Your salon can provide plenty of services to your customers and if you want to optimize your profits you should consider adding tanning beds to your services. There are three types of commercial tanning beds to choose from.

Tanning beds have been on the market for many years and over the years there have been many changes in design, style, and tanning capability. The old beds had only the one UV spectrum but the newer beds tend to combine both UVB and UVA rays.

Tanning bed designing is rather like a NASCAR race where everyone is trying to be first to the finishing line. After all the indoor tanning industry is worth billions a year so wanting to be first isn't surprising.

Horizontal tanning beds are the most common style of tanning bed both for home and commercial use. These unique clamshell designs have been around for quite some time. They have a lid that holds UV lamps and a bench that also holds UV lamps. You lie on the bed and the UV rays surround you for a beautiful tan. You just need to turn over once to ensure an even tan.

Vertical tanning beds or tanning booths are a little newer but they've also grown in popularity especially for anyone who is claustrophobic. In fact they are becoming the most popular style. The inside of the booth is lined with UV lamps that surround it in a full 360 degrees. So you simply step in and close the door. There is no need to turn around or adjust your body making it twice as fast to get your tan.

One of the main reasons for the success of the vertical bed is the all over even tan and you get it quicker because you are standing. And it is also more hygienic. Most of the vertical tanning booths require only 3 to 5 minutes of your time and by visit three you'll be seeing results.

The Symphony vertical beds which offer 48 - 180 watt lamps that are thermostatically controlled is a very popular bed. The Sunscape SS756V offers 200 watt vertical tanning with 2 meters lamps that will cover you from head to toe. The SolarForce 652V has the S2 advanced technology with 160 watt lamps. That's just a few of the options.

The newest beds are the high pressure beds that give you a high dose of UVA rays and low dose of UVB rays. The quartz lamps produce an internal air pressure that is much higher than the traditional lamps so more UVB rays are filtered.

These beds are for those with dark skin tones and possessing a good tan already. These are not beginner beds. Most commercial beds have high pressure lamps in the facial lamps but now we are seeing entire beds that are high pressure.

The average life expectancy of a UV lamp ranges from 400 to 1000 hours but half way through their life they are only running at 50% capacity. This means this is really the optimum time to replace them if you want optimum tanning results.

By FDA law all tanning beds have to have a timer that automatically turns the bed lamps off at the time that has been set. From a commercial perspective this means the salon needs to set the maximum time for the bed prior to the client using.

Recently we've seen some very neat advancement in the cooling systems of the tanning beds. Almost all beds now come with a cooling system that keeps you cool and comfortable under the heat of the lamps.

Whether you choose high pressure tanning beds, vertical, or horizontal commercial tanning beds is up to you but make sure you shop around to get the best prices online!