Best Hybrid Sauna? Heavenly Heat Combo Infrared + Traditional Sauna (First Impressions)

This is one of the first true hybrid saunas I’ve tested — a combo unit from Heavenly Heat with both infrared heaters and a traditional rock heater. For anyone wondering if a hybrid sauna makes sense, especially in cold climates or basements, this video breaks down the build quality, heater layout, venting design, and what makes this sauna different from the rest. If you’re stuck between traditional and infrared, this might be the answer.

Read the transcript >

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Transcript

Do we have a traditional sauna heater inside an infrared sauna? Obviously, I don’t have it completely installed. Forgot to run a 240 separate line for the traditional sauna heater, but this is a combo unit from Heavenly Heat. For everybody that’s asked about having a sauna in a cold basement, having an infrared sauna in the north where it’s 20 below zero sometimes like it is here, I’m not suggesting let the thing get iced over and completely wrecked out in the elements, but what I am saying is having a combo unit sometimes gives you multiple options for power on tap to really not suffer in the preheat time category like you would with just one or the other.

You also get the benefit of the infrared. For those folks who this is a good fit for, the build quality is awesome. This is bigger than the other models that we have. I haven’t actually gotten to try it out yet with both therapies.

I got to run the electrical for the traditional sauna heater. Technically, it’s a two-person model, but I can tell sitting on the bench here, if you put one other person in here, you’re going to be really close to the heater. I would imagine that they’re going to adjust the sizing on the actual cabinetry for this to accommodate a better heater location, but for those of you who have been asking what I think about the combo or hybrid, a lot of people call these hybrids because you have infrared heaters and you have traditional sauna rock heater, which is dry electric.

Supposedly, you are supposed to be able to have some moisture, some lolly incorporated into this, but not a ton. Obviously, you don’t want to saturate the electrical components in so much humidity that it causes electrical issues. For me personally, I’ll probably just use it dry. I probably won’t splash any water on the rocks or anything.

The other cool thing is they do have this sauna vented in the appropriate locations. It’s not just vented on the ceiling like most infrared saunas. For those that are looking for lower VOC levels.

lower CO2 levels because CO2 increases as you breathe in the sauna and some people are aware of this most of us weren’t before getting into the sauna space. The trouble is that half the camp believes that high CO2 in a confined environment for short durations of time is actually beneficial for you and the other half thinks that it’s not and I kind of think about this kind of like I think of a breath trainer or an athletic training mask that teaches you to breathe at altitude where there’s breathing restriction involved so that you can kind of circumvent or train the system just like you train a muscle in the gym.

Now I’m not sure which side of this camp that I’m on yet it would be nice to have 100% oxygen available at all times especially when trying to do detox protocols and things like that but I’m not so dogmatic in my ways to think that maybe there is some benefit to short-term high CO2 in that regard of training your breathing but I thought I would point out that these saunas come with a different style of venting than most other infrared saunas and I think the CO2 crowd will really like that.

Let’s talk about heater layout because on the left side you have a sidewall heater front and back on the right side you don’t have sidewall heater front but you have traditional sauna heater you know on the floor. Now there’s gonna be a little difference if you run this just infrared because you don’t have infrared over here now obviously because the traditional sauna heater is here you wouldn’t be able to sit right up against that wall anyway but you are gonna have a discrepancy where your infrared heater layout is gonna differ from left to right so if you’re one of those folks that likes to do infrared or traditional and not run them simultaneously keep that in mind.

That said one of the things that I like about the way Heavenly Heat designs these is that you can run the traditional and the infrared systems together. Other hybrid saunas on the market or combo saunas whatever you’d like to call them they usually make you select infrared or traditional.

I’m not a person that really…

digs that, the only reason that I would want a combo unit to start with is to be able to run both and get the benefits of the high heat from the traditional and the infrared saturation from the far infrared system at the same time. So for those of you who want the best of both worlds, I myself started with traditional saunas and I’ve gravitated more and more toward infrared over the years.

But for those that want both or can’t decide between infrared and traditional, this is a fantastic option for you to take a look at. We’ll put links down below in the description. If you want to check those out, check the Facebook group, there’s 30,000 of us in there. A lot of helpful, useful information.

And as you’ve seen in other Heavenly Heat review videos, this sauna is no different. Great build quality, great quality heaters on the far infrared, same awesome control panel, same wall construction, really, really durable, heavy duty, built like a tank compared to other things in the industry. And I think this will really be a hit for a lot of you guys.

And I’m interested to see how the roof performs. One of the things that I like about Heavenly Heat is they’re constantly innovating and they’re taking customer feedback and making better products. And this is the epitome of that. One of the complaints that I’ve had for any outdoor sauna over the years is typically the construction of them is a little under par from where I’m going to be using it.

I’m in the North in Northern Maine and the winters here are brutal. We’re talking below zero for multiple days in a row. A lot of ice hanging off the drip edge. Most outdoor saunas that you find on Amazon and elsewhere are really indoor saunas repurposed with some kind of Lexan roof or something that’s crap.

They don’t really come with drip edge. They don’t really come with a true weatherproof roof. You see this in the reviews, even the Costco sauna reviews. If you look at the outdoor barrel saunas that you get from Costco, I don’t know if they’re almost Heaven brand or something else, but essentially if you leave those in the cold.

the wood shrinks a little. They’re tongue-and-groove panels. You can see all the reviews from customers complaining that it rains through the middle of the sauna or you get moisture through the middle of the sauna. So you basically have to come up with your own supplemental roof structure for even a traditional barrel sauna, you know, that’s not $20,000, that’s like a cabin style with a changing room and all that.

They’re real fancy ones. Those come with either an asphalt roof or a metal roof. So I’m really excited to see what the Heavenly Heat team has in store for the actual roof because a lot of that determines the longevity of the sauna. And the majority of the time, most of these saunas aren’t built with enough overhang or enough weatherproofing to really stand the test of time.

So when I see something that has an actual weatherproof roof, like a metal roof or a shingle roof, something that’s asphalt or tin, I get really excited because I think that’s a step in the right direction and they never once have mentioned, like other companies, oh we’ll sell you an outdoor sauna but you got to put a cover on it in order for us to warranty it, which is ridiculous.

I mean you spend $10,000 for an outdoor unit, it looks beautiful next to your pool in the backyard or in this case, like by the deer feeder out by the woods, and then we have to put a cover on it? Like it looks like crap, it’s trashy, it’s kind of like cheap.

Just build an outdoor sauna and I think these guys are coming out with continually better and better products. So I’m really excited to see how that performs. If you guys have any questions or you want to talk outdoor saunas, especially infrared or dual therapy combo, you know we’ll have more videos on this.

Let me know in the comments if you have a video suggestion or you want to do a live Q&A. Check out the other videos from this brand and others on the channel and we’ll see you in tomorrow’s video.