Sauna FAQ
Straight answers about buying, installing and living with a home sauna. Written by people who spend all day on this, not scraped from manufacturer brochures. If your question is not here, call (424) 235-1861 or email hello@radiantsaunahq.com and we will answer it honestly, including when the honest answer is "don't buy this."
Choosing between infrared and traditional
What is the difference between an infrared sauna and a traditional sauna?
A traditional sauna heats the air. A heater full of stones brings the room to roughly 160°F to 195°F, and you pour water on the stones to create steam. An infrared sauna heats you rather than the room. Panels emit infrared energy that your body absorbs directly, so the air stays around 120°F to 150°F while you still sweat heavily.
The practical difference: traditional is hotter, more intense, and lets you control humidity. Infrared is gentler, cheaper to run, needs a smaller electrical circuit, and heats up in 15 minutes instead of 40. Neither is better. They are different experiences, and people who love one often dislike the other.
Which one should I buy?
Choose infrared if you want daily 30 to 45 minute sessions, you have a standard household circuit, you are working around joint pain or heat sensitivity, or the sauna is going in a spare room or garage. Choose traditional if you grew up around saunas, you want steam, you want the room hot enough that 20 minutes is enough, or the social ritual matters more than the routine.
If you cannot decide, take our sauna finder quiz. It asks seven questions and gives a straight recommendation.
What is full-spectrum infrared, and is it worth paying for?
Infrared is split into near, mid and far wavelengths. Far infrared is what almost every infrared sauna uses and is what produces the deep sweat. Near infrared is shorter wavelength, penetrates less deeply, and is what red light therapy claims are built on. Full spectrum means the cabin has emitters for all three, usually on separate controls.
Worth paying for if you will actually use the near infrared programs. If you just want to sweat, far infrared alone does that job, and the money is better spent on better wood and a bigger cabin.
What does low EMF actually mean?
Electromagnetic field readings from the heating panels. Every electrical device produces some. Quality infrared manufacturers publish measured readings in milligauss taken at the seat position, not at the panel face. Ask for the number and where it was measured. A brand that will not tell you either is telling you something.
Sizing and heater output
What size sauna do I need?
Count the people who will realistically use it at once, then add one seat. A two-person cabin fits two people who like each other. A four-person is the common household choice and gives one person room to lie down. Six-person rooms are for entertaining, and they cost more to run every single session whether two people are in there or six.
The mistake we see most is buying one size too small to save money, then replacing it in two years.
How do I size the heater for a traditional sauna?
The working rule is 1 kW of heater output per 45 to 50 cubic feet of room volume. Multiply length by width by height in feet, then divide.
A 6' x 5' room with a 7' ceiling is 210 cubic feet, so roughly a 4.5 kW heater. Round up, never down. Then add capacity for anything that steals heat: an uninsulated exterior wall, a large glass door, or exposed stone or tile inside the room. Each of those can add 15 to 20 percent. An undersized heater never reaches temperature and runs constantly trying.
Why is the top bench so much hotter than the bottom?
Hot air rises, and in a traditional sauna the gap between the upper and lower bench is commonly 30°F or more. This is a design feature, not a fault. It lets two people share a room at two different intensities, and it lets you start low and move up.
It becomes a problem when the room is badly proportioned or the heater is undersized: your head cooks while your feet stay cold, and people quietly stop using the sauna. Tiered benching and a correctly sized heater are what prevent it. Some manufacturers, Saunum among them, build air circulation specifically to narrow that gap.
Electrical and power
Can I plug a sauna into a normal outlet?
Small infrared cabins, usually one and two person, run on 120V and a dedicated 15A or 20A circuit. Dedicated matters. Sharing the circuit with a fridge or a space heater will trip the breaker.
Everything larger needs 240V. A four-person infrared suite typically wants 240V at 30A. A traditional room with a 6 kW heater wants 240V at 40A. An 8 kW outdoor cabin wants 240V at 50A. Those are hardwired circuits, and they need an electrician.
How much does it cost to run?
Multiply the heater kilowatts by the hours used by your electricity rate. At California's roughly $0.30 per kWh, a 1.7 kW infrared cabin used 45 minutes a day is about $0.38 per session, so around $11 a month. A 6 kW traditional room run 90 minutes including preheat is about $2.70 per session.
Traditional saunas cost meaningfully more to run. That is the trade for the heat and the steam.
Does an outdoor sauna need special wiring?
Yes. Outdoor circuits need GFCI protection and the run must be in conduit or rated direct-burial cable, to code and inspected. Budget $800 to $2,500 for the electrical on an outdoor unit depending on the distance from your panel. Get that quote before you buy the sauna, not after it arrives on a pallet.
Site prep and installation
What does an outdoor sauna sit on?
A level, load-rated surface. A loaded barrel or cabin sauna with people inside commonly exceeds 2,000 lbs. Acceptable foundations are a compacted gravel pad, concrete pavers on a prepared base, a concrete slab, or a deck a structural engineer has confirmed will take the load. Grass, bare dirt and an ordinary residential deck are not acceptable.
Level matters more than people expect. An out-of-level barrel will not seal at the door, and that is a permanent heat leak.
Do I need a permit?
