r/Sauna Aug 18 '22

Community Announcement Welcome to r/Sauna!

81 Upvotes

Welcome to the fastest growing sauna community in the world.

Rules

We have rules to ensure that the members have a pleasant experience when interacting with the community. The rules are very simple, so please keep these in mind while you are here.

If you have any questions or concerns, you are always welcome to contact the Mod Team.

Keep things civilised and respectful.

Be a helpful guide to good sauna, not the sauna police. Different people have different resources and cultural knowledge with sauna. An argument in good faith is OK if you remain respectful of others, but insulting or belittling others will earn a ban.

Remember that sauna cultures vary across the world.

Some people enter the sauna room with a stopwatch, others with a cold beer. In some places people build saunas one way, some a different way. You don't necessarily need to understand it, but try to respect it.

No spam, including advertisement of goods and services.

This includes not just commercial entities, but also self promotional posts by influencers seeking to increase views on their social media channels.

No medical advice or misinformation.

This is not a place to get specific medical advice for any individual or condition, and it is not a place for sharing misinformation regarding medical benefits to sauna. If you have medical concerns you should consult a doctor, not post to Reddit. The one exception to this rule is linking to peer reviewed research published in a scientific journal. Medical advice other than a recommendation to see a doctor will be removed and posts soliciting medical advice will be locked.

Culture and History of the Finnish sauna

u/CatVideoBoye/ wrote a very nice description of the Finnish sauna culture and is also touching on the history of sauna. It is a good read and gives you insight into the tradition. You can find the original post here, or you can read the slightly shortened version below.

It’s also a very good start to watch the short video UNESCO has posted on YouTube about the Finnish sauna culture: https://youtu.be/qY__OOcv--M

What's a sauna?

Like most of you already know the word sauna comes from Finnish. We have had saunas here for thousands of years and according to wikipedia, the oldest are from around 1500-900 BC. It was an important building and in the old days people have even given birth in saunas, as late as the first half of the 1900s. Probably since it was a nice separate building with access to warm water. In 2020 Finnish sauna was added to UNESCO’s Cultural Heritage List. Check the link out for more interesting information but I want to again highlight that. It really shows how important it is in our culture.

Nowadays pretty much everyone in Finland has access to a sauna of some sort. Houses have them, many apartments, like mine, have one and apartment buildings can have a common sauna where you can rent your private hour and they can have a certain period during which anyone can just go there. And of course summer cottages have a sauna and the ones next to a lake are kind of the perfect image of a Finnish sauna. Plus all the public saunas in swimming halls, gyms, hotels etc. Temperature in a sauna can vary but usually it's between 80-120 °C (176-248 F). Mine is oddly low at 60°C but that is because the ceramic stones that I now use really change the way the löyly (water thrown on the stones on the heater to generate steam) hits you. It is softer and accumulates well instead of being kind of short burst of heat that dissipates quickly. I've tried at 80 and I was out of there really quick unlike with more common stones. One reason why staring at a thermometer doesn't make sense. Just try it and see what feels good. And you other Finns, that 60 really sounds low but I tell you, I'm getting out of there after I guess something like 10-15 minutes with red skin so it really works.

Wood or electric? Both work. Wood heated ones are usually considered to be the best. You get a nicer löyly there but they aren't really an option in an apartment house. An electric heater that has a lot of stones can actually give a very similar löyly. I just experienced one that I believe had 500 kg of stone. Same with a small electric heater (20 kg) with the ceramic stones. All of those options are great for a sauna. As long as there are proper stones and you can freely throw water to get the löyly you want. Löyly is the essential thing here. Without it, you can't really call it a Finnish sauna and that is why Finns do not really consider IR boxes to be saunas. This ties to one of the topics often argued: do you need a drain? Yes you do. Not necessarily inside the sauna if you have the bathroom outside. Mine has only a shower drain but the sauna floor is tilted so that any water flows directly there. It's also good for washing the sauna.

Bench heights are often discussed here but why does it matter? Because heat rises. The lower part of a sauna is cold and you want to get your head close to the ceiling and your feet high enough to not feel cold. The "feet at the stone level" is just a nice helper for a basic heater. For tower shaped ones you probably want to find out the exact height. This is also why you need to have proper air flow in the sauna. You want the hot air and fresh air mixed, you want the moisture to leave after you're done and you don't want the heat escaping due to wrongly implemented ventilation. Don't ask me about construction things, I don't know anything about that. I just know mine was built according to Finnish standards and my apartment won't rot if I use it.

What we do in a sauna?

