IPL machine sold on ebay: any good?

Hair Removal Methods Laser hair removal
#1

Hi all,
First and foremost, sorry about my English “horror”, I am Italian :wink:
I came across this forum while I was searching for Tria and Silk’n. I’ve read pages about the negative sides of them so I moved on quite quickly.
I made a search on ebay (search:IPL or laser) to see if I could get a second hand, professional IPL or Laser machine.
I guess you are already asking… “why I want to buy an expensive machine when I could go to a clinic”.
Well my answer is quite simple. I found some new machines on ebay for about £2500 ($3500) (from China, USA and Denmark)quite similar to each other.
They have FOUR Sapphire treatment filters and can treat wrinkles, acne, hair, pigmentation…

I here paste the features of one of them (they are more or less the same):
Light source: Intense Pulsed Light
Wavelength: SR (Speckle clearance):530-1200nm
HR (Hair clearance): 640-1200nm
VR (vascular clearance):430-1200nm
Energy density: 1-50J/cm2
Pulse width: 1 -40ms
Repeat frequency :1p/2s
Tally: diplex computation: mainframe and handle
Transmission system: Sapphire crystal light-transmitting system
Cooling system: Thermal &Electric cooled Built-in Circle water-cooled air cooled
Spot size: 12×30mm2
Size : 45×35×45cm3

You are still asking the same question: why?
Well, basically is for my wife (35, hair problems on bikini, legs, belly, face…everywhere). Few clinics in London asked around the same price of these machine, with no guarantee.
Now, if I buy a machine, I could use it on myself as well (40y, hairs of course everywhere, but also few pigmented areas and still some acne… forever young??).
If they can treat wrinkles as well, good… I won’t buy anything else for this future problem.

Here come the time for me to ask a question: are these machines sold on ebay any good? Or are they just a more expensive toys like the Tria or Silk’n?
I hope to get some feedback from the regulars :wink:
Thanks
Roberto

#2

These are not the same as professional machines, which cost $50K+. These are more expensive versions of home machines. Don’t waste your money. We’d all be using these machines instead of paying for professional treatments with the powerful machines if they actually worked well.

#3

Hi Lagirl,
thanks for your reply. Honestly I was expecting more from your reply :wink: (I have read your replies on this forum quite a lot). I am tempted to buy a machine, but I don’t have money to throw away.
I agree when experts on this forum say that Silk’n is a toy “because it is limited to 5 J/cm2”… but these machines on ebay claim to have 1-50 J/cm2 (is this still considered a toy?)
Everybody knows technology goes on, making things smaller and cheaper everyday.
One similar example could be the vibrating plates.
There are models that cost around $20K but those are for a Gym where they are used extensively. You can find some good plate for around $1000 and are not toys, at all.
I guess the same theory can be true for the IPL machines.
A $50K IPL machine (for a Salon) is working full time, everyday: they need to be robust in every parts: for $50k I want the bolts to be in gold :wink:
It can’t be the same for a home user, where this machine is used once every week.
I would be glad if someone have seen or used one of these machines or have read about them. If they are considered like all the other expensive toys, I am curious to know on what bases?
If I had more technical data that could confirm it isn’t a genuine product, I could contact more than one seller and ask addition information (so I could post them back in this forum).
Thanks again.
Roberto

#4

This issue has been discussed at length here, including these specific machines home IPLs machines made and sold from China. Run a search for a home IPL machine (expand the search to 2-3 years). Tria and Silk’n are relatively new, so I’m guessing you’re reading the newer discussions here. The Chinese IPL scams have been around for years now and questions about them always arise. There is an entire company in the US that used to distribute them and there are lots of threads here on it with people complaining and not getting their money back. Think of it this way - if they actually worked in the same way, don’t you think clinics would buy them instead of spending so much more on machines they use in their current business? They could be making a lot more money.

The main problem is the same. Joules are not the only part of the equation. Spot size, pulse width, etc all count. ALL machines sold for home use are not powerful enough to produce any permanent results (that’s why they’re allowed for home use), but especially IPL machines. We do NOT recommend using professional IPLs either because most of them produce only minimal results, if any. So the home use IPL is likely to produce absolutely nothing. Tria is at least a diode. Not a powerful diode, but a diode. If you wanted temporary reduction, at least it has the potential to give you that.

#5

So LA Girl were did you get your data from,“even Professional IPL machines produce only minimal results”.
What was the machines they were using,what was the info on the client, was the machine calibrated,there are a few good Ipl out there,and yes they do work very well,but not on all skin types.
To come up with a reply like that was unfair.
We repair and calibrate machines when they come back, and a lot of these salons do not like their machines/applicators refurbished and calibrated.Because they are without their machines.
We have applicators in that are stinking, the lamp and filter should have been renewed,the crystal and ceramic reflector are stinking.
The client who went to that salon did not have good treatment,we measure the energy coming out of these lamps and it well below what it should be.
So what happens the client blames the Salon or the machine,
When we refurbish the applicator we test it for energy.
We then inform the woman that she should have sent the lamps in when they reached 15 thousand shots.
There is a lot of bad machines out there, there are some very good machines out there.
But a lot of the fault lies with the salon owner being to greedy and wanting more from the lamp.
Also a lot of these salon owners get companies to do cheap refurbishments,these companies use cheap materials,and handle the lamp and filter, they leave dirt on the ceramic reflector which then can damage the ceramic reflector.
Like most things the more you look after things the better it works.