An infrared heat lamp or infrared sauna warms you with broadband infrared, felt mostly as heat. An LED red light therapy panel emits a few specific wavelengths – red at 610–660 nm, near-infrared at 810–850 nm – with mild warmth at most. Use it 8–50 cm from the skin, 10–30 minutes a session, at most 30 minutes a day per area.
What does an infrared heat lamp actually emit?
A classic infrared lamp, the one with the red glass bulb, is essentially a glowing filament. It sends out a broad band of light, from visible red deep into the infrared, and most of its output reaches you as heat. The red glass changes the colour you see; it doesn't turn the bulb into a set of chosen wavelengths.
An LED works differently: each one emits a narrow band around a single wavelength, so a panel can be built from exactly the wavelengths it is meant to deliver. Smart Series panels combine six of them in two separately controlled channels, red and near-infrared, and measure 132–152 mW/cm² at 15 cm (spectrometer-measured). What happens when that light is absorbed is explained in how red light therapy works.
How is an infrared sauna different from a red light panel?
An infrared sauna heats your body up: you sit in a warm cabin until you sweat. Many infrared saunas are built around far-infrared heaters. Far infrared is defined as 3–100 µm (3,000–100,000 nm), far beyond the near-infrared a panel uses, and a 2012 review describes saunas and lamps that deliver only this band (Vatansever & Hamblin).
With a panel, the point isn't heat: your skin absorbs the light itself. That's why a session doesn't need a cabin, and why you can aim it at one area at a time.
Research on infrared saunas is still thin. A 2009 review searched five databases and found 9 relevant human studies on far-infrared saunas; it called the published evidence for most of the claims made about them limited (Beever).
What about polarised-light lamps?
Polarised-light lamps have a small round head that you hold or mount close to the skin. Their light covers a broad band of visible and infrared light and passes through a filter that polarises it. Like a heat lamp, they spread their output across a wide range instead of a few chosen wavelengths, and the small head means working area by area.
Is a broad spectrum better than a few specific wavelengths?
Not automatically. In a 2014 controlled study, 113 volunteers had 30 sessions, twice a week, with either a red spectrum (611–650 nm) or a broader one (570–850 nm), and were compared with 23 controls without light. Both light groups showed changes in skin roughness, collagen density and complexion against the controls, and the broader spectrum showed no advantage over red alone (Wunsch & Matuschka).
More infrared isn't automatically better either. A 2016 review on near-infrared (IR-A) and the skin argues that whether it does more good or harm comes down mainly to intensity and dose (Barolet et al.). So when you compare devices, look for wavelengths named in nanometres and an output measured at a stated distance, not for a warmer feeling.
Why red and near-infrared reach different depths is covered in near-infrared vs red light therapy, and the longest band in what 850 nm near-infrared does.
Which one should you choose?
Start from what you're after. If you want heat – a warm cabin and a sweat, or warmth on one spot – that's a sauna or a heat lamp. If you want specific red and near-infrared wavelengths at a measured output, as part of a short daily routine, that's an LED panel.
The Smart Small covers the face, neck and shoulders on a table stand; the Smart Medium also reaches the back or legs, on a floor stand or wall mount. You can compare them in our panel collection. Both are made by a partner manufacturer to RedLightMed's specification and European (CE) requirements, and every unit is checked in Hungary.
Close your eyes or wear the goggles; there's a pair in every box.
It isn't recommended for children under 12, while breastfeeding, with epilepsy, with known tumours or metastases, or if you're sensitive to light. During pregnancy, only after talking to your doctor.
Sources
Vatansever F, Hamblin MR. Far infrared radiation (FIR): its biological effects … Photonics Lasers Med, 2012. PubMed 23833705
Beever R. Far-infrared saunas …: summary of published evidence. Can Fam Physician, 2009. PubMed 19602651
Wunsch A, Matuschka K. A controlled trial to determine the efficacy of red and near-infrared light … Photomed Laser Surg, 2014. PubMed 24286286
Barolet D, Christiaens F, Hamblin MR. Infrared and skin: friend or foe. J Photochem Photobiol B, 2016. PubMed 26745730