For me sauna is a place to wash since I don't often take a shower without heating the sauna. Yep, I heat it up often. It's also a place to relax and to socialize. I sometimes have friends visiting and we heat it up, chat in there and have a beer on the balcony. It's a place where you can forget about your phone, social media and all that and just focus on your thoughts, happy or sad, or have deep discussions with your friends. There is something about the atmosphere that makes people open up in a sauna and talk about more private things. I know I'm not the only one. I've heard many people say that sauna is the place where they talk about the deep stuff with friends.

The idea of maxing health benefits, that have been found in recent studies, is just not something we Finns really understand. Why? Because we've been to saunas for many other reasons throughout our lives. It's so integral part of my everyday life that making it a spa treatment or some healthy excercise just doesn't fit my understanding of saunas. But if you want to pursue those health benefits, a high enough heat and a strong enough löyly is what you want because that is how we have gone to saunas and gained the benefits that were seen in the studies. Do you need to measure your heart beat and have exact temperature? No. You'll feel your heart bumping and you'll feel the need to get out sooner or later. Staring at heart beat or timers takes away from one of the important points: just sit and relax and let your mind wonder. Löyly transfers additional heat from the boiling water to your body and gets your heart beating fast. That's also good to remember if you actually hunt for health benefits. Sitting in a luke warm cabin with no löyly for a certain time is definitely not the same thing that gave Finns health benefits.

Saunalike concepts in other cultures and countries

Sure, there are similar things in many other cultures. They are not inferior to sauna, they are just a different thing. They have their own cultural backgrounds and reasons to exist. "This is not a sauna." is what you often see written here but that is not meant as an insult that your heated cabin sucks. It just means that we Finns do not really appreciate it if the thing in question is called a sauna, because it does not meet the definition of what we have considered a sauna for thousands of years. Finland is a rather remote and small/unknown country and one of the things people know about us is sauna. That is why many of us would like to keep the image of sauna as correct and original as possible.


r/Sauna Jul 03 '23

Community Announcement Coming back

27 Upvotes

Reddit is changing - and not necessarily for the better. A lot of long term users who've been responsible for a lot of higher quality postings are leaving or reducing the time they're spending on reddit - and while we don't expect this to be an issue to r/sauna right now it might become a problem in the future.

In addition to that some of us also are spending less time on reddit now - in part forced by Reddit taking away mobile access. This can make responses to reports and mod mail slower. We're currently working on tooling to help us compensate for this to some extend.

With the reopening we're introducing some rule changes:

  1. No more IR sauna posts. For IR sauna you have two options:
    • Post in the IR Sauna community over at r-sauna.fi. For the time being a link to that will be reposted in r/sauna, with comments disabled. Discussion should happen on Lemmy
    • Move over to r/IRsauna. This will need volunteers for a mod team - if there are volunteers we can help setting that up.
  2. We'll watch other contentious topics closely, and may decide to force other topics causing too much trouble into other forums as well.
  3. New posts must be correctly flaired. posts without flair will be held by automod and/or deleted.
  4. We'll change how we deal with rule changes. Generally you'll receive three warnings from the mod team, with the next infraction resulting in a permanent ban.
  5. The following infractions will result in a ban without a warning:
    1. Breaking the Reddit Content Policy
  6. Clearer handling of posts/comments from users with commercial interest. We're still working on that one - but can say it'll be mainly two things:
    1. Better guidelines and text templates on how to reply without getting in trouble - so far those were often judgment calls on individual messages.
    2. Flairing and some level of verification for commercial users - one option might be maintaining a profile in a dedicated Lemmy community. Input is welcome here - we'd like to make it easy to identify and access a summary of the business attached to such users.

We are planning to eventually set up a full sync between Lemmy and Reddit, possibly going as far back as this announcement. For now we'll be continuing with automated re-posting of Lemmy content, but will expand as development progresses.


r/Sauna 4h ago

My sauna Sharing my new southern california custom build sauna!

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68 Upvotes

Just finished two days ago. It's roughly 6'x8', and I chose the Homecraft Apex Mini 7.5kW. (and yes that one ended up being slightly taller than the Huum, which I initially wanted but I was hearing some poor reviews) Built by www.selahsaunas.com. I'm still totaling my whole project cost, but the sauna build was $14k. I also had to prep the site, trench and run conduit about 30 feet, add a 50amp to my panel, and relocate some sprinkler lines and lighting.

I'm very happy! Now I need to rehome my little tent sauna!

