Transcription
So before you buy any red light therapy panel, you need to watch this. I have been in the red light therapy review space for about five years now. I've tested dozens, if not hundreds, of red lights and panels. I know a thing or two about them. There are some really good ones out there, and there are some not-so-good ones. So let me reveal 15 things you need to look for before you buy that red light therapy panel.
All right, I just want to let you know this is beyond simple stuff, such as making sure you get the right size or getting something that has a good warranty. I go pretty deep in this video, and if you're still confused at the end of it, I've got something else that is going to simplify your decision-making process. If you're looking at this thinking, "Oh my God, this is crazy! Are there that many panels out there?" this is just a small snippet as well. These are just panels I had lying around. We have multi-panel setups over here, we have a small tabletop setup, we have brand new, just-released panels, older ones, narrow ones—all sorts. So yeah, it's not just a simple matter of saying, "I'm going to buy a red light therapy panel," because as you can see behind me, there are lots of options out there.
First up, one of the most important things you need to know is what you want to treat. What is your treatment area? If you're just getting something to treat that sore shoulder after an upcoming surgery, then sure, something small like the M480 Flex Mini I have hanging here is going to be perfect. But if you're looking for full-body treatment and you want to optimize all of your cells' mitochondria, then of course a larger panel is going to be better suited, or even a multi-panel setup.
Now, what's important to note here, despite the fancy graphics and the big claims on companies' websites, is that the true treatment area of the panel is pretty much in line with the LEDs. A wider panel with wider LEDs is going to give you a wider treatment area. Don't get caught up on things such as beam angle and light coverage areas. Trust me, I've done a ton of testing on this, using my space, spending many hours plotting the numbers, doing the math, and I can tell you now that the light is pretty much concentrated in front of the LEDs, even as you go further out—six inches, eight inches, ten inches, for instance. So if you want head-to-toe coverage, you need to get a panel that is going to be tall enough for that coverage. And yes, they do exist. I'll put links below to all of these panels and many more, as well as some guides to help you find the best panel for your needs.
Now, of course, the next thing is budget. Sure, you may want full coverage—head to toe, shoulder to shoulder treatment area—but if you can't afford it, then yeah, that's going to be a limiting factor. But what I need to talk about here is that there is a way to future-proof your red light therapy purchase. You see, beside me here, I have two Biomax 900s. These are linked together. Platinum LED, the company behind the Biomax range, has worked in a really good wireless connectivity system, meaning if you can only afford one panel today, in a couple of months or next year, you can get a second one, and you can tie them all together, control them from one single control panel or one remote like so, and you'll be able to get that full-body coverage. But of course, if your budget is only limited to say a few hundred dollars, then you can forget about a setup like this and instead just know you're going to be restricted to a much smaller panel.
Now, if budget is a concern, I have done a video looking at the best budget tabletop panels. I'll put a link to that below so you can check that out. Now, before we move on, I also need to mention that spending more doesn't necessarily mean a better product. A good example here is Juve. I've reviewed a lot of their panels, and they're extremely expensive, and they are by no means the best panel out there. In fact, even if you get those panels at say half the price, I still don't think that would be worth it, but that's just my opinion.
Next, we have wavelengths. Red light therapy in the last few years has really exploded. Traditionally, panels used a combination of 660 nanometer red light and 850 nanometer near-infrared light. Yes, there is plenty of research and evidence showing that these wavelengths are beneficial, but there's also a lot of other wavelengths out there in the red and near-infrared spectrum. We have 630 nanometer red light, we have 810 nanometer near-infrared light, which by the way has more research behind that wavelength than the common 850 nanometer light. There are all sorts of wavelengths, and finally, we're seeing these wavelengths becoming available in red light therapy panels. The Biomax beside me has six different wavelengths, including the blue wavelength, which is interesting. The Mito Pro down there has four different wavelengths, including a big chunk of energy going to 810. But then we still have some panels, like the Red Light Rising and the Rouge here, that have stayed with the traditional 660 and 850 nanometers. Personally, I prefer a panel with these other wavelengths, especially the 810, but you need to do your own research. I have covered wavelengths, and we've written some rather extensive blog articles on these other wavelengths, so I'll put links to all of them below. Go check them out and use that information to help make the best decision for you.
