Red light therapy panels from Mito Red have traditionally been one of the best offerings on the market. In my 2019 review, for instance, they offered the best value panel that focuses on the basics.
The original panels had a great design, low EMF, were easy to use, and above all, were priced perfectly. Shipping and support were also great. The original Mito Red placed second in that 2019 review series.
Back then, Mito Red was a new company. Right now, Mito Red is on the market for a few years and has become very much established as one of the bigger players.
The company has recently released their new MitoPRO series. In this blog post, I'll review the biggest unit from that company, the MitoPRO 1500. Here you can see a picture of that panel:
I've heard some great testimonials from people and I've also used the panel myself for a few months.
If you're interested in getting a panel, use code ALEX and THIS link for a 5% discount. Under here I've summarized my findings about this panel:
Want to buy a panel? Then use code ALEX and THIS link for a 5% discount. I get a small kickback from almost all red light therapy companies so I'm unbiased and you save some money - so it's a win-win for all involved.
Note: This 5-minute quick review is highly recommended watching if you're time-poor.
Note on blog review below:
If there's a slight discrepancy between the video reviews and my blog, that is because I've avoided including the same information twice. For instance, some of the information on the price of shipping of my full review is included in the price section of my first impressions video. I've thus made the blog internally consistent instead of repeating the same information found in the videos twice
If you don't have 25 minutes to read my full review, then consider watching the 5-minute video below, which gives you all the important takeaways:
In this section, I'll consider my first impressions and unboxing for the Mito Pro 1500 (discount code ALEX saves 5%).
This first impressions section was literally created based upon the box of the red light therapy panel arriving at my doorstep. I thus give you my raw and unfiltered onion about what my experience with the panel is.
If you'd rather view a YouTube video that I shot about the first impressions & unboxing topic, consider the one below:
Below I've transcribed the contents of that video, so either by watching the video or by reading my blog post will you get fully informed about my opinion.
As you can see, the box for the Mito Pro 1500 that arrived at my house is huge:
Notice that there is some nice Mito Red branding on the box itself. For that reason, you'll always recognize the product arriving at your doorstep comes from Mito Red. Some other red light therapy companies don't provide the branding on the box itself, which can then lead to confusion because you don't know which product you're unpacking.
The box is very easy to open with a pair of scissors:
After you open the panel, you'll be met with a thin layer of foam. Behind that foam you find the panel:
As you can see, many of the accessories are included at the bottom of the box. You can get a better view of these accessories here:
Next up, let's take a look at the panel itself:
Here you can view the panel from the front:
My first impression is that this is a rather solid, very heavy panel.
The look of the panel is mostly the same as the PlatinumLED BioMax units.
(I'll publish an updated review on the PlatinumLED panels soon - some YouTube videos are already visible, click HERE for the first impressions video).
Here you can see a comparison between the Mito Red MitoPRO 1500 and some other panels on the market:
Looks pretty similar, right? Well, looks alone can be deceiving - therefore I'll explore each of these panels in great detail for you.
The looks are also slightly different. The BioMax has more of a glossy finish while the Mito Pro has more of a matte finish.
The MitoPRO 1500 has 300 LEDs built-in. These 300 LEDs use 5 Watts per LED, in theory. I'll test the true power draw in my full review, however, so you'll have to continue reading for that data!
This panel can be classed as a "body panel". In my classification system, panels with up to 300 LEDs are "body panels". Panels with 301 LEDs or more I classify as "mega panels".
If you want a smaller panel than the 1500, there's a panel with 150 LEDs (MitoPRO 750) and 60 LEDs (MitoPRO 300), in this series. All these panels you can order from the Mito Red website.
Moreover, here you can see the panel from the side:
You can see the branding on the side, which all panels nowadays have. This MitoPRO panel is also a little bit thicker than the Joovv Solo 3.0 and PlatinumLED BioMax version 1.
Also, at top of the panel on the side, you can see the inbuilt control panel. The control panel contains a timer in this unit. The control panel also allows you to use red and infrared light together, or, either of them alone.
