Maintaining your sunbed
After getting your sunbed ready and installed in salon, there will most likely be one thing on your mind – what can me and my staff to do maintain and care for our sunbed and keep it in the best shape possible? Here are some quick and easy tips to help with your sunbed maintenance the best way possible, as shared by our lamps and parts expert, Alex. This will cover things you, your staff and your customers can do both during tanning sessions, and afterwards to keep your equipment in the best condition.
What you and your staff can do for sunbed maintenance
Clean, clean and clean again!
Sunbeds should be cleaned after every tanning session, either by the client who has just tanned, or your staff. This helps remove sweat and lotion residue to avoid any clouding of the acrylic. This also ensures you don’t lessen your equipment’s tanning performance. However, it is important to note what products you use; one of the worst things for your sunbed is cleaning with the wrong products.
Ask Alex:
“If I notice a stain on my acrylic, what should I use to remove it?”
I understand that if you spot a mark on your acrylic, you want to remove it as soon as possible. However, that doesn’t mean you should start applying household cleaning products and disinfectants. These contain bleach and alcohol which are seriously damaging to your acrylic and will cause it to degrade quickly.
The best product we would recommend is Smartclean. This is a sunbed cleaning solution designed to kill viruses, fungus and bacteria without any harmful alcohol. This concentrated solution is ideal for your whole sunbed; canopy, acrylics, the lot!
Alternatively, another option to remove stains from your acrylics is simply to use a glass cleaner, or warm soapy water with a gentle cloth. This will help lift out the stain.
Sunbed filters
Another way to improve sunbed maintenance is to clean your filters regularly. Filters improve air flow and remove dust. However, if not cleaned regularly they can become congested. This can risk your sunbed overheating, making tanning sessions uncomfortable and possibly affecting your equipment, meaning it could break down or not be able to run efficiently.
To clean them, simply hoover to remove all dust, dirt and debris that may have been collected.
Protecting your sunbed’s acrylic
Did you know that one of the main reasons why salons experience acrylic damage is from people sitting on their equipment with jeans on? The studs in jeans can scratch the acrylic, diminishing tanning performance.
Typically, people will do this when removing shoes or clothing prior to a tanning session. However, the body will move naturally whilst doing this, meaning that any jean studs can scratch your equipment. These scratches and scuffs can prevent your equipment from performing as well as desired.
This can also be relevant for belts, skirts etc.
Tip: We recommend placing a chair near your sunbed to act as a support for clients. This can help prevent damaging your acrylic.
What your customers can do for your sunbed maintenance
Remove jewellery before tanning
One of the main things that can affect a sunbed’s tanning performance is the condition of the acrylic; especially on laydown beds. This can be affected by scratching, clouding and general damage and uncleanliness.
One way to prevent this is to encourage your clients to remove all jewellery prior to tanning. This can help prevent scratching the acrylic whilst they tan. What’s more, some jewellery can heat up quickly, so by removing this, you lessen the likelihood of jewellery heating up and burning clients. Finally, this will also prevent clients gaining tan lines.
This is also relevant for bras and bikinis with metal parts, as these could also scratch the acrylic.
Use the correct products during tanning sessions
Although it may be tempting to use different products instead of a tanning lotion, this can be damaging for tanners and your equipment.
Tanning lotions are designed for tanning, they care for, rejuvenate and nourish skin whilst you tan, for deeper, longer-lasting results, and restore any lost natural oils from the process. In comparison, high street moisturisers, baby oil, and other trending products have not been designed to care for the same purpose. Many high-street products contain alcohols or drying ingredients. When using this in conjunction with a sunbed, the drying ingredients can increase your risk of overexposing or burning skin, leading to sun damage.
Tanning lotions have also been designed to work with your home sunbed. This is especially important for laydown sunbeds, or if you lean on the walls of your stand up tanning unit. Your sunbed’s acrylic (the clear plastic between you and your lamps) is porous. This means that when your home sunbed heats up, the acrylic expands, and when the session is over it contracts to prevent it cracking. Applying products not designed for tanning during this process can prevent your acrylic from being able to do this. when this happens, your sunbed’s acrylic will start clouding, before it eventually cracks. When this cracks, it will need replacing immediately which can be costly.
By knowing how best to maintain and care for your sunbed, you will extend the life of your acrylic, improve tanning performance and provide a better, more relaxing experience for your customers.
If you still have any questions about sunbed maintenance, please don’t hesitate to contact our team and ask to speak to our parts expert, Alex, who would be happy to help further.
