Reader-supported guides

Choose a home sauna in the right order

Pick the kind of heat, where it can go, and how you will power it. The model is the last decision, not the first.

Steam is cooler and much wetter. Infrared and Finnish saunas are dry heat at different temperatures.

Before you buy

Heat, place, then the circuit. The model comes last.

Traditional, infrared, outdoor or portable. Heat type, place and circuit, in that order.

Six questions on space, heat, group size and wiring, matched to the models that fit.

Electric, wood-burning or infrared panels, and how to size a heater to the room.

Barrel, cabin, infrared and blanket. Same word, four different rooms.

Barrel, cabin or cube, the base under it, and the circuit run from the house.

Why the round shape heats well, which wood to pick, and the upkeep the staves need.

Lower air temperature and radiant heat, with different wiring. Which feel fits how you will use it.

What a heated wrap does and does not do compared with a cabin, and what to check before buying.

Temperature and humidity, once the room is chosen.

Typical temperatures for Finnish, infrared and steam, and why humidity changes how hot it feels.

Wet heat or dry heat: temperature, humidity and what each one needs at home.