Then there's the backside with 5 fans in total (only 4 are visible on the picture):
Additionally, you can probably see the thick plastic feet on it, to prevent you from damaging your wall.
Then, in the middle, there's the power button and the plug for the modular setup. The benefit of the modular setup is that you can join 2-4 panels together, cover a much greater treatment area, and activate or deactivate all panels from one control unit.
Mito Red offers two other panel ranges, the Original series and the MitoMOD series. The latter supports modular units while the former does not.
Here you can view the difference between these panels:
On the left, you see the Original series panels. The black panels in the middle are the MitoMOD series' units, and the ones on the right are the MitoRPO, the ones I'm reviewing right now.
The difference between the MitoMOD and MitoPRO is that the former only emits the 660 and 850nm wavelengths, while the latter emits 2 more wavelengths - 630 nm and 830 nm.
(If you don't know what "wavelengths" are or if you're not acquainted with the basic lingo of red light therapy, read my guide on everything you need to know about red light therapy.)
I've looked at the studies regarding these additional wavelengths and I do consider the 630 and 830nm beneficial. Some people in the industry don't agree with me, though.
If you want to learn about my perspective on these wavelengths, watch THIS video.
Moving on to the next topic:
Even though this step sounds simple, many people think it's very important. Besides the panel, the following accessories are included in the box:
Here you can view all these accessories:
If you like to learn more about the MitoPRO series differences, this infographic below taken from the Mito Red website shows the differences perfectly:
I've just included it because you might have some questions about the differences. All these MitoPRO panels emit the same wavelengths and have the same features, their only difference is their size.
Moving on to another option many may be interested in:
The new MitoPRO panels also allow you to use a vertical or horizontal stand. The horizontal stand is to be sold soon but isn't yet right now.
The horizontal stand can be very useful for people who cannot stand for a long time. If you're older or have a hip injury, for instance, then laying down can be a life-saver, especially with longer use.
Here you can see a picture of the vertical stand, used with the MitoMOD option:
That vertical stand costs $299 right now. The vertical stand holds a total of 4 panels.
The MitoPRO 1500 panel costs $1,150 USD, but with discount code ALEX you can reduce that number to ~$1,100 USD.
The MitoPRO 300 costs $329 and the MitoPRO 750 costs $649, without code ALEX applied yet.
In most cases, if you can afford it, bigger panels are better. The benefit of a bigger panel is that you can treat a larger bodily area at one time and that you can cut down on treatment time a lot. Read the guide on red light therapy dosing if you want to learn more about that principle.
There's one exception: if you're only using the device to treat a smaller area of your body, such as the skin on your face, or a shoulder injury. In that case, a handheld red light therapy device can be a great option too.
Mito Red is a US-based company. That location means that shipping to non-US parts of the world increases the overall price of the product.
US shipping is currently free. Outside the US the shipping price is $100-130 USD. Shipping to Australia costs $125 and to the UK it's $120 USD.
Those shipping costs are on the higher side of the equation, compared to other companies. Those shipping costs are a bit of a bummer to me.
Lastly, the MitoPRO range also has a 3-year warranty option, unlike panels from the Original or MitoMOD series.
One of the best features of this panel is the 60-day no questions asked return policy. That return policy means that you can ship your panel back to Mito Red - at your own costs, of course - within 60 days and you'll get your money back.
With the return policy, there are no questions asked and you won't have to pay a restocking fee, unlike with other companies.
This step was really easy for me. I just plugged in the power cable and the device worked like a charm after using the control panel. Here's the result:
What did I notice activating the panel for the first time?
First of all, this panel is ridiculously bright. My first impression is that it looks like this is going to be a higher-powered panel. Secondly, the panel is rather quiet compared to what I'm used to.
All of these outcomes will be quantified in my full review though, so stay tuned.
Using the control panel was a little confusing for me the first time, as I read "A" and "1" on the screen:
As it later turned out, those signs mean "R" and "I", from "red light" and "infrared light". Whoops, I misunderstood this principle at first!
Check my full unboxing & first impressions video to see how I was struggling with this control panel at first.
Then there's the timer function. The timer function is very easy to use, you only have to push the timer button to add a minute to your session:
Once you hit "OK", the light will be activated.