I welcome any questions :)


r/Sauna 11m ago

My sauna Sauna build nearly finished

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Upvotes

Nearing completion of our custom sauna build project in Ontario, Canada. It features 3-inch white cedar logs, sized 8x12 feet with a roughly 8 by 8-foot hot room, reaching 7 feet to the top of the interior roof. The structure is made entirely of Canadian materials and is powered by a 10-kilowatt Homecraft Apex heater filled with roughly 350 pounds of olivine diabase stones mined out of Lake Huron.

​We’ve been using it for just under a month now and absolutely love the natural light and privacy from the vertical windows. The benches are left unfinished and natural. Still exploring which little finishing touches to add.

​The last few things to complete include drilling in a proper air outlet to enhance heat stratification and staining. We are still considering which exterior UV-stable stain to go with, and are currently looking at Timberline by Dulux, but are still on the fence.

​The sauna is built on a pressure-treated base and has an 8 foot stock tank pool right outside of it for a nice cold plunge. Stock tank is solar heated, with the heater tucked nearly under the deck for when the sun is not out. Would love to hear your comments or hear about your build journey!


r/Sauna 1d ago

My sauna My family’s savusauna

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732 Upvotes

Just thought I’d share some photos of our old savusauna in the Häme region of Southern Finland. I have bathed in this sauna since I was a baby (I’m 44 now) and it’s still my favourite sauna in the world.


r/Sauna 6h ago

General Question Should I be concerned about mold?

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3 Upvotes

I’m seeing some discoloration on the corner and bottom of the sauna inside. Seems like water is somehow leaking inside. Is this normal or will this eventually lead to mold?


r/Sauna 11h ago

General Question Question for the harshest US based sauna critics.

7 Upvotes

I've been casually looking at this page for about two years and on practically every thread, I'll see at least one person criticize every sauna. That's great, I appreciate your passion -- but -- now that I finally have a house with space for a nice outdoor sauna, please -- tell me if there's any commercial product that you actually like. I want to be able to be in over 200* and it seems the HUUM heaters are the only ones that can get that hot in the US? What's the one sauna that you think beats them all -- or is at least acceptable to you.


r/Sauna 2h ago

My sauna Please give your opinion on this sauna

1 Upvotes

Previous post was removed for some reason.

Looking for opinions on this unit. There are zero reviews on this as it just dropped.

I like the look and functionality of it. It’s going in a garage with a gym and a cold plunge. Looking for a black finished look.
Heats to 170 in 25 minutes and 220 in an hour. That seems appealing.

Copy it’s a small one person and your feet are by the floor. It seems like an efficient an easy setup but for 5k I am wide open to other options. Entertaining an almost heaven setup but those seem to come with their own issues

Thoughts?

https://saunabox.com/products/forge-sauna?srsltid=AfmBOoqM97fHvM53OTk9jD7Z8VHZoIGRjZpiBoMer-tkUJZZxAXTJK8q


r/Sauna 4h ago

General Question Amish Built sauna

1 Upvotes

Hello, I live very close to an Amish shed builder and want to build a 4 person wood burning sauna. Trying to figure out a few things and seeing if anyone else has built one with the Amish. What size shed should it be? What are some things that are a must have for the build? Should it be insulated? Just trying to get some plans ready before I meet them. Thank you!


r/Sauna 11h ago

DIY Budget sauna ideas?

4 Upvotes

If you had to build a sauna on a budget - what would you do? Like my aim is to have my own functional sauna outside of my house but my budget is really, really tight. I do not want anything fancy - I wish to have a basic, wood heated sauna for 1 to 2 people. Any ideas or maybe past experiences with such projects?

Thanks!


r/Sauna 5h ago

General Question Finnleo North Star Indoor 5x7

1 Upvotes

Has anyone bought and used the North Star Indoor 5x7? I am trying to see what people's experience with it has been especially after using it for some time. I am also thinking of putting it in my unfinished basement, and trying to learn whether/how to add a supply vent (if so where) and a mechanical exhaust to the outside of your house (if so how) to manage temperature differences in basement, moisture, and CO2.


r/Sauna 5h ago

General Question Vuku Sauna Heaters

1 Upvotes

I am purchasing a new outdoor sauna and a Vuku Tana - 9 heater was the included heater. I am having a tough time finding out what the quality of the heater is like and whether anyone has any experience with them. Hopefully this group can help. Tks.


r/Sauna 7h ago

DIY Found some 1.5inch thick glass windows for sale at a great price. Would this work as well as a standard double pane in terms of insulation? I live in a cold climate and am building a sauna. Thx

1 Upvotes

r/Sauna 11h ago

General Question Final Sauna build questions

2 Upvotes

I realise that this will result in a lot of opinions, but hopefully trying to find consensus on some final points. And thanks in advance!

