Step-By-Step Guide; Luxura V6/V8 Standup Sunbed
Why should you considering tube changing your own Sunbed?
Convenience:
Choosing to perform your own retubes puts you in control. You can choose exactly when your sunbeds get retubed. This can be especially important for salon owners. Rarely do we have a retubes during times salons aren’t open. Therefore, in order for us to carry out the retube, your salon will be a sunbed down until it is completed. Although we do our best to be as speedy as we can, we do not compromise on quality, therefore as standard we have a time bracket of an hour per sunbed. Can you afford to have your sunbed out of action?
If you can perform your own retubes, you can do this at any time that is most convenient to you! This could be after work hours when your salon is closed to the public, as a result you will not be compromising any sales for your sunbed’s retube!
Cost Savings:
For those who owner their sunbed, this is for you.
To have your sunbed retubed by one of our engineers there is a call-out charge as well as the cost of your new lamps. This call-out charge is a variable cost that also depends on location. On average salons will have two retubes every year, so twice a year they will pay this call-out charge.
Choosing to perform your own retubes will save your salon money. Although you could argue a retube is a fairly irregular cost at only twice a year it is still a cost that your salon has to pay. Your salon can think of this as a saving or alternatively you can think of it as increasing your salons profitability, choosing to do an in-house retube.
Wait Time:
A Cyrano, there is never a quiet day. Demand for sunbeds in the UK is high, in turn increasing the demand for high-quality, fast servicing. With the increased demand, waiting periods for your sunbed to be serviced will inevitably become longer. This is a massive issue for salons if one of their sunbeds are out-of-use as the time it will take for an engineer to be with you may increase. Choosing to do in-house retubes will help free up an engineer’s time to help out yours and other salons alike with desperate, time urgent service work.
In terms of difficulty, retubes are among one of the easiest tasks that your sunbed will need. Therefore, to alleviate the wait time for tasks that do require a trained engineer you should consider performing your own retubes.

Step 1). Identifying Issues
Before anything else, you want to make sure that your sunbed is working correctly. This means you should run your sunbed for a couple minutes and check out the lamps currently installed. Are they all on? If they are, proceed to step 2.
There are a few reasons why they may not all be working;
- The lamp needs to be changed
- The *starter needs to be changed – depending on your standup you may or may not have starters
- A *ballast needs changing
This retube guide will most likely solve the first two reasons. However, if the retube does not solve the issue, you will need an engineer to change a ballast.
Step 2). Removing the Floor
Requirements: a Philips screwdriver (if you have a V6)
Firstly, you will need to remove your floors. There is a plastic cover that sits on top of the wooden sunbed floorboard. This cover is not attached and will lift up and can be removed.
You will see a wooden floor underneath; for a V8, this floor is hooked underneath the centre column. All that is need is to lift the front edge of the board up and carefully remove it from your sunbed.
For a V6; you will see 4 screws that you need to remove first. Once removed, lift your wooden board and remove it from the sunbed. Place both floors and screws in a safe place until the retube is completed.


Step 3). Opening the Metal Hatches
Requirements: a 4mm allen key/T-bar
Each acrylic is locked in place behind a metal hatch. T-bar bolts are located in the middle of the hatches and need to be removed completely. When you have removed these set them aside in a safe place until the retube is complete.
Once you the metal hatch bolts are removed, you can open these up ready for the acrylics to be removed.
Step 4). Removing the Acrylics
Requirements: a pair of gloves
Removing these acrylics can be challenging if they are new as they will still be stiff.
We recommend using gloves for safety when removing them as the edges are sharp and may result in injury.
Before removing acrylics, check to see if there are any cracks or breaks. Removing badly damaged acrylics can worsen/break them completely. Exercise caution.
Apply gentle pressure to the centre of each acrylic with your knee. This will cause the edge to warp, allowing you to grab the acrylic. You can then begin to work this gap up and down which will release the acrylic.