The maximum time for a session is 20 minutes with the control panel. Of course, if you'd ever want to use a longer time, you can reactivate the panel again after 20 minutes.
And, that's it. Let's conclude this section:
My first impressions of this red light therapy panel are really good. You've got:
What does that outcome mean?
Well, in the past, Mito Red was the high-quality low-cost brand that performed really well in my 2019 review series (check my more recent and up-to-date buyer's guide as well).
I think that Mito Red has continued that trend while adding some new bells and whistles at the same time, such as additional wavelengths, a control panel, better warranty, etcetera.
I'm really curious to see how this panel ranks against other top-notch options such as the LightpathLED Large Multiwave Pulsed.
Many other companies will be offering some great features, though, so I'll have to see how the MitoPRO 1500 holds up against the competition in my more recent reviews.
Want to know a lot more about this panel? In that case, let's move on to my very much in-depth full review:
So, welcome to my in-depth review of the MitoPRO 1500. In this section, I'll review this panel with extreme detail.
I've also published a YouTube video review that lasts almost an hour. You can watch that YouTube video below:
If you'd rather read the review, just keep scrolling down and I'll break down all the details of this panel. I'll consider the wavelengths emitted by a spectrometer, EMF emissions, different measurements of power output, value metrics such as price per LED, and much more.
Let's begin with the basics:
From a size perspective, the panel is 42 inches tall (~107 centimeters), 10 inches wide (~25 centimeters), and 3 inches thick (~8 centimeters).
The rubber feet which I've mentioned before make the panel ~2 inches thicker, if you'd want to include them in the measurement.
The only downside about the physical properties is that the power cable is inserted in about the middle of the panel. The consequence is, that if you hang the panel up high, your power cable might not be long enough and you might need a power extender. I would have rather preferred to have the power output at the lower end of the panel so that the power cable isn't too short as quickly.
(I'm assuming here that most power outlets are located at floor level!)
Lastly, the panel is exclusively available in the white-matte color that you see in the pictures above. No other color is available. I do think the color is very good looking, but, with Mito Red you don't have the ability to choose a color, unlike some other companies on the market right now.
The panel weighs 25 pounds, which is about 11 kilograms.
The downside here is that there are no handheld grips, even though some other new panels do have these grips. If you're an older person, for instance, the handheld grips are a real lifesaver for moving the panel around.
In some cases, you'll have to move the panel, such as for treating your upper body. The easier the panel is to move, the less of a problem for an older or injured person that process will be.
All companies will eventually probably catch up with the grips/handles, but right now, Mito Red has not yet done so.
The instruction manual looks quite good. Most of the information in that manual is pulled directly from the website.
However, the instruction manual looks way better than that of some other companies. Some other companies have very minimalistic manuals or they're only one page or only provide a link to the website for instructions. If you're buying a $1,000+ product, I think it's more than fair to include a decent manual with the product, but that's my view.
Here you can view the MitoPRO manual:
Especially for the red light therapy beginner, the manuals are really nice. This manual contains some basic information about red light therapy, how to set the panels up, how to use the modular capability, and so forth.
So, now that I've got all of these basics out of the way, let's move on to the fun part of the review:
For this review, I've used the Hopoo Color 0HSP-350F - 380-1050nm Spectrometer for this process.
As mentioned before, there are 300 5 Watt LEDs within this panel. These LEDs are "single-diode" LEDs and have a 60-degree beam angle.
"Single-diode" means that only 1 wavelength can be emitted from that one diode. With dual-chip LEDs, you can divide the power that goes to different wavelengths of your choice.
Personally, I like 30-60 degree wavelengths are best. 90-degrees is too wide, in my opinion (although the term can be confusing as there are multiple ways of measuring this principle!)
Remember that the panel contains 4 wavelengths: 630nm, 660nm, 830nm, and 850nm. Mito Red claims that power is equally distributed across these wavelengths, so each should receive 25% of the power.
As a comparison, the PlatinumLED BioMax has 5 wavelengths, but 80% of power still goes to 660nm and 850nm. The 3 remaining wavelengths therefore only receive ~7% each, which is quite low, arguably.
