Power Up!

When searching for a location for your tanning salon, you need to keep one thing in mind: the power panel. Each tanning bed requires a certain amount of voltage and amperage. Some entry level tanning beds require 20 amp or 30 amp breakers while some higher end tanning beds will require 50 amps or higher. Before signing a lease on your space, you need to find out how big of a power panel is available. Lets say you are going to have 10 entry level beds only and they take 30 amps each, you would need to have at least a 300 amp power panel. Most spaces will usually only have a 100 or 200 amp panel. If you realize that you are going to need a bigger power panel, you may want to try to negotiate an additional 100 amp, 200 amp, etc. power panel with the leasing agent.

Always have your equipment mix picked out and hire an electrician before signing your lease. Have the electrician make sure that the tanning bed equipment that you have chosen will work with the existing power panel or have him let you know what it will cost to upgrade the panel.

While the electrician is there, you may also want to have him check the incoming voltage. A lot of indoor tanning beds require anywhere from 220 to 240 volts of power. It is always good to know what your incoming voltage is. You may need to have buck boost transformers installed to either increase or decrease your incoming voltage to the recommended voltages needed by the equipment.

Maintaining Your Tanning Beds: Cleaning Tips

1. Every four to six weeks, you should open up the ballast tray.  This is where all of the electrical components are held.  Vacuum any dust or dirt that has accumulated. Dirt can sometimes cause electrical fires, so this is definitely a must.

2. The tanning lamps also accumulate dust and the dust clings to the lamp itself. This thin layer of dust will prevent some of the ultraviolet light being produced by the lamp from penetrating through, hindering the results of the tanning session. Keeping the lamps and reflectors under the lamps clean will give you the best tanning results.

3. Tanning Beds with Facial bulbs: When cleaning the tanning lamps, you also should clean the blue filter glass that covers up the facial bulb. If you wipe down the facial bulb as well, you need to be real careful not to touch it with your bare hands. The oils in your hand will cause the lamp to burn up when it is turned on again. If you accidentally touch the facial bulb, just wipe it down with an alcohol swab.

4. Starters: A starter is what ignites the tanning lamp. These starters should be replaced every other lamp change. If you have tanning beds in a tanning salon, you should be replacing these regularly. If you have a tanning bed in your home and haven’t changed lamps yet, you may want to replace these starters at the same time you replace the tanning lamps.

5. Acrylics: When cleaning your tanning lamps and you have these acrylic shields off, you should wipe them down on both sides. Just a little layer of dust will prevent some of the ultraviolet light from passing through, affecting the results of your tanning session.

A Few Notes for a Startup Tanning salon

Everyone opening a new tanning salon needs assistance and guidance for a successful beginning. Having the right mix of equipment is what will set you apart from your competition. And, it is important to select and stock the best selling tanning lotions in order to be competitive and maximize revenue. But, what is needed before you open up a tanning salon?

Demographics are a BIG part of the tanning salon business. Can you get the right customers through your door to keep the salon afloat? There are various ways you can find demographics for your area. One of the easiest is just to Google for your area like this: “Los Angeles Demographics.” This is important so that you know that the area you are looking to open a tanning salon at is not comprised of, for example, 90% males. Although males tan, there are not as many male tanners as there are female, so you are not likely to have high traffic in a situation like this. Use common sense when looking at this data.

It is important to figure out what regulations your local government (city and state) has set for tanning salons and service based businesses. This varies widely and some people might not find it an ideal situation in their locality. Checking with your local board of cosmetology could help figure out this information, as certification may be necessary.

Aside from tanning beds and lotions, you need to find a space that you can lease to operate your business. It is important to find a space in a shopping center that already has a good number of people who visit. Most tanning salons tend to do well in shopping centers that are anchored by a grocery store. Grocery stores typically provide the traffic and the right demographic for a tanning salon business.

Tanning salons are typically about 150 square feet per room. So, if you want to have a salon with 10 tanning beds, you’ll need a space that is at least 1500 square feet. Of course, this is only an average so don’t go building 150 square foot rooms! You’ll need a bathroom, waiting area, laundry room, front desk, etc., to go in the salon too!

When you’re looking for a space to lease, ask the leasing agent about the air conditioning system. Tanning salons need at least one ton of air conditioning per tanning bed depending on your area’s weather. If the air conditioner in the space you are looking at doesn’t provide this, see what the leasing agent can do to initiate an upgrade.

There are many other things that go into opening a tanning salon, but hopefully this gets you started.

Buck Boosters: What Are They?

Buck Boosters are transformers that increase or decrease your incoming voltage. Most tanning beds require voltage to be 220 and 240 volts. Some actually require 220 Volts only, some require between 220 and 230 volts, etc.

If your incoming voltage into the building is 208 Volts and your tanning bed requires 220 Volts, then you would need a Buck Booster to “Boost” that voltage to the required voltage needed for that tanning bed.

Buck Boosters can either “Buck” or “Boost” voltage from your incoming voltage by 12, 24, 16, or 32 volts.

You can find Buck Boosters that are already pre-wired with cords where all you have to do is just plug in one side of the Buck Booster into the outlet your electrician provided and plug the other into the cord going to the tanning bed. Other Buck Booster come where your electrician would have to do the wiring, hard wiring, of the buck booster going to the tanning bed and into the wall.

If the voltage going to your tanning bed isn’t what was recommended by the manufacturer, then you may end up having problems such as tanning lamps not tanning as well as they should, tanning bed getting too hot because internal cooling fans aren’t running correctly, etc.

Always make sure that your electrician understands your tanning beds power requirements.

Identifying Tanning Bed Acrylics

There are four different types of acrylics: Curved, 2 Bend, Contoured and 4 Bend. When replacing your tanning acrylic you will need to know what type of acrylic it is and it’s measurements.

The best way to measure an acrylic is to take the acrylic completely out of the tanning bed and stand it up. Using a tape measure, measure the width from the backside of the acrylic and then measure the length. These measurements need to be exact. Next you need to make note of the location of any notches, holes or taping.

It is best to get these measurements even if you have the model and make of the tanning bed but not the year. A lot of tanning bed acrylics varied in size from year to year for the same make and model. Having these measurements

Once you have this information, you will also need to make note of the model, model and year of the tanning bed before calling your distributor to place your order.

Acrylic FAQ
A lot of people ask when acrylics should be replaced. You should replace an acrylic when it has about 2000-3000 hours on it. Even if it is not cracked or broken, you should still replace it. If you were to look very closely at it, you would realize that there are a lot of stress cracks once they get past 2000 hours. These stress cracks will absorb sweat, tanning lotion, dirt, etc and your acrylic will not transmit as much UV as before. Therefore, you will not get the best possible tan even if you have brand new tanning lamps in your tanning bed.