A lot of people wonder if they should build a custom sauna or just buy a high-quality one from a trusted brand. After testing more than 40 different saunas over the years, I’ve learned where the money is best spent if you’re looking for a “forever setup” that actually benefits your health long term.
Dropping $20K or $30K on a custom sauna might sound impressive, but it might not be the smartest investment. A well-built sauna from a top brand like Radiant Health or Heavenly Heat gives you everything you need — and then the rest of your budget can go into things like red light therapy, rebounders, vibration plates, and even a proper home fitness setup.
The goal isn’t just to own the biggest sauna, it’s to get the most benefit for your body over the years to come. In this video, I’ll walk you through what I’d do with a big sauna budget, and how you can set yourself up to get way more out of it than just heat therapy.
Transcript
Aaron A
If there was no worry about budget and you had an unlimited budget to buy a sauna, what are you doing with that money? Are you building out a custom sauna? Would you buy a radiant health? Would you buy a heavenly heat? Would you buy a different brand? If budget was not an issue and you could do whatever you needed and you were trying to get your forever sauna that you never wanted to get rid of.
Matt Justice
You’re basically saying they have an unlimited budget?
Aaron A
They want to build out or they want to buy a sauna and build it into their home. They’re not going to move. They’d like to stay in the home forever. And they basically want to get one and never have to do it again.
Matt Justice
I think I get what you’re getting at. Do you get some like MacDatis sauna or the money is probably better spent doing a wellness studio instead of spending it all just on a sauna?
Aaron A
Let’s do one with your house in Florida. And then let’s do one with the house in Maine. And we’ll kind of split it up between two climates. Yeah, that’s perfect.
Matt Justice
So my mind immediately goes to the usage. So like, do you want it outside? Do you want it inside? Do you have space to do a wellness studio? I would buy one of the best far infrared saunas that money can buy. Something that’s big, so it’s super comfortable. Probably Radiant Health E2 .5E3H. I would also throw a heavenly heat combo unit in there that has the infrared and traditional. You could do an outdoor version of that or you could do an indoor version of that. So that hits both criteria. And we’re not really worried about price. So the idea that you have to trench a 220 line out to a concrete pad that has to get poured, you know, to put the sauna on and make a walkway and do all this stuff, all that’s okay? Because, I mean, that’s going to be expensive.
Aaron A
I think that for this one, they particularly wanted it inside. But if the budget’s not an issue, I mean, I see no issue with it being a combo unit outside. I think that’d be actually great. If you were choosing and budget wasn’t an issue, what would you choose between
Matt Justice
the two of those? Well, it comes down to the person, right? like I love it outside because I like being in nature. But sometimes regardless of, you know, price and, you know, niceties, it’s nicer to be inside because you’re not dependent on what the weather is like. So one of the best things that somebody could do is just build a basement gym. And, you know, put a high-end sauna in there, get your rebounder, your vibe plate, get separate red light therapy. If budget is no option, you should have, you know, ample space to, you know, have a red light therapy center. And you’ll want to incorporate that when you do your cardio or your pre-sana routine. I mean, this is very different than somebody just wanted to spend $2,000 for, you know, a sauna to stick in their apartment. If you have the money to spend, you can get a better setup that’s going to suit you in multiple facets all in one space. And that’s probably what you should do. Rather than just blowing it on some fancy sauna. I mean, you can build a custom one too. But even that is only going to do so much for you. You’d be better off to incorporate well-rounded wellness space for yourself.
Aaron A
That does seem like an actually a better option now that you mention it, because there’s a lot more that she could get. I know she was just asking about, you know, building out a forever sauna or buying a forever sauna, but I agree with you. I think that there’s a lot more value in kind of splitting up those funds and other things. So if you were going to do this in Maine, what’s the sauna you’d choose and how would you set up that room that you were talking about.
Matt Justice
And
Aaron A
then let’s do one for Florida, so people in both climates kind of have their answer because I don’t know where this lady’s located.
Matt Justice
Well, you’re going to see this in real time. I mean, we’re actively doing what I’m saying in Maine. There will be a basement gym here. You will see a fitness or wellness studio, a complete buildout with sauna, workout equipment, everything else. But specifically centered around sauna, it has to do with the way that you use it in the way that you prime your body. So in mine downstairs, there will be a rower, probably a concept two. There’s probably going to be an assault bike, some type of hit. And you’ll combine that pre-s sauna with either rebounder or vibration plate or both. And then there’ll be red light therapy mounted on the ceiling and vertically on the wall so that you can do red light therapy while you’re doing other things. And inside the fitness center or the basement gym, you also have a large sauna where multiple people can use it. Or you can do some yoga or stretching or whatever else you want to do that goes with your fitness routine all together in the same space. There probably be some weight equipment down there too. The only reason for that is just because I’m not motivated to work out if it’s 20 below zero. I would love to have outdoor sauna also. I’d rather be outside for my sauna sessions personally. You can look through the windows, you know, at the snow, the landscape. we can feed the deer, do all kinds of stuff. But there are times where it’s just not practical. If given the opportunity, I’ll probably do both. But the like steadfast fallback option always will be the basement gym. Because no matter what time of day it is, if it’s dark out, what the climate’s like, if you don’t feel well, all this stuff, you can always just run downstairs and, you know, get a session in. For something like that, I would pick a Radiant Health E3H, which is a pretty big sauna. I mean, it’s 6B. Y, 4 feet deep. It’s nice. Runs on 20 amp 120. It’d be relatively easy to install if you have access to running electrical, you know, not too far from the panel. Great heater coverage. I’d also look at a heavenly heat. You could look at a red light therapy model, but for me, I’m going to have more red light therapy than you would find in one of those. and it’ll be mounted strategically to combine it with another therapy that’s not sauna. So that wouldn’t