I Wasted Money on Saunas That Were a Scam (So You Don’t)

When I first got into saunas, I had no idea how much