Next, we have ease of use. Some panels are so simple to use; they come with a remote, and you just need one button, and as you can see, they start working. Not all panels come with remotes, and not all panels have a nice control panel. Some, like the WiMAX here, have a really slick touchscreen control panel that works great. Others, like the Rouge and the Mito Adapt series, have an LCD control panel where you can go through the menus. It is good, but there are a few button pushes needed. Then you have other panels, such as the Hooker range, which simply have two big power switches—on and off—and that's it. Think about what you want from a red light therapy panel. Do you want to have an inbuilt timer, which I highly recommend? Do you want to be able to dim the lights down and have them run at five percent or fifty percent? That's also a handy feature. Or do you just want to flick one switch and get into your session? Make sure you consider all of these things when shopping for a red light therapy panel.
Next, you need to be careful about who you're going to buy from. You see, red light therapy is exploding, and not a week goes by where I don't get an email saying, "Hey, look, what do you think of this new company?" There are so many people starting red light therapy companies now; it's something you have to be aware of. Personally, I would recommend only buying from a company that has been around for at least one or two years, if not longer. It is very easy to start a red light therapy company, and some of these companies are coming out with great offers and great features. However, we don't know what's going to happen down the track. What happens if they have a really bad batch of products, and then all of a sudden, six months later, they get a heap of returns, and the company can't afford to fix the problem and simply goes belly up? You're going to be down a bunch of money with a dodgy panel.
Another topic here is warranty. Yes, a lot of these companies have really good warranties. I'd say two to three years is what you need to be looking for at a minimum. But again, make sure the company has been around long enough that the warranty is still going to stand. By the way, if you are finding this interesting and useful, and you do appreciate all the insights I can share with you here, I do think that you will find value in future videos of mine and also past videos. So go down and hit the subscribe button, and you'll be the first to hear about any new content coming from my channel.
Next, we have safety issues. Now, most of these panels are safe, and when I say safety, it's not necessarily like you're going to get an electric shock, though I guess that could happen if you're getting something dodgy. But the main things here I'm talking about are the EMF output and also the flicker. Some older panels and very cheap panels today use low-cost LEDs, and these LEDs actually flicker. We can't detect that with our eyes, but the flickering can cause a bit of stress and headaches. Ideally, you want a panel that's putting out clean, pure therapeutic light without any stresses.
Next is the non-native EMF issue. Some panels, again older panels or low-cost panels, do emit quite a lot of non-native EMF. This again can be stressful, and if you're spending a thousand dollars on one of these devices to help you and your health, you don't want to be getting something that could be adding extra stress. Now, in my reviews, I test all of these panels for the EMF output, so if there is a panel you want to check out and you're worried about the EMF levels, then be sure to check out my reviews on that panel, and I will tell you if it is safe or something to be wary of. By the way, I've also got a comprehensive red light therapy product database. I'll put a link to that below. You can go in and easily filter and search and find the best panel based on the criteria you input.
Another reason to check out those reviews is that I talk about sound levels in these panels. Now, most of them, if you listen, do have a bit of a white noise background. It's nothing too critical; these panels do have fans to help cool the LEDs. But some fans do put out quite a horrendous noise, and because you're going to be standing in close proximity to these panels for 10-15 minutes a day, potentially five or six times a week, you don't really want something that's going to annoy you. Trust me, there are some panels that I've reviewed that really do annoy me. It's got to the point where I'm like, "I can't stand it; I'm going to switch it off." So if you're sensitive to sounds like me and you don't want to get something that's potentially going to annoy you, then again, check out my reviews to see if there are any issues with the sound. I talk about them in all my reviews.
