SonnenBraune

SonnenBraune has a somewhat convoluted history, but they made some really good beds for a while. They are no longer in business. They were originally founded by Roger Madison and were out of some place near Seattle, Washington but in the late 1990s, they were bought out by their biggest distributor, Rick Grey, who ran the business successfully for a number of years before giving up the industry altogether.

The original SonnenBraune beds were built by Lohmann-Werke of Germany, and very much like the original SCA tanning beds (I believe that Rick Grey and Susan Miller of PC Marketing sold SCA beds). Models included the 524, 524e, 728, 730 and 833. Then they came out with the 524ES model, which was a lower cost but good quality 24 lamp bed. This is the bed that was essentially copied by Montego Bay as their Celebrity model. They also upgraded/downgraded the 728 to become the 732. It now has 4 more lamps, but instead of a separate stand for the canopy, it was a clamshell design, like most tanning beds. The 524 was a tri-wing design, whereas the 526 had a curved acrylic surface. Some of these will have their own stand with gas springs, but later models were more of a clamshell design.

As for lamps, the 524, 526, 728, 732 beds used F73 lamps. Originally, these were Bellarium S but later changed to Bellarium Plus, a slightly hotter version. The other used F71 lamps for long lamps. For the shorter lamps on beds that had the optional facial (730 and 833) they used F59 lamps, except for one or two years of the 730 which used a real oddball F60RDC lamp.

As for newer models, with the BodyScan lamps, those are 71 inch lamps, but some are 100w, some are 160, some with reflectors and some not. The lamp itself should have the numbers on it, or you would need to call one of our sponsors to make sure you get the right lamp.

Once SonnenBraune was bought out, they began moving some of the manufacturing to the USA, in the Tennesee plant, and importing other models. At this time, both SonnenBraune and Lohmann-Werke are out of business, and the availability of parts is almost non-existant. Heartland has some parts, and you can get the lamps, ballasts and hydraulics from a variety of companies, but body parts are hard to get and expensive. Acrylics have always been expensive for most of these beds.

If you stumble across one of these beds used, keep in mind that while their overall quality has always been good, finding parts is difficult so be sure it is in excellent shape or pass it up. As a general rule, I would say to avoid the 524e models, as well as the 730 and 833, as their construction wasn't nearly as solid as the others.