Laser Cost per Shot

Posted by admin on July 23, 2009

Silk'n actual cost per shot

In buying a home laser hair removal product you are choosing to save money on expensive salon fees. However be careful which home laser hair removal product you buy because not all of them will actually save you money!!

A brand new Tria can be purchased for £675, a Silk’n for around £415 and a Rio x60 for £295.95. I have used these valuations for the following calculations.

The new Tria (February 2009) emits 90,000 shots in total. After 90,000 shots it can no longer be used. This is a cost of 0.75 pence per shot. If it takes 50 shots to treat an area 3cm x 3cm it would therefore cost 37 ½ pence to treat an area of this size (3cm x 3cm) with a Tria laser.

The Silk’n IPL laser emits 750 shots per bulb and is sold with two bulbs.  Therefore you get 1500 shots with your Silk’n IPL laser purchase. Each shot therefore costs around 28 pence. If one shot treats an area 2.4cm x 2.4cm it would take just over one shot (1.23 shots) to treat an area the same as discussed above with the Tria (3cm x 3cm). The cost when using a Silk’n laser is therefore around 34 pence for each 3cm x 3cm block.

In summary to treat an area 3cm x 3cm with the new Tria (February 2009) it would cost approximately 37 ½ pence and with a Silk’n laser a little less at 35 pence.  However, what also needs to be considered is the different time taken to treat each area.  It takes a Tria 50 shots and a Silk’n 1.23 shots to treat an area 3cm x 3cm. So it would take a Tria far longer to treat a 3cm block whereas it would be very quick with a Silk’n.  To read more on the comparison of time taken for each treatment click here.

However once the Tria has emitted all its laser shots it can no longer be used. The Silk’n replacement bulb costs a mere £45.00. This is another 750 shots for only £45.00. This works out at ONLY 6 pence per shot, or around 7 ½ pence per area 3cm x 3cm.

When you consider that the Tria costs around £250 more than a Silk’n it seems more sensible to choose Silk’n as the preferred choice for a home hair removal unit.