Little black box going to tanning bed

Hello everyone,

So, I recently bought a used tanning bed. The people I bought it off of say it works great and have never had a problem with it.

They said it was hooked up to a 120v 20A circuit.

I hooked it up to a 120V 20A circuit but it just hummed and no lights came on.

This is where things get complicated. When we were moving the tanning bed the black box was very heavy so we disconnected it. My friend disconnected it and then never reconnected it. When I went to set it up I called him and he told me how he disconnected it. After I turned it on it just hummed. I thought it was the box. I called another electrician friend and he said the box was wired wrong. He said the H’s and X’s should never be connected. After I rewired it then plugged it in it tripped the breaker without even turning on the bed.

I asked the people I bought the bed off of to check there panel for a dual breaker other than the 40 for the stove and the 30 for the dryer. Sure enough there was a 240 dual 20A labeled TANNING BED. 🤦🏻‍♂️

So I wired the black box up the way it was before…or at least I am 90% sure I did.

I bought a 240v 20A breaker and changed the wires.

Still a little Leary I disconnected the black box from the bed and tested the voltage.

The voltage coming from the plug is 235v. The voltage coming from the transformer or black box is 270v. The bed is rated for 230v 20A and 60hz.

I don’t understand the purpose of this black box and why it is increasing the voltage so much.

I thought maybe it was for isolation purposes since the bed is all metal but the voltage seems excessive.

I want to plug the bed into the black box as this is the way it was working before but my gut is saying maybe not the best idea.

Any input regarding this?

Thanks ahead of time for any replies.

 

Welcome to the forums.

Without seeing what you are working on it's pretty hard to comment.
Post some pictures of what you are working with...... how-to-insert-pictures.

 

The ones that I have seen I assumed it was the timer controlled by the front desk!

 

Around the 1970s cosmetic tanning units were developed in Europe, most of which uses higher voltage than the US. Additionally, the early lamps used to produce UVB could have been inefficient, requiring still higher voltage. Power supplies can used not only to provide stable voltage the lamps might require, but to increase the voltage as well. So for the application, 270 volts might not be that high.

 

Wow thanks for reading all my ramblings lol. I didn’t think anyone would respond. I am new to this.

So this bed was made in 1999 and sold in Calgary, Alberta Canada.

I have everything wired back up the way it was and have the bed wired back up to the transformer.

I am not sure why I am so nervous about plugging it in lol.

Sounds like 270 might be required even though it says 230v 20A 60hz.

Ugh. Makes me ill but I don’t know what else to do.