Step 5). The Metal Strips
Requirements: a 4mm fallen key/T-bar
Located at the bottom of the doors and the panels are metal strips. In order to get to the lamps these need removing.
Each metal strip is held in place by two T-bar bolts which need to be loosened. When the two bolts are loosened, the strip can be pulled out. Repeat this for both doors and both panels and place the strips in a safe place until the retube is completed.
Step 6). Removing the Lamps
Before you being removing the lamps, check to make sure all of the lamps are intact and not damaged. This is for safety reasons as damaged lamps can cause injury.
Removing the lamps in your standup sunbed is easy! A very simple quarter twist will release the lamp from its holder. This can then be pulled out and placed in a safe place to store where they won’t be damaged.
Step 6a). Removing the Starters
Depending on what model your standup is you may or may not have starters. You will know if you do as soon as you have removed your lamps. They are located on both doors and both panels and are either at the top or at the bottom.
When you have removed the lamps you will be able to see the starters. These starters will need to be removed both the cleaning process as these can collect dust.
To remove these is very simple. They require a twist and then can easily be pulled out and disposed of. Once one has been removed, take a glance at the starter’s holder to familiarise yourself with how they fit in.

Step 5). Cleaning your Standup
Requirements: a hoover, a paintbrush
Now that all the lamps (and starters) have been you can freely begin to clean your standup.
The areas of focus should be; near and around the lamp holders at both ends, and under where the floor board was. However, be sure to brush down the whole metal sheet as dust will be present on the entire surface.
Step 7). Retubing your Standup
Now that your standup is cleaned and hooved, you can begin the retubing process.
If your standup requires starters, now is the time to re-starter your sunbed. Ensure that every lamp holder has a starter otherwise your lamps will not turn on.
Reinstalling your lamps is very easy, take your time as to not damage the new lamps. Simple insert the pins into the bottom and top lamp holders and twist. Make sure that the labels are facing towards you and are at the foot of the standup.
If you are struggling to get a lamp back in, check that the lamp holder is aligned. If need be, re-align the holder so that the pins of the lamp can enter.

Step 8). Testing your Sunbed
Now that you have installed all your new lamps you can test your sunbed to make sure all the lamps are working.
There are a few reasons why they might not be:
- Incorrectly installed lamps
- Take it out and put it in correctly
- Dead lamp from box
- Replace this lamp with a spare
- Dead starter from box
- Replace starter with a spare
- Ballast is blown
- This will require an engineer call out as this is quite a challenging change
When you have tested your sunbed and all the lamps are working you can continue the installation process.
Step 9). The Metal Strips PT2
Requirements: a 4mm fallen key/T-bar
After testing your sunbed and all the lamps are working, you can then replace the metal strips to secure the lamps.
Again, follow the same approach as when you removed them. You will need to apply pressure to the strips to ensure that they are fully in place when your tighten the bolts. Repeat this process for each four strips before moving on.

Step 10). Cleaning and Reinstalling Acrylics
Requirements: Smart Clean, tissue
Before reinstalling your acrylics, take the time to clean the back of them with Smart Clean and tissue. TIP: If you have space, lean the acrylic up against the outside of your standup, spray the back with Smart Clean and wipe down with tissue. Proceed with caution when cleaning your door acrylics as these are more flimsy that the panel acrylics, if they are stood up straight they will fold. Support the acrylic with one hand while you wipe it down.
Step 11). Reinstalling the Floors
Requirements: a Philips screwdriver
Now that the acrylics are back in place, the floors can be replaced. Line the wooden floorboard up and secure it in place with the screws. Then place the plastic cover on top.

Step 12). Cleaning your Filters!
Requirements: a hoover
To conclude your retube, you must check your filters. These are located on both side panels and can be pulled out, hoovered and replaced.
IF your filters look like the filter in the image, your standup may experience overheating problems. That is why it is vitally important to keep these clean. This should be done every two weeks, not just every retube!