Okay, so another thing to think about is future-proofing your decision here. As you can see, there are lots of different panels behind me. What happens if, say, you buy this particular one, and then six months later this company comes out with a special, and you think, "Hey, I'm going to get that as well," and then say later on you want a really small one, so you buy another panel? Next thing you know, you have three different panels from three different companies. You may think that's okay, but in all honesty, it's not the best approach. Why? Well, again, as you can see here with the Biomax panels, I have two of them hooked up. They work off one control panel, one power plug, and they attach to the same stud. Now, if you expect to potentially get more panels down the track, I would highly recommend making sure that you do a ton of research before you buy that first panel, and also making sure that that panel has what I call modular capability—the ability to do exactly what the WiMAX panel has done behind me. Most of the panels today do offer that support; you can link them all up and connect them all and build one large array. But you need to be careful because even if you stick with panels within one company, you may find that different product ranges aren't compatible. For instance, Mito have their Mito Pro panel here, but they've just come out with their new Mito Adapt panel range. So if you had bought two Mito Pros and then you want to get one of their new Adapt panels, they don't link up; you can't connect them all together.
Now, it's not a massive issue if they're not going to link up; you're just going to have to have lots of cables running, and when you want to turn those panels on, you're going to have to turn them all on separately, like so. Then you're going to have to set the timers for each of them to make sure they don't turn off at different times. Not a big issue, but if you want something nice and you really want it future-proof, then again, think about this stuff. Likewise, with stands, lots of the companies selling red light therapy panels also sell stands. Some of these stands are simple floor mounts where you slot the panel into a boot, and you can move it around and position it where you want. Other stands are a bit more high-end, such as the Platinum LED motorized stand here, which supports four panels and can pivot into a horizontal setup.
Now think about how you want to use your panels. Where are you going to use them? Would you prefer to lie down on a bed and have the stands overhead, or are you happy having them hanging from the back of the door? Think about all of this stuff before you rush into buying a panel, because if you want to use them in a horizontal setup while you lie in your bed, you need to make sure that the company sells the stand that's going to allow you to do that.
I know I've mentioned a lot, and we've gone through a lot of resources. I will put links to everything below, but if you have a question—if you're like, "Hey Alex, I really like this panel; can I do XYZ?" or "Do you recommend this?" or "Is it an older panel?"—just leave them below, and I'll personally answer those questions.
All right, and now, of course, there's power or irradiance power output. This is often touted as the reason why you should buy this particular panel because they have the best power figures. Now, in all honesty, power and irradiance is very, very messy. There are lots of ways to test power, there are lots of different devices to test the power output, and there are lots of different power calculations. You can test a panel from one inch, or you can test it at six inches or twelve inches. You can test the peak reading, the highest reading you can find on the panel, or you can test an average. There is no standard here, so it's why we see tons of numbers out there and why we see all these companies saying, "Look, they have the most powerful panel on the market." Of course, not everyone can be correct.
Now, you may even see companies that share their independent lab testing data. I've looked into some of these reports, and even those reports aren't perfect. Like I said, it's very messy. Now, I've tried to clear the waters by testing all of these panels myself with my own spectrometer, and I use the same testing protocol. So in turn, I can get some power figures that are comparable from one panel to the next. I share all of this data in my reviews and also in that red light therapy resource that I mentioned earlier and I've linked to below.
But in a nutshell, here are the key takeaways. First up, if you're watching this in 2023 or beyond and you're buying a panel from a company that's been around for a while, I can assure you you're going to get a panel that is powerful enough. All the panels I'm testing these days, even if they are lower-cost panels, are still putting out a good therapeutic dose of red light therapy. Don't worry; you're not going to get something that's underpowered. Yes, there are panels that are putting out an exceptional amount of light. Now, do you need that? Not necessarily. In fact, it may be a disadvantage to get an extremely high-powered panel because you may potentially overuse it, or you may be paying a lot more for that extra power that you don't necessarily need. But you still want to get a panel that is putting out a decent amount of light. If it's underpowered, you're going to have to do longer treatment times, and this is not ideal, especially if you only have one small panel. A panel that puts out enough power, of course, allows you to decrease your treatment time, and you can even stand further away from the panel and still get a really good therapeutic dose. This could be handy if, say, you're doing a stretching routine or a meditation or a workout, for instance, while you're using your red light therapy panel.
