Sauna recommendations

[mustangcy]

Thinking pretty hard about get a sauna for the house (inside) here soon. Looking through the options the price ranges depending on several factors but I really want one that will get hot enough to actually see benefits. There is the question of infrared or traditional? 110V or 240V? If you go 240 did you get an electrician to come in?

Any sauna people out there that can shed some light?

 

[Nader_uggghhh]

I don't know a lot but I'd go traditional 240V. You probably won't like infrared if you're worried about it getting hot enough. Height could be an issue indoors both for bench height and loyly. Tough to build to traditional standards with 8' ceilings.

 

[somecyguy]

I own an electrical company and install new circuits for them frequently. Here is a recent option I gave for a client installing a traditional one. There are some infrared ones that claim to work on a standard 15 or 20amp 120 circuit, but I have no experience with them.

Installation of 240v circuit for a new sauna 4.5 - 6.5kW will require a 30amp circuit and 10/3 wire
Installation of 240v circuit for a new sauna 7 - 9kW will require a 50amp circuit and 8/3 wire

 

[AgronAlum]

I don't know anything about saunas but IR heat is going to be drastically different than a traditional sauna. IR heats objects, not the air, so it will be heating your body directly instead of heating the air around you. That being said, traditional saunas are going to have moisture to deal with that IRs don't have. I imagine they are more expensive and have a lot more placement concerns because of that.

 

[psycln11]

Come to my office.... The A/C compressor went out last week and it feels like a sauna today!!

 

[nfrine]

Join the YMCA. Less maintenance in the long run.

 

[BCClone]

Thinking pretty hard about get a sauna for the house (inside) here soon. Looking through the options the price ranges depending on several factors but I really want one that will get hot enough to actually see benefits. There is the question of infrared or traditional? 110V or 240V? If you go 240 did you get an electrician to come in?

Any sauna people out there that can shed some light?

You can wire 240 if you aren’t totally clueless.

 

[ChiClone17]

I did a ton of research on this about six months ago, and ended up not installing one. I would recommend reading up on this on Reddit, as there are a lot of knowledgeable people on the topic. Basically, after all the research, I was certain I wanted a traditional sauna over infrared. I did substantially more research, and found there are very specific dimensions, sizes, materials, and designs that you should work off of to get the full experience and benefit, and there just wasn’t enough room in our utility room in the basement to do it right. I thought about buying an outdoor one or putting one in the third stall of the garage, but decided against it. But, if we ever move, putting a traditional sauna in our next house is at the very top of my list. For now, I will settle for using the sauna at the gym, but not nearly enough.

Excited to follow this thread and see what you decide to do!

 

[mustangcy]

I did a ton of research on this about six months ago, and ended up not installing one. I would recommend reading up on this on Reddit, as there are a lot of knowledgeable people on the topic. Basically, after all the research, I was certain I wanted a traditional sauna over infrared. I did substantially more research, and found there are very specific dimensions, sizes, materials, and designs that you should work off of to get the full experience and benefit, and there just wasn’t enough room in our utility room in the basement to do it right. I thought about buying an outdoor one or putting one in the third stall of the garage, but decided against it. But, if we ever move, putting a traditional sauna in our next house is at the very top of my list. For now, I will settle for using the sauna at the gym, but not nearly enough.

Excited to follow this thread and see what you decide to do!

I'm with you that traditional seems the way to go over infrared but man...it's going to me next to impossible to do traditional. First off, I'm not looking to spend 5k or whatever on it. I read too that the infrared sauna's don't really get up to the 170 plus you need for some of the benefits but I'm still thinking getting to 150-ish that some of the infrared sauna's can reach it sufficient.

But I'm still looking and reading so no decision is final yet.