be high on my list for me personally. But I would look at one of their other models. You could also include the combo hybrid where it’s infrared and traditional. That would be something I would look at. I would definitely look at that. That would be cool down in the basement. Yeah, I would definitely look at that if you’re going to put it outside. Or where, if you have an unheated basement, I would definitely look at one of those. Mine will be heated. So I’m not really worried about temperature concerns too much. But if it’s too cold down there, like if it’s in the 50s, it can take forever for the thing to heat up. So a combo unit would give you the high, the quick high hitting heat convection of the traditional sauna heater plus, you know, the benefits of the infrared so you could get both. As far as price, I mean, we’re not talking about just a couple grand, you know, to get a sauna and have a wellness routine. This is going to be, I mean, you’re going to spend 20, 30 grand. Five to 10 on a sauna. You’re going to have, I mean, just a concept. two rowers almost a thousand bucks. A salt bike rower combo from Rogue Fitness is if it’s on sale, it’s like $16,700 bucks. So every time you put a squat rack down there, you put some adjustable dumbbells, you get a vibration plate rebounder, do your red light therapy panels, multiple of them. You know you’re easily at $15, $16, $17,000, there’s probably going to be some other stuff. Depends on what you what you want. Most people put a cold plunge. I think I’ll just go outside for the cold plunge. Yeah. It’ll be cold enough. One of the other things that I’m looking at for me personally is a float tank
Aaron A
for recovery,
Matt Justice
not only just for like meditation, but also for re-uping magnesium stores through transdermal. So if you do that once a week for a little while, great benefit to the body. I’d much rather have one of those probably than a flow tank or both. If unlimited budget was truly the situation, you don’t have to be buying all this stuff. But if you’re going to do it, I mean, obviously I’d probably put in water filtration system too, not just for the stuff in the basement, but for the whole house. You’re doing all these things to try to make your life healthier, get fitter. And then you put fluoridated, chlorinated water in your system and then you take showers with it. So why not spend $2,000, but a whole house filtration system in at the same time? Might want to look at something like a portable H-Bot chamber. Also might want to take a look at, you know, there’s a lot of complementary therapies that would be great if you had a home wellness studio or, you know, a home gym.
Aaron A
To build out a custom sauna of a decent size, like something that would be, you know, big enough for multiple people, you’re probably going to spend about that for just the sauna, right?
Matt Justice
It depends on what you want, but I mean, you build a custom sauna. You’re looking at 15 to start, basically. Unless you’re talking about doing the work yourself, but most people, most people that do that build their own version of a custom sauna. So if you’re looking to buy like a heater and electronics kit and then have a contractor builds you out a room, I mean, you’re going to spend 25 grand.
Aaron A
You’re saying it might be more effectively spent in buying a really good sauna from a company and then adding all of those things and you’re around the same price as if you were to build out a custom sauna.
Matt Justice
Well, you just get, you have the opportunity to get multifaceted health improvements instead of just one category. So if you’re a person that has some type of chronic pain and you want to lay like in a horizontal, you know, relax the back chair style position and you want somebody to build you a custom seat and bench and size sauna where you can walk in it and have a changing room and do all this stuff, you know, who’s to say that you shouldn’t have that? but at the end of the day, regardless of what money you spend, you’re only improving your health in that one category of heat therapy. So, yeah, if you could take the same money and get a sauna that works just as good, maybe it doesn’t have those features that I described. But you could also, you know, get multifaceted health benefit, like I was saying. You get heat therapy benefits. You get red light therapy benefits. You get vibration plate benefits. You get exercise benefits. You could do hit routines combined with, you know, heat therapy, red light therapy. Now you’re going to get compounding, you know, results. And it’s not so much that the money really matters. It’s that the benefit per dollar that you’re spending because of the ease of use availability to you. Like you’re not driving to a gym to do each one of these things. You just go downstairs into your home wellness space and you go bang, boom. And a couple times a week, you can implement all these things. So over the course of three to five years, 10 years, if you were able to implement that schedule, your body is going to receive a benefit in each one of those categories that extra polates out versus you just having a badass custom sauna and you’re getting heat therapy benefits for the next decade. So I look at it a little differently than most people. It’s not so much about the money. It’s what are you making available to your body and what can you do with it?
Aaron A
Would that setup change at all if you were in Florida?
Matt Justice
Yeah, I mean, you wouldn’t get certain equipment. Some of your staples will stay the same. The sauna, red light therapy, rebounder vibration, some of your hit stuff would be the same. But if you’re not in a, see, what happens in a cold environment is a lot of times, if you have an unpleasant day, you won’t do your routine if it involves being outside, like in the middle of a snowstorm. Right? That’s what happens up here. So I would buy or invest in equipment that preemptively helps me because I know those times are coming. I know those days are coming. Whereas in Florida, I would spend money on other stuff because we don’t have that issue. I mean, year-round, you can go out for a walk, a jog, you could do an outside workout. You could stick us on outside and not worry about how cold it is. The damn things, I mean, if it’s 100 degrees in the summertime, where’s the day that it’s not going to heat up well? Yeah. Like it just doesn’t exist, right? So I would be more apt to still I would just reallocate my budget toward other things that that make the environment or the usability more suitable for the climate. I mean, you could take a simple example as like walking or jogging or some form of hit, some form of cardio. You know, I might spend $3,500 up here to get a treadmill that has low impact so that my joints don’t hurt doesn’t feel like I’m walking on concrete. Whereas in Florida, I’d probably buy a coal plunge instead. and I wouldn’t get the treadmill because, you know, damn near year round, you can go outside and do anything you want. You’re not getting the same options per dollar, you know, in different climates. That’s how I see it.