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For pre-heat systems, should you also change your starters when changing your lamps?
Most
tanning equipment uses glow bottle starters. They are fairly
inexpensive and need to be changed every other lamp change or at least
every 1500 hours. A bad starter can quickly destroy a good lamp. You’ve
spent a lot of money on your lamps, so why risk trying to save a few
bucks by not changing your starters?
Some basic trouble shooting tips:
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- Slow to start or no lights: If
some of your lamps flicker but won’t stay lit, try turning the bed on
and off once or twice to stabilize the lamps – replace starters if the
flicker doesn’t stop. If your lamps are not lighting, this is also a
sign that it may be time to replace your starters. Take the lamps that
are not lighting and put them in the space where the lamps were
lighting. If they now work, it’s time to replace the starters.
- Replace worn starters before they cause re-strikes or fail entirely.
Worn starters can destroy a good lamp in a very short time: A glow
bottle starter is rated by the manufacturers for about 6,000 starts. In
a 20 minute bed, this is about 2,000 “bed on” hours… maybe replace
starters every 2nd or 3rd lamp change, depending upon the hours you run
a set of lamps. In a 10 minute piece of equipment you should consider
1,000 hours as the replacement interval… maybe every other lamp change.
- End Darkening:
This is more noticeable in 160+ watt (often referred to as VHO) lamps,
and is the result of the deposit of certain materials from the lamp’s
cathode onto the interior bulb wall at starting. There are two reasons
for this:
- There is more power compared to 100W lamps and the start is often ‘harder’, and
- Higher-wattage
lamps are almost always operated with shorter tanning sessions. In 100
hours, the higher-wattage lamp will start twice as many times as the
100W lamp in a bed with a longer maximum session time.
- Electronic starters:
Just as in sunlamps, not all electronic starters are created equal.
Look for electronic starters from a reliable supplier. Properly
designed and used, an electronic starter will:
- Reduce end-darkening,
- Will last 10 years or longer… possibly the last starter you’ll ever need to buy.
Remember,
a bad starter can quickly destroy a good lamp. You’ve spent a lot of
money on your lamps, so why risk trying to save a few bucks by not
changing your starters? For an electronic starter, consider our own
Wolff System AG e-Start for applications up to 220 watts with a rated
life of 10 years.
If you have questions, please send an email to
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
or call us at 800-959-6533.
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