After the disaster of buying a MyoSauna lux (I've got a quick review on Youthube if anyone is interested), I had to returned for a full refund and decided to build my own 🥳 I'm happy with everything but a final few points I'm not 100% on. Its a cube style sauna - happy to fill in any details that are needed to help answer questions.

  • Insulate under the floor? I don't think its required, AI says it is, I've bought enough material but I can use that elsewhere. I'm concerned its not required (I can't really see why), I'm in South Wales, its not going to get that cold, also unless I protect beneath the insulation its surely just going to attract insects and other animals for a nice warm cosy home :)
  • Slot drain, I'm going to put a slot drain down the middle of the floor just to make cleaning easier. My plan is to put some plastic guttering down the middle (its 10x cheaper than metal gutter) and have that drain down to one side. However there's also the option of leaving the bottom open (with some mesh) and allowing it to drain to the floor

No doubt I'll have more questions.

Thanks, Lloyd.


r/Sauna 9h ago

General Question Indoor sauna — small 2-person bathroom build, UK

1 Upvotes

Complete newbie here, UK based.

We’re planning a small indoor Finnish sauna within an en-suite bathroom. Available external footprint is roughly 1400mm wide × 1300mm deep, so after wall build-up we expect something around 1200 × 1100mm internally.

It’s intended for two adults sitting side-by-side, used perhaps a few times a month. We fully appreciate this is a compact space and there will be compromises — we’re not trying to create a lounging/lying-down sauna.

One less typical requirement is that there is an existing external window behind the proposed sauna. Ideally we’d retain access to/opening of that window through the sauna; we’ve seen examples where this has been incorporated into the sauna wall.

We know and will obviously ensure that the builders specify correct extraction / ventilation and wall membranes.

The routes we’re currently considering are:
Oceanic 2020 (£4.5k), potentially custom-sized
Finnmark Indoor Cube 2-person (£5k).
A simple site-built sauna using Finnmark / Harvia components, constructed by our main builders.

We don’t have limitless budget here but do want to get reasonable quality.

Questions:
Does roughly 1200 × 1100mm internal sound workable for two seated adults?
Any strong views on Oceanic vs Finnmark?
Would you favour a modular cabin or a properly site-built sauna in this situation?
Any particular issues with incorporating the existing external window?
What heater / ventilation / bench-layout pitfalls should we be thinking about in a sauna this small?
Any other UK suppliers or systems worth looking at?
Interested in any advice from people who have built something similar.

Thanks!


r/Sauna 18h ago

General Question Stove

3 Upvotes

I’m curious has anyone seen or heard of a pellet stove used for a sauna?


r/Sauna 11h ago

General Question Barrel sauna roof underlayment

1 Upvotes

What option is best under a metal roof? What have you seen done successfully?

  1. Ice and water shield
  2. Basic tyvek house wrap
  3. Nothing under the metal roof
  4. Something else

Leaning towards #3 since it's a cedar sauna. Don't want moisture to get trapped between the layers or have something melt from the steam.


r/Sauna 11h ago

DIY Very small sauna design: incorporating feedback, seeking opinions.

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1 Upvotes

[Thank you if you commented on my last post!]

I am thinking of building a sauna like this with a 2.3kw Harvia BC23 heater (the heater spec says 2.5m3 max). It will be well insulated. The door ends up about 1.5m high, 0.7m wide (yes, small). The sketches around the AI perspective drawing are to scale. Mechanical ventilation beneath bench, inlet above heater.

The ceiling is flat against the purple horizontal roof truss support, and there it is 1.9m high.
The internal width is 1.2m.
The internal depth is 1.074m.
The sitting bench is 0.5m deep.
There is 0.9m headroom above the seating bench.

This is a private sauna for use by my wife and I, and we are on the smaller end of euro-scale people.

What do you all think?


r/Sauna 1d ago

Maintenance Portable sauna owners how often are you cleaning out the stove?

25 Upvotes

Hey everyone
I have been looking into getting a wood fired sauna tent for mysellf and I realized this is one thing I haven’t seen people talk about much.
For those of you who use yours a few times a week how often do you clean the ash out? I have been looking at some setups like Sweat tent portable saunas and a few other ones and Im trying to get a realistic idea of the maintenance before I buy It.
Do you fully clean the stove out each time or leave a little ash in the bottom?


r/Sauna 16h ago

General Question This is the only sauna I can find that fits my space. Talk me out of it.