It depends on your city, and you should ask before ordering rather than after. Electrical work almost always needs a permit. A wood-burning stove needs one nearly everywhere because of the chimney and clearance requirements. A freestanding outdoor structure may need one depending on size and setback rules. In Los Angeles County, call your local building department with the footprint and the electrical load and they will tell you in one phone call.
How long does assembly take?
Most infrared cabins are tool-free clip-together panels and go up in 60 to 90 minutes with two people. Precut traditional rooms take a day. Outdoor barrels and cabins take a day or two and genuinely need two or three people, because the staves and the roof are heavy and awkward.
You are not paying for skill, you are paying for a second pair of hands. Plan for help before the truck comes.
Does an indoor sauna need ventilation?
A traditional room does. It needs an intake near the heater and an adjustable outlet on the opposite wall, high up. Without it the room feels stale, the wood stays wet, and the heater struggles. Infrared cabins are generally freestanding with their own vents and need no building work, but they still should not be sealed into a closet with no air movement.
Delivery and freight
How does a sauna get delivered?
By LTL freight on a pallet, not by a parcel carrier. The freight company calls you to book a delivery appointment. Someone 18 or older has to be there to sign. Standard service is curbside, which means the pallet is lowered at the end of your driveway and getting it from there to the back garden is your problem. A loaded pallet often exceeds 500 lbs.
Liftgate service is required unless you have a loading dock. Narrow streets, steep driveways and low branches should be flagged before you order, not on delivery day.
What do I do when the truck arrives?
Inspect before you sign. Walk all four sides of the pallet, photograph it while the driver is still there, and write any damage on the delivery receipt before signing. Signing a clean receipt is a legal statement that the shipment arrived undamaged, and carriers routinely deny claims filed afterwards. Five minutes here can be the difference between a replaced panel and a $6,000 argument.
What if I find damage after unpacking?
Concealed damage. Tell us within 5 business days of delivery with photographs of the damage and the packaging. We file the carrier claim. Keep the packaging until the claim resolves, because carriers can ask to inspect it.
How long does delivery take?
It depends entirely on the brand. Stocked models from a US warehouse commonly ship in 10 to 14 days. Made-to-order rooms from European manufacturers run 4 to 12 weeks. We tell you which one you are buying before you pay, and we would rather lose the sale than quote you a date we cannot hold.
Cost and ownership
What should a good home sauna cost?
Broadly, in 2026: two-person indoor infrared $3,500 to $7,000. Four-person indoor infrared $6,500 to $10,000. Traditional indoor room $6,000 to $12,000. Outdoor barrel $7,000 to $12,000. Outdoor cabin $10,000 to $20,000 and up.
Below about $2,500 you are buying thin veneer, cheap emitters and no support. Those units exist and people do buy them. They are also why a lot of garages contain a sauna nobody uses.
What is the real total, including everything?
Take the sauna price and add the electrical, which is $400 to $900 indoors and $800 to $2,500 outdoors. Add the foundation for an outdoor unit, $500 to $2,000. Add liftgate and any inside delivery. Add help moving the pallet. Budgeting only the sticker price is the most common way this goes wrong.
Which wood should I choose?
Western red cedar is the standard for a reason: naturally rot resistant, stable through wet and dry cycles, low heat conduction so the benches do not burn you, and it smells like a sauna. Hemlock is cheaper, paler, almost odourless, and a sensible choice for someone sensitive to cedar's scent. Thermally modified spruce or aspen has had the sugars that feed rot cooked out of it, which makes it very stable and a strong choice for high-humidity traditional rooms. Nordic spruce is the traditional Finnish interior.
How long does a sauna last?
A quality cedar cabin, kept dry between uses and out of standing water, will last 15 to 20 years and longer. Heating elements are the wear item. Traditional heater elements typically last 8 to 12 years and are replaceable. Infrared carbon panels are usually rated 10 years or more. Ask what the warranty covers on the heater specifically, because that is the part that fails.
Using it
How often should I use a sauna?
Most regular users go three to five times a week for 15 to 30 minutes. Sessions matter less than consistency, which is exactly why people who buy too small a cabin, or put it somewhere inconvenient, stop going.
Who should not use a sauna?
Talk to a doctor first if you are pregnant, have heart disease, low or unstable blood pressure, or take medication that affects heat regulation or blood pressure. Never use a sauna after drinking alcohol. This is general information and not medical advice, and we are a retailer, not a clinic.
Can I really pay with HSA or FSA funds?
Sometimes. With a Letter of Medical Necessity from a licensed provider, a sauna can qualify as an eligible medical expense, and services like TrueMed exist to handle that process. It depends on your plan and your provider's willingness to write the letter. Ask us and we will tell you exactly where we stand on this rather than implying it is automatic.
Buying from us
Are you an authorized dealer?
We are completing authorized dealer agreements now, and several of the listings on this site are marked as representative rather than orderable while that finishes. We say so on the product pages themselves. When you can order something, the page will say so plainly, and when you cannot, it will say that too.
Why should I buy from a specialist instead of a marketplace?
Because a marketplace will sell you a 6 kW heater for a room that needs 8 kW and neither of you will find out until it is installed. We size the room, check your electrical, flag the permit question, and tell you when the answer is that you should buy a smaller unit or none at all. On a $6,000 freight-delivered product that is worth more than a coupon code.
How do I reach a human?
Call (424) 235-1861 or email hello@radiantsaunahq.com. We are in Carson, California, Pacific time.