Is Your UV Nail Lamp Working Efficiently?

The strong message about using a matched UV lamp to UV cured coatings is slowly getting out there. More do seem to be believing in this ‘concept’ and sharing the info on social media. But here’s the next thing to consider: is your UV nail lamp working efficiently?

Most UV nail lamps now use LEDs, and these cannot be changed, unlike the older style CFLs. When the bulbs start to lose power the whole lamp needs to be changed!

Now, before anyone thinks this is an unnecessary expense, let us look at some facts. These ‘facts’ are only approximations as there is no actual definitive data available as this is impossible.

A reasonable quality LED UV lamp should last, approximately, 2 years with average usage. (I am not even going to address the uber-cheap UV lamps available on the internet!!)

Let us base these calculations on a UV nail lamp costing £150.

Assumptions:

15 UV cured nail services per week for 45 weeks of the year = 675 usages
Over 2 years this is 1,350 usages
It cost £150, therefore this cost 11p per use (not including electricity)

If you do more than 15 or less than 15 per week you can do your own maths!!

Questions:

do you build this ‘overhead’ into your fees?
do you set aside some of your fees to replace your UV lamps?

So this is a very rough estimate of the costs of your UV lamp and replacements (I could go into a lot about the sustainability on this but that is a whole other subject and we have no choice!)

The suggestion of 2 years of life is very rough, so how do you know if your UV lamps are still working efficiently?

As a nail professional, you cannot tell if a coating is properly cured. It will feel cured at 50% but needs to be 80-90% cured to be safe! So what can you do?

Firstly, check every LED bulb is clean! Clients move their hands or knock them and their efficiency is drastically reduced if they have any UV gel on them. If there is any UV gel on them, clean it off!

Secondly, if you truly care about the health of your clients, you will check the efficiency of your lamps regularly! Yes, it may be a ‘pain in the neck’ but true professionals check their essential equipment!

How do you do that?

NailKnowledge is brand neutral and rarely mentions brands. However, if a brand provides information that is a truly useful resource, we will include it. This is the case with a video from Jim McConnell on how to test for the efficiency of your UV nail lamps.

You need to know when to replace your UV lamp. Also, (as someone messaged me recently) all electrical equipment is not equal! The odd one, even high quality, can be less than perfect!

Here is the Jim video that we, at NailKnowledge, recommend you watch! In my opinion, this is a serious part of your professional due diligence and, in the event of an insurance claim, your records of this will protect you!!