A treatment couch is somewhere between €1,500 and €5,000, it's bolted into your treatment room for the next decade, and most people buy one on the strength of a photograph and a motor count.

We sell these. We'd still rather you asked us hard questions than bought the wrong one. Here's what actually separates a couch that's still working in year eight from one that isn't.

1. Load capacity — and which number you're being shown

Ask for it in writing, and ask which number it is. There are two, and they aren't the same:

• Lifting capacity — what the actuators will raise
• Surface load capacity — what the frame will hold once it's up there

Most manufacturers publish one figure and leave you to guess which. A bare "200 kg" tells you nothing about static versus dynamic load, centred versus distributed weight, or what happens at full extension.

For reference, across the range we stock: the Swop B4 and Grand Relax 4 beauty chairs are rated 175 kg, and the N'Run Evo physiotherapy tables are rated 250 kg.

If you're treating clients at the heavier end of the range, or doing anything involving pressure through your own bodyweight — massage, physio, osteopathy — buy for the N'Run figure, not the beauty figure. This is the single most common mistake we see, and it's an expensive one because it usually shows up as a failed actuator two years in.

2. Ask for the Declaration of Conformity — and read which law it cites

This is the question almost nobody asks, and it's the one that tells you the most.

Every electric couch sold in Ireland carries a CE mark. But CE means different things depending on which legislation the manufacturer declared under, and the mark looks identical either way:

• Regulation (EU) 2017/745 — the Medical Device Regulation. A couch declared here is a medical device.
• The Low Voltage, EMC and Machinery Directives — the route for a non-medical beauty or spa couch.

Both are legitimate. They are not interchangeable, and which one applies depends on intended purpose — what the manufacturer says the product is for, including in its marketing.

Three things worth knowing, because the trade gets all three wrong regularly:

• A treatment couch, if it is a medical device, is Class I. Motors don't raise the class. The Commission's own guidance names electric hospital beds and dental patient chairs as Class I examples.
• Class I means self-certification. There is no notified body, no third-party certificate, and no four-digit number after the CE mark. If a supplier shows you one on a plain couch, something is wrong.
• "HPRA approved" does not exist. The HPRA states plainly that it does not approve or certify medical devices for sale in Ireland or anywhere else in the EU. Anyone using that phrase is either confused or hoping you are.

So don't ask "is it certified?" Ask: "Can I have the EU Declaration of Conformity in English, and which legislation does it cite?" A supplier who can't answer that about their own product doesn't know what they're selling.

3. Warranty — length is the least interesting part

Everyone quotes a number of years. The number is nearly meaningless on its own. What matters:

• Parts and labour, or parts only? One well-known UK manufacturer's three-year warranty covers fitting in year one, then years two and three are parts-at-cost with no labour. That's a one-year warranty with a two-year discount attached.
• Are actuators covered separately? They're the part most likely to fail and the most expensive to replace.
• Handsets are often excluded or carry a much shorter term than the couch.
• How long are spares guaranteed after the model is discontinued?

Across the Naggura range: 2 years on the Swop beauty chairs, and 3 years on structure and upholstery for the N'Run Evo physiotherapy tables. Spares are guaranteed for five years after a model is discontinued.

4. Who actually turns up when it breaks

Here's the one we'll be direct about, because it's the reason to buy from us rather than off a European website.

Manufacturer service networks are national. A Spanish, German or Italian manufacturer will typically list technical service coverage for a specific set of countries — and Ireland is very often not on that list. It's a small market at the end of a long supply chain.

Which means, in practice: if you order direct from a European site to save a few hundred euro, your service arrangement when an actuator fails in year three is an email address in another language and a courier quote for a 100 kg item.

We're in Waterford. We deliver these, we install them, we hold the spares, and you can ring 051 334244 and speak to someone who has seen the bed you're describing. That's the actual product. The couch is just what arrives.

5. The duty nobody mentions

If you employ anyone, you are an employer under S.I. 299/2007. Regulation 28 requires work equipment to be suitable for the work, and Regulation 31 requires that a maintenance log for any machine is kept up to date.

The HSA is blunt about where responsibility sits: "The use of equipment with inadequate provisions cannot be justified on the basis that it was supplied in that way."

Almost nobody keeps a maintenance log for a treatment couch. It takes about four minutes a quarter. If there's ever an incident in your treatment room, it is the difference between a manageable conversation and a very bad one.

Your checklist

Print this and take it to any supplier, us included:

1. Load capacity in writing — lifting or surface?
2. EU Declaration of Conformity, in English — which legislation?
3. Warranty: parts and labour? Actuators? Handset? Spares availability?
4. Who services it in Ireland, and what's the call-out?
5. Actuator brand and duty cycle
6. IP rating if it's going anywhere wet
7. Upholstery — material, and how it handles tan, wax and oil

If a supplier gets awkward at question two, you've learned what you needed to know.

What we stock

Browse all treatment beds and couches  |  Physiotherapy tables

Not sure which is right for your room? Ring 051 334244 — we'll ask you what treatments you're doing and what your heaviest client weighs, and that usually answers it in two minutes.