There is also a benefit to PlatinumLED's approach because the 660nm and 850nm wavelengths have more scientific evidence behind them.
Also, the LightpathLED has 5 wavelengths in total, which is another unique approach. Read my LightpathLED review if you'd like to learn more.
With that background in mind, I've started testing the wavelengths in both the red and NIR part of the light spectrum, against Mito Red's claims. First up, the red part of the range, with my spectrometer. Here you can see the red peaks:
See anything special?
Yes! The red part of the spectrum doesn't peak around 630 nanometers but peaks at 645 nm instead. That's a huge discrepancy, to me, and suboptimal.
I've taken several readings across the panel and I consistently got the same outcome. I've also tested several spots on the panel to be sure.
Next up, here's the peak that should be around 660 nm:
The actual peak - according to my spectrometer - is found around 665 nm, which is quite good. If you look at the curve, you're still getting quite some power output at 660 nm, so this one is pretty decent.
Because of the 645 nm wavelength output, there's a bit of a discrepancy between the claimed wavelength output and reality.
Next up, there's the NIR range. Here's the peak that should be around 830 nm:
Peaking around 836 nm on my spectrometer, the outcome aligns decently well with Mito Red's claims.
Next up, here's the peak that I've tested in the 850 nm range:
The 851 nm peak matches up almost perfectly with 850 nm. Let's consider what Mito Red had to say about this outcome:
I reached out to Mito Red about the 830-nanometer anomaly I found. Mito Red responded that they normally don't have this issue, and that they've rigorously tested their panels and that normally, the 830 nm should align up decently well with the outcome I get on my spectrometer.
The difference between Mito Red's outcome and my readings may have been because I got a testing panel.
Also, Mito Red even had a third-party lab test their wavelength outputs, so they were quite surprised with my findings.
Lastly, due to a manufacturing defect during some period, some of the wavelengths might not have aligned. I've unfortunately received such a panel.
In this section, I measure peak power at 6 inches for red light and NIR light. I've use my spectrometer for that, once again. I also combined the power outputs and I create an estimate of the total power output per panel.
Here you can see me live in action with my spectrometer testing:
Here's the outcome of that testing:
These first 3 numbers are a bit lower than the LightpathLED Large Multiwave Pulsed, which scored 48 mW/cm2 and 50 mW/cm2.
The total power output of 136 W, however, is the highest I've ever seen so far, so that's great! The LightpathLED total power output is 120 W, but, that panel only has 255 LEDs, not 300 like the MitoPRO 1500.
I've also done some wattage draw testing, with a meter I place between the power outlet and the red light therapy panel. The outcomes are:
So, if you've got the MitoPRO panel on with both red and infrared light, your power outlet is consuming 806 Watts in total. It's quite likely that a higher wattage draw is also a sign that your panel emits more light.
Moving on:
With hotspot testing, I look at whether the power output of a panel is distributed evenly. I test for hotspots at a 6-inch distance, because that's the recommended distance to use most panels at if you want a higher dose:
Here's the outcome of that 6-inch distance hotspot testing:
Overall, that hotspot outcome looks really good. You can see the dropoff at the edges of the panel, and you don't see any massive peaks or a polka dot effect.
I've seen some shocking outcomes and this one is really great.
Next up, I'm going to calculate the value about what you're getting from this panel.
First up, the price per LED is the price in USD you pay for each LED. Next up, the price in USD per Watt signifies how much you're paying per quantity of power output. I've applied discount code ALEX to both these calculations.
Simple, right?
Here are the outcomes:
So, even though the MitoPRO 1500 doesn't have the highest power output of all panels, it still comes out really well in the value domain. This outcome is similar to the pattern I observed in my 2019 review.
(A full comparison of all body panels, much more than I've tested so far, will be published soon. Click HERE to subscribe to my newsletter and get updates on my red light therapy reviews).
Moving on to the next topic, an important one...
EMF:
For this test, I use the Cornet EMF meter . That meter has great accuracy and reliability against much more expensive meters that run into the thousands of $USD. I've actually had EMF experts come to my house and compare that meter against their much more expensive models and the Cornet did great.
