape measure the length and wide of the acrylic going with the curve or bed. A lot of acrylics are curved or have 2 or more beds. Write down these features and also know where the "taping" is. There is usually tape at the ends of the acrylic and on the top acrylics that have facials, you will have a taped area for 1 facial , 2 facials etc. Have all of this information handy before ordering. It will make it a lot easier to place your order.

These are tanning bed supplies that do not need to be replaced too often either. Over time, with heat, they do start cracking and splitting and it is not a good idea to keep putting your head or face on these tanning bed pillows once this has happened because you do sweat and that will get into the foam of the pillow. This moisture could cause mold or bacteria to grow in there. Always best to throw it out and replace it with a fresh tanning bed pillow. Tanning bed pillows are relatively inexpensive.

Tanning bed pillows come in different shapes and colors. You may be able to find one that matches the color in your room or has a better shape to fit your head or neck.

Tanning Bed Stickers are stickers that you stick on your body before tanning. You should tan with these stickers on. 

After your tanning session, you take the sticker off and where the sticker was, you didn't get tan. That part stays white while everything around it got tan.  It's very similar to a tattoo, except that these are called "Tantoos".

Most ladies place these stickers in inconspicous places such as just beneath the waist line or on their buttocks.  These stickers are also a good way of measuring how dark you are getting or how well the tanning bed or tanning lotion works. 

Tanning Bed Stickers come in different styles such as hearts, bunnies, cherries, butterflies, stars, and many more. They can also be used when airbrush tanning as well.

Many people ask, "Why should I use tanning lotion?". They know that they tan in a tanning bed without lotion, so why would they even consider using a bottle? The answer is simple. The indoor tanning lotions are manufactured with ingredients that will help your melanocyte cells produce more melanin. Melanin is what turns your skin brown. This process happens naturally in your body when you are exposed to Ultraviolet light. Your body produces melanin in a way to protect itself from burning. The indoor tanning lotion manufacturer's have put ingredients in their tanning lotion bottles so that your "melanin" production is more than if you didn't use the product. What this means is that you'll get darker results and faster results. If you are paying for a tanning session and that tanning session is 10 dollars, it can get expensive. It may take your 5 times in that 10 dollar session to get the results you want, but with a bottle of tanning lotion, it may only take 3 sessions or $30. Instead of $50.

Tanning lotions also have moisturizers in them. When you tan in a tanning bed, you sweat. This moisture lost could results in dry skin. This dry skin could exfoliate faster and then your tan is gone. You gotta start the process of tanning all over again.

The bottom line is that tanning lotions will help your skin keep moisturized to prolong the tan and will help you produce more melanin to get a deeper, darker tan.

Absolutely.  Tanning Eyewear is designed to block out all of the UV rays and will keep your eyes protected.  A lot of people think that just closing your eyes is enough, but the sad truth is that it is not enough and the damaging Ultraviolet Rays will penetrate through your thin eyelids and can cause long term damage.  Be safe!  Wear your tanning eyewear.  A pair of these only a few bucks.