The busy season is about to kick in! Here are a few questions commonly asked of Team Wolff:
When installing replacement lamps, should we wipe them first with plain water or polish and buff them with a soft cloth? Or, do they come with a protective coating that may be reduced by using a wet solution and should possibly just be buffed before installation?
Keep up on basic maintenance, or your tanners will head down the street to your competitor!
Before final packaging at the plant, new fluorescent lamps are treated with a light coating of silicone. This is to improve reliable starting in less-than-optimal environments that are not present in new tanning systems. The silicone coating is not visible alone. It is not necessary to clean new lamps before installing them unless they are somehow in need of it due to small amounts of dust or phosphors (harmless) picked up during manufacture.
Cleaning with a damp cloth is all you should need. I say “damp” rather than “wet” because a wet cloth will leave water spots which may attract dust deposits or appear as a blemish on the lamp when dry. If you get the lamp wet, dry it with cloth or a paper towel. Low-pressure sunlamps are easy to clean, but be careful to avoid bumping them on anything hard enough to cause a crack or break during the wipe-down process.
How often should I change acrylic shields?
Acrylic shields should be replaced according to the manufacturer’s guidelines. Many salons retain acrylics past their useful life because they “look okay.” It is difficult to visually observe acrylic deterioration; a hand-held UVB meter, however, will aid in this determination. Measure UVB output with the shield in place, then without it from the same place and distance; divide the “with” results by the “without” results to get percentage of degradation in the acrylic’s UV transmissivity (8/9 = .888, or 89%). Even new, an acrylic will seldom allow for 100% transmissivity.
Acrylic shields which show stress lines, cracks and/or discoloration (yellowing) may block as much as 30% – 50% of UV light transmission, resulting in complaints from your tanners – or worse, they take their business down the road to your competition.
What other type of bed maintenance should I do?
Keep lamps, reflectors and acrylic shields clean. Not only does this aid in removing heat from the lamp chamber, it will increase the UV output of your system even if the accumulated dirt you remove was not visible. Replace glow-bottle starters every other lamp change or at least after every 1,500 hours of use. A bad starter can quickly destroy a good lamp! Consider switching to an electronic starter that offers ten years of service life.
Check all the tanning system fans to be sure they are running properly, and maintain proper room temperatures with adequate air conditioning and ventilation. Higher ambient temperatures can shorten lamp life and affect equipment performance.
These are just a few tips to keep your lamps and equipment running smoothly.
