SGrow VIG1000 Red Light Therapy Panel Review from Alibaba
Can you source a professional-grade red light therapy panel directly from Alibaba?
At GembaRed we have been skeptical of Alibaba suppliers over the years. We often get high-flicker, high EMF, and falsely advertised irradiance values. Our last review was surprisingly positive about SAIDI light's panels. So we wanted to try out another company that has been aggressivly marketing recently.
Sgrow has been popular with people searching for affordable full-body light therapy. So we wanted to test them out to see if they are the real deal, and to help everyone understand the dosing correctly. So we ordered the VIG1000, which they claim came from their warehouse location in the USA, this way it makes sure it was pre-manufactured and they sent us their standard unit.
We have a huge review on YouTube which compares the SGrow VIG1000 to the Joovv Solo to see side-by-side how they stack up in terms of performance.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lcKxQM4VV0
Power Consumption:
This is often a popular measurement to compare red light therapy panels. The test is cheap with a Kill-A-Watt meter and tells you actual power consumption. Most companies will list the Rated Power consumption based on having 3 Watt or 5 Watt rated bulbs. We already deconstructed this fallacy that even a "5 Watt" rated LED might only be consuming 1 Watt. So really there is some misleading advertising going on.
Rated Wattage: 1000 Watts (hence, the name VIG1000)
Actual Consumption: 304 Watts
So we can see that the power consumption is reasonably high, but nowhere close to 1000.
Also remember that the Consumed Watts doesn't convert to actual Optical Watts output. There are inefficiencies with power drivers, some power goes to the fans, and LEDs are only 15% to 25% efficient at converting the power across them to actual optical output.
Intensity:
Always my favorite topic to remind people that Solar Power Meters all read falsely high by over 2x, so anyone using a solar power meter is false advertising their intensity. And obviously you can never dose it correctly if you are starting out with bad measurements.
This time we measured intensity on the Tenmars TM-206, TES 1333, and the SANWA Laser Power meter.
6 inches away:
Tenmars: 119 mW/cm^2
TES 1333: 103 mW/cm^2
SANWA: 30.9 mW * 0.80 / 0.636 = 38.9 mW/cm^2
12 inches away:
Tenmars: 79.9 mW/cm^2
TES 1333: 70.1 mW/cm^2
SANWA: 26.46 * 0.80 / 0.636 = 33.28 mW/cm^2
Obviously we trust the Laser Power measurements is closer to the REAL LIFE irradiance. We can see how the intensity is easily false-advertised if anyone uses those solar power meters. And different solar power meters have vastly different results anyways! So how can you ever properly dose it?
Flicker:
An underappreciated metric, but if the flicker is significantly high, that modulation of intensity output will drastically change your dosage calculation. With pulsing they use the Average Intensity to calculate dose. If you have a high flickering LED light, you need to ascertain the Peak and Average intensities to actually use it safely and effectively.
And we need to appreciate in that some sensitive individuals may experience flicker distress. The IEEE recommends being under 9% flicker at 120 Hz to be considered "low risk."
So the flicker percentage is 62.6 and the frequency is at 120Hz. This is VERY high and indicative of a cheap LED lamp or driver. It should be very cheap to use low-flicker drivers and components, like we do at GembaRed. That is why we usually recommend people head over to SAIDI light or Herifi light on Alibaba since we know they already make low flicker panels.
EMFs:
People who are trying to live in a clean environment free of Smart Meters, Dirty Electricity, 5G, WiFi, and other artificial frequencies usually pay attention to the EMFs from their health-related devices. The VIG1000 doesn't have any Bluetooth or WiFi connectivity so we don't expect any RF frequencies, although it might be good to double-check the RF output because some cheap grow lights have been found to violate FCC regulations.
We don't have an RF meter actually, I spent my EMF meter budget on specialized meters for Magnetic Field and Electric Field. Which these are the two main types of fields we look for in Red Light Therapy Panels.
Now remember the REAL reason why all of these big panel companies tell you to be 6++ inches away from the panel IS NOT for any effectiveness reason. In fact moving further away from the light source allows for more skin reflection losses, further reducing your effective absorbed intensity.
We can see the EMF at zero inches is 68 milligauss (magnetic field) and 331 V/m (electric field). This is very high even for people that aren't particularly EMF sensitive. This is the reason why most panel companies tell you to stay 6 inches away and they NEVER show you this zero inches measurement.
At 6 inches away the measurements are much better, only 1.46 milligauss and 54V/m. This is still higher than most high-quality panels we see on the market so people who care about EMF would probably purchase elsewhere.
Conclusion:
For a 300 dollar full-body red light therapy panel seems really good! It works, it emits good power output, has 2 wavelengths. For me the deal-breakers are the flicker and EMF. These should be easy and cheap to design out of the panel, and companies like SAIDI light and Herifi light have already produced low flicker and low EMF stuff for a similar price. So I would still recommend those companies if you are shopping on Alibaba.
Disclaimer: All information in this article and website are intended for educational purposes only. It is not intended to treat, diagnose, or cure any ailment. Please consult with your doctor or trusted wellness practitioner before starting any new health activity including Red Light Therapy. Once again we do not assume any liabilities for purchases or transactions outside of the GembaRed website.
Use this guide at your own risk.
**Extra DISCLAIMER**
GembaRed LLC makes no guarantees or warranties about lights purchased outside of our website. There is still a chance to receive faulty lights, receive lights with damage or safety issues, receive lights with incorrect quality, or simply never receive lights at all. All risks and liabilities are upon yourself when ordering directly from the factory, and GembaRed LLC absolves itself of any involvement with your relationship with the factory. You must resolve any product or purchasing issues directly with the factory. Also it is up to you to make sure your imports and products are in compliance with applicable codes and laws for your region. GembaRed has no financial interest in you using this guide and we get no compensation or special treatment from the factory for making this guide.
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