So here's the outcome of the EMF testing:
Overall, this outcome is perfect.
If you don't understand why noise matters, Bart from this team has written an excellent guide on noise pollution. For instance, you can read up on what noise pollution is, all the different science-backed health effects of noise pollution, and how to lower your exposure to noise.
Here's the outcome of my decibel meter test:
That 51.7 decibels (dB) is pretty good, overall.
The older Mito Red panels had quite some flicker. The flicker rate was 100 Hz and a flicker % of 71%. For the new unit I can be very abridged, as there is no flicker in this new panel. It's very interesting how Mito Red improved their engineering here!
I've tested for flicker with my Spectrometer, once again. I haven't included a picture because you've gotten used to seeing pictures of my spectrometer so far.
If you don't understand the topic of flicker, read my blog post about the flicker and health. Lastly, there's the issue of ease of use:
The process of setting up the panel is pretty easy. You insert the power cable into the red light therapy unit and into the wall, push the OK button, and the panel starts.
If necessary, you can use the mode button to activate or deactivate one part of the light spectrum.
In this domain, it's a win once again. There's no fancy control panel or anything extraordinary you have to do with the cables.
The control panel, although it was somewhat confusing to me in the beginning, does become easy to use after you've tried it a few times.
One issue that does exist is that the light for the infrared light isn't too clear in notifying you whether the infrared light is on or off. In fact, if you turn the panel on, by default, infrared is switched off!
And, because I recommend using both infrared and red light for 90%+ people, it's not the best engineering to switch infrared light off automatically. You'll therefore have to activate infrared light each time you plug in the power, and if you don't, then you might only notice later that the infrared isn't activated.
Your eyes cannot see infrared light, so you cannot visually see whether infrared light is activated.
Here are my findings after a few weeks of use and a few dozen sessions:
Let's consider how I'd rate this panel compared to other Mito Red panels:
After a few weeks of use, I decided to compare the panel against the Original Series and the MitoMOD series again, as these are the other offerings from the MIto Red company.
Both the series have different size panels. Here's what I think:
Overall, the MitoPRO 1500 is thus the big winner in Mito Red's offerings!
Hope that helps...
Next up, comparing the MitoPRO 1500 to the competition:
Here's what I think comparing the Mito Red MitoPRO to competitors' products:
Takeaway? Wait a bit longer until I do more in-depth reviews of all these panels and you'll learn which I think is best...
Next up, let's consider my final likes and dislikes of this panel:
Now, lastly, let's consider in more detail what I like about this panel and what I dislike:
That's it...
Lastly, let's move on to my conclusion:
Most people in life just want it simple: stand in front of a panel for 4-5 days a week, for 20 minutes, and get their results.
The average person doesn't care about intellectual discussions about whether 810 nanometers is better than 830, or whether both should be included.
It's the same for a car: the average person just wants a product that works and looks good. That's it.
The MitoPRO 1500 offers some extraordinary quality for the ordinary person. With the lowest discounted price per Watt, good support, and good wavelengths.
I think the panel will do really well during my 2021 review series on red light therapy. To stay updated on that review series, as well as my continuous reviews on red light therapy, check my red light therapy buyer's guide and the associated Excel sheet containing data of all my reviews.
I'm also really looking forward to comparing this MitoPRO 1500 to the new and upgraded BioMax 900 and testing the latter more extensively. Much more content coming up! Stay tuned!
Check out my YouTube comparison of the PlatinumLED BioMax 900 and the Mito Red MitoPRO 1500 here:
This blog post was written by Alex Fergus. Alex is a ISSN Sports Nutrition Specialist, Fitness Professional and certified Superhuman Coach who continues to expand his knowledge base and help people across the world with their health and wellness. Alex is recognized as the National Record Holder in Powerlifting and Indoor Rowing and has earned the title of the Australian National Natural Bodybuilding Champion. Having worked as a health coach and personal trainer for over a decade, Alex now researches all things health and wellness and shares his findings on this blog. Learn more about Alex's Credentials HERE.
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