4 pages, 3 figures.-- PACS nr.: 23.40.-s.-- Printed version published Apr 2004.-- et al.Beta-decay experiments are a primary source of information for nuclear-structure studies and at the same time complementary to in-beam investigations of nuclei far from stability. Although both types of experiment are mainly based on γ-ray spectroscopy, they face different experimental problems. The so-called Pandemonium effect is a critical problem in β-decay if we are to test theoretically calculated transition probabilities. In this contribution we will present a solution to this problem using total absorption spectroscopy methods. We will also present some examples of experiments carried out with the Total Absorption Spectrometer (TAS) at GSI an describe a new device LUCRECIA recently installed at CERN.This work was partially supported by C.I.C.Y.T. (Spain) under contract AEN96-1662, by MCYT (Spain)contract No. FPA2002-04181-C04-03, by C.S.R. (Poland) grant KBN-2Pp03B-039-13, by R.F.B.R. (Russia)-D.F.G. (Germany) contract 436 RUS 113/201/0(R). Support from the HPMF-CT-1999-00394 project as well as from the European Large Scale Facility program at CERN is also aknowledged.Peer reviewed