Another thing to be wary of is what is actually included with the panel. Now, typically when you get a red light therapy panel, you open the box and you'll get a manual or an info sheet, you'll get your power cable, you'll get some middle cables so you can hang your panel from a hook or from the back of the door, and you'll typically get some mounts and maybe even a pulley or a chain so you can change the height of the panel as it's hanging. Those are all reasonably standard accessories. Likewise, with glasses or goggles, most companies include these so you can protect your eyes, so they're all rather standard items. However, other companies go above and beyond. Some companies include remote controls, like we saw before. Some companies include a really nice high-gloss magazine. Other companies will just have a one-page quick start guide. Also, depending on the panel size, some companies actually come with an included stand. I have a minor red light here, and as you can see, it's got a stand. This came with the panel and it was already installed. The Infrared Flex Mini comes with a little kickstand that's part of the panel design, which is nice. But let's say you want to get the Biomax tabletop panel; then you'll have to pay extra for the stand. So be sure to do plenty of research in case you find out that, hey, you're actually going to have to pay extra for a stand.
And of course, with all these other larger panels, typically you're going to pay extra for a stand, and you can pay anything from a few hundred dollars for something basic right up to a thousand dollars for a motorized stand. Another thing to look for is potential discounts. Now, a lot of the red light therapy companies out there do share discount codes or discount links for people reviewing or testing their products. I try to work with all of the red light therapy companies, testing their panels and finding out what's good and what's not, and I have managed to get discounts or discount links for most of these products. So if there is a particular panel you want to get, be sure to check the resources below or just simply ask me, and I'll let you know if there are any deals going and where you can find them.
Next, you have shipping and also potential import taxes. Now, if you're fortunate enough to live in America, a lot of these companies are American, and a lot of them provide free shipping to mainland America. However, there are some companies based in Canada or the UK or Australia, and of course, they're going to have different shipping rates depending on where you're located. Now, if you are located, say, in Australia, then yeah, those American companies with their really good prices may actually be rather expensive by the time you factor in shipping costs. Now, in my reviews and in my product database, I do actually share a rough guideline on shipping costs, but the best way to find out the exact shipping cost is simply to add the product to your cart, make sure to apply any discount codes, and then add your address to get a shipping quote.
The next issue is that you may be stung with an import tax or an import duty. Now, I'd love to be able to put out recommendations and say if you live in this country, get panels from these companies because you won't be hit with taxes. But unfortunately, it seems to be really hit and miss. If you want to know the exact price you're going to pay—shipping, product price, taxes—then what I recommend is buying from a company in the country you're based in. That's really the only way you're going to know straight up how much you'll pay. Otherwise, you could be potentially hit with an import tax. Now again, in my product database, I do put the location of all of these companies, so you can go in there and just filter it for, say, Australia, and just see all of the red light therapy companies based in Australia, so you know exactly who to order from and who to avoid.
Another thing to look for is all the advanced features. Now, really all you need is a panel that's putting out a good amount of red and near-infrared light—that's really the basics of it. But it is nice to have such things as built-in timers, the ability to dim or change the brightness of the panel, and the ability to switch one wavelength off or another one on. It's also quite useful. And then finally, some people might like the idea of pulsed red light therapy. This is where the light is pulsing or flickering at a predetermined frequency. I have talked about pulsing and red light therapy in other videos; I won't get into it in too much detail here. But if these features are important to you, then yeah, make sure you do some research, check out my reviews, check out my content, and make sure that the product you're getting has these features.
Finally, before you do open your wallet, I highly recommend checking out some reviews. Now, you don't just have to watch my reviews; watch any review on YouTube. I'm sure there are heaps out there. Just know that some people are affiliated only with one red light therapy company, so they'll say that particular product from that company is the best and everything else is junk. Now, I don't work that way. I try and be affiliated with as many red light therapy companies—ideally all of them—as I can, and in that way, there's no favoritism or bias. I'll do the testing, I'll get you guys the best deals and the best discounts, and I'll tell it how it is. In a nutshell, it's what I do, and it's what this channel is all about: how can you guys make an informed decision to buy the best red light therapy product for your needs? And not only buying it, but also using it—how to use it and what you should look for. It's again what this channel is all about. So if I find a panel that's really good and tests well, I'm going to say that. If it's rubbish, I'll say that as well. But if you've watched all of this and you still need some help making an informed decision, then check out this video. In this video, I compare all of the top red light therapy panels, test them, scrutinize them, play with them, and determine which ones are the best and worthy of your hard-earned money.