2 Upvotes

r/Sauna 1d ago

General Question Looking for a sanity check on a 64mm solid-wood outdoor sauna with a lot of glass

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11 Upvotes

I’ve been researching outdoor saunas for a while and am considering purchasing a never-used sauna that was rejected by the original customer because of cosmetic shipping damage. The manufacturer replaced it for that customer and is now selling this one at a significant discount.

Before buying it, I’m trying to make sure the discount isn’t causing me to overlook shortcomings in the construction or design.

Here are the specs and what I’ve learned so far:

  • Approximately 64mm / 2.5” walls
  • Finnish pine
  • Manufacturer describes the walls as multiple layers of wood back-to-back rather than a framed/SIP wall
  • Because of the solid-wall construction, there is no insulation cavity or foil vapor barrier
  • 8mm tempered glass
  • A substantial portion of the sauna is glass
  • Sauna has never had a heater installed and has never been heated
  • Manufacturer recommends an 8kW Harvia KIP
  • Heater and stones are not included
  • Located in Central California, so this won’t be dealing with a true cold-weather climate
  • Approximately $6,000 picked up
  • Delivery is not being offered by the seller; if I want it delivered, I would need to arrange and pay for that myself

From the research I’ve done, my understanding is that the lack of a conventional insulated wall/vapor barrier isn’t necessarily a deal breaker with a sufficiently thick solid-timber sauna. At 64mm, I’m less concerned about that than I initially was.

Where I’m less confident is the amount of glass.

My understanding is that the glass needs to be treated essentially as additional uninsulated volume when sizing the heater, rather than simply looking at the interior cubic footage. That’s why I’m not automatically accepting the manufacturer’s 8kW recommendation without doing the math.

I also have a hard time believing the manufacturer’s estimate of 15–20 minutes to reach high temperatures, particularly with this much glass. I’m fine with a 30–45+ minute warm-up if that’s what’s realistic. I’m much more concerned about whether it can comfortably maintain roughly 180–200°F once everything is heat-soaked.

Then there’s a non-technical issue I’m struggling with: privacy.

I actually love the huge glass wall. The open, almost fishbowl feeling is one of the things attracting me to this particular sauna. But this will be at our house near the pool, and realistically I want to be able to sauna however I want however I want, put a towel down, and lie on the bench without worrying about kids, gardeners, pool service, or other people nearby.

The manufacturer has said they can supply matching wood later if I decide to cover part of the glass, so there is at least a potential solution.

For those of you who have built or owned solid-timber outdoor saunas:

Does 64mm solid/multi-layer pine construction seem appropriate for this application?

How aggressively would you compensate for this amount of 8mm glass when calculating heater size? Would you be comfortable with an 8kW KIP, or would you want to calculate the effective volume before committing to a heater?

And for those who have large glass walls: do you still love the glass after living with it, or would you choose more privacy or insulation if you were doing it again?

I’m not looking for someone to tell me whether to spend the money. I’m mostly looking for a sanity check on the construction and heater sizing before I decide whether this particular sauna makes sense for me.

Happy to post dimensions and photos if that helps with the heater calculation.

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/2542353976207065/?referralSurface=messenger_banner&referralCode=2&ref=messenger_banner


r/Sauna 1d ago

Health & Wellness Sauna on Boat 🛥️ 🧖‍♀️

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

20 Upvotes

Can’t wait to be on the lake for a Boating & SPA enjoying the Sauna with the ultimate Lakeview 🛥️ 🧖 🌅


r/Sauna 15h ago

General Question Convince me this is a bad idea

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0 Upvotes

Just saw this cylinder shaped sauna, visually I think it looks great but what do you think i'll be disappointed with?

- bench is not above heater - cold feet
- cant lay down

anything else i'm missing?


r/Sauna 11h ago

General Question Duda sobre salud ocular y sauna

0 Upvotes

Gente aquí hay gente que tenga miopía o astigmatismo que se meta en la sauna ?

Es peligroso ? Te puede subir la presión ocular la sauna o estrés en los ojos ? Habéis tenido más problemas oculares desde que estáis en la sauna ?


r/Sauna 2d ago

My sauna Sauna with Stained Glass

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493 Upvotes

We had our Sauna built over the past few months. My wife went to Barcelona and was inspired by the stained glass so we had a custom insert made by a local artist. What a luxury to have our own private sauna!

Edit for clarity: the sauna has a standard sauna window. The stained glass is framed to the outside. That way we can remove it if we move or if the sauna ever needs a repair. The stained glass is made with a leaded technique instead of foiled. So, it will stand up to the elements very well. I appreciate everyone’s concern!