The answer as to why one system can cost over 5 times as much as another isn’t so cut and dried as saying that one is good quality and the other is bad. There may be systems that cost $100,000 that are sub-par in quality, while there are also $20,000 IPL’s that are very good quality for the price that they are. Below are some of the main points of difference between one system over another.
Calibration
When you use your IPL to 12 joules and run a pulse, have you actually measured the light to ensure it is actually 12 joules, or are you just hoping the machine is correct?
This is the single largest difference that sets apart a $100,000 IPL from a $20,000 system, as accurate energy output is required to get the same great result every single time. The best IPL’s in the market all use some style of calibration after each treatment to ensure that the energy output is correct to tighter tolerances, which is why they are far more reliable when treating delicate services such as vascular and pigmentation treatments.
For the sake of argument, let us say you have two systems. System A is calibrated to +- 5% accuracy whereas system B is uncalibrated and can vary with a +-25% accuracy. For delicate treatments such as pigmentation on skin type 3 clients, treating at 10% lower than recommended power will not give a result, but treating at 10% higher than recommended can burn the client. If you are using a system with +-5% accuracy, you can safely use the system for these clients at the recommended settings without running a high risk of burning the client. However if the system is +-25% accurate, even on the recommended settings you could either have no result, or burn the clients skin completely.
For this reason, often systems at $20,000-$40,000 are best suited for simpler services such as hair removal treatments, skin rejuvenation, or pigmentation/vascular services on low risk clients (skin type 1 or 2). For more delicate services with higher risk, it is best to opt for tools with higher calibration tolerances and calibrated outputs to ensure the correct result every time.
Filtering
There are big differences in the filtering technology which drastically changes the output energy for clients. The two most common types of filters are known as high pass filters and band (or notch) filters. High pass filters, as the name suggests, allow any wavelength above a certain threshold to pass through the filter. So for example, if we were to use an IPL (400-1200 wavelengths) with a 630 high pass filter, the resulting wavelengths in the output would be 630-1200. Alternatively, a notch filter only allows a specific band of wavelengths through. If we used a 620-640 notch filter, only those specific (620-640) wavelengths would be present.
For many of the $100,000 systems, notch filters are used so as to ensure that of the total energy output of the IPL reaching the client, only the desired wavelengths are being used to heat the chromophore with no excess energy heating up the surrounding tissue unnecessarily. Similar to the above point, this is why these systems have vastly superior results in pigmentation and vascular services, since heating the surrounding tissue can drastically increase the risk of adverse events occurring. When it comes to hair removal however, bulk heating into the tissue is not particularly problematic, which is why the $20,000 systems are often just as good for hair removal results as $100,000 systems.
Optional Extras
While not directly related to the systems themselves, there is a case to be made that many of the $100,000 IPL systems act as a multi-platform able to provide a wide variety of services outside of IPL which cannot be performed on the $20,000 systems. In many cases it can be cheaper to start out with one multi-platform system and add on extra hand pieces as your business needs grow, rather than investing in separate systems.
Many of the $100,000 systems can be fitted to include: nano-fractional ablative radio frequency handpieces for skin resurfacing, Nd:YAG lasers for tattoo removal or carbon facial services, and even Er:YAG lasers for deep tissue ablation and vaginal rejuvenation in some cases. These simply cannot be added on to a system at $20,000 which has been designed to only have the power output required for IPL services, and should definitely be considered if your business is likely to expand into any of these additional services.
There is a lot more to choosing an IPL system than meets the eye, and we have sifted through over 100 IPL’s to ensure that the systems we recommend are the best in the industry. Not only do we have the suppliers specifications, but we also have our own spectrometers (to measure the wavelength output), luxmeters (to measure the power output) and a variety of other technology to ensure that all of our data is correct.
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