Early burnout

[atouchofgold]

Does anyone out there using Sun Fabrication's (Pano's) beds? I am having a problem with early burnout on the lamps (380 hrs). Was thinking maybe the cooling fan is not working well enough. I have contacted John at URI and he is trying to help me, just not sure it's the lamps.

[Din]

Too High voltage to beds?

[atouchofgold]

Seems that Light Source changed their lamps not too long ago. Went with a lighter cathode and lower pressure. And the magnetic ballast that Sun Fabrications used in their beds, upon start up is a higher charge, thus burning out (Frying) the lamps. At least this is what I have heard.

[nebtans]

380 hrs??? All lamps burning out? or, just a certain set. Canopy?? Bench??

For all lamps to fail at same time.... I would think a Lightning spike. (extremely rare, but possible) If a certain set. Then possibly that portion of the circuitry has a problem.

If only a few of a set.. then still a circuitry problem.

If random lamps all failed at same time.... Again lightning or some other extreme spike.

************* Could***** also be someone moving bed VERY ROUGHLY.... Rough enough to break the tiny filaments.

But for several Flourescents to fail at same time is VERY unlikely to be a lamp MFR defect.

Even VERY high voltage differences would cause a random failure.. MAybe one today... two tomorrow.. one next week type event. The same is also true of overheating.. You just would not likely see simultaneous failures unless the event is very sudden and extreme.

[atouchofgold]

Not all lamps at same time. Random, but in all the beds. Bench or canopy no difference.

[nebtans]

Ok if happening in more than one bed... Different issue. Voltage spiking is likely culprit... Unless you have very high ambient temperature issues.

Assuming normal air conditioning.. And that FANS are CLEANED and running. You likely have a heat problem..

ALSO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What type of STARTERS do you use? And how old are they? IF you using Glo starters.. they wear out and "Flick" the light too many times to start.

Digital starters avoid this and last very long time. Every time the starter "Flicks" the lamp it overheats the cathode slightly.

Are you burning out the cathodes? HAve you checked them with a multimeter to verify cathode burnout? A multimeter is under $10 at hardware store.

Now!!!! What I suspect is voltage surging... How many amps are you wired for? How close to capacity are you?

You may be able to call your utility company and have them place a recording voltmeter on your line to see hw much variance you have. If you have variance then you may need to look at your capacity.. OR!!!! the overall capacity to the building you occupy.

MAybe you are near another large power user, (Restaurant) that is affecting your power at the main?

hope that helps you to start looking in right area.

This is why the gurus on here say overcapacity by at least thirty percent of total design capacity. BUT you may not be able to account for TOTAL capacity to a building if you are in a "strip center" or some other type unit. Many of these units have one "Drop" for the building that feeds into multiple meters.

Good luck...

[amazingtans]

Nebtans
The Beds have magnetic ballast therfore do not utilize Starters as they are not needed with that setup

[SRT]

Is it the 15 or 20 minute beds and which lamps do you have that are burning out?

[Brian Oshman]

It won't be high voltage since the bed has mag ballasts which run a 120 volts and the service supplies that without any boosters.

Check the lampholders and make sure that the lamps are secure in the holders. RDC do not connect as well to the lamp and create sputtering and premature failure.

In a mag ballast setup, the lamps are operated in series through the ballast, one ballast runs two lamps so if one lamp burns out the other one connected to that ballast wil stop lighting but still be good.

What kind of lamps are being used?

[atouchofgold]

I am using Light Source Midday Sun 100w. Have checked voltage and it is at 120/209. 800 amp panel. Running at about 70%.
I check and clean the fans every three months. Upon start up I can actually see flames in a lamp just before the end turns black and within acouple of more start ups the lamp fails.

[nebtans]

IF you see "FLAMES" the lamps envelope is compromised. Do you remove the lamps from the bed at any time? Maybe to clean them?

If you stand the lamps on their ends...(on the pins) You may be introducing micro fractures to the glass envelope. Once heated those microfractures will expand causing the envelope to fail.

ESPECIALLY!! Do not stand the lamp on its end on a hard floor and run a towel vertically down the lamp to clean it. You almost guarantee failure if you do this!

Because the fractures are microscopic.. you will never know that you are creating them or that you have. That is until sometime later... when the lamps fail. And they will fail randomly.

You mention cleaning at 380 hrs... and you also mention cleaning at 3 months... coincidence? Do they fail somewhat after cleaning?

Hope that helps.... Took me a while to learn that lesson... It seems perfectlyl harmless to stand them in corner while doing work on bed.... or cleaning them. I even checked the pins.. to see if I was harming them.. Thought everything was ok....

Then I figured.. I may be causing unseen damage, stopped standing them up... and failure rate went way down.

[nebtans]

I use a piece of "2" thick Foam rubber" on the floor if I need to stand them now. Or, put them into an empty lamp box.

[atouchofgold]

I don't stand them on end when cleaning bed just remove lamps in sections, lay them in bed and clean, then replace. I had same problem with old Phillips lamps (lucky me! ), but that problem was discovered to be a lamp design problem, which has been taken care of. Just recieved a new shippment of lamps, planning to install this weekend. Hope this solves problem. But thanks for the info on standing lamps on ends.

[Drew]

panos bed had extremely GOOD cooling...so good in fact, you could lie on his vhr model with no body fan.

It will be an incompatbility with the ballasts v the lamps.

Switch to another lamp...any lamp that works well in sundash or tan america will work in his.

Pano's cooling design was twice as good as Tan americas. In fact, when TA went with the moulded colored plastic, their cooling got even worse than the bad cooling it was known for. No consistancy in cooling different parts of the lamps. Also, TA used a fan HALF the size of the one Pano used.

[Brian Oshman]

actually removing them at all. puts the pins at increased risk of damage. Look at the design, Some design the pins to extend INTO the envelope. Some design the pins into the cap and run tiny wires into the envelope. If you have pins extending into a GLASS envelope... you see where ANY stress can be too much.

Now that's stretching it. I pick up lamps a dozen at a time and clank them into the bed then drag them into place. They are not that fragile. They would never make it to you in working order if that were true.

The pins are part of the end cap and do not protrude into the glass envelope. Wire leads exit the envelope and then are crimped to the pins.

The problem is that mag ballasts suck. They eat lamps. They were designed for outdoor use in cold climate for sign lighting. They apply current to the cathode the whole time to maintain heat in the lamp for the purpose of running in cold weather and in applications where the lamp is left on all the time. This however does not work well in tanning beds.

[nebtans]

She said she saw FLAMES. Yes the pin is in the cap.. and does not actually protrude the envelope. I was trying to simplify. Flames would require a compromised envelope. It IS possible to push the pins against the envelope hard enough to cause damage.

I agree that the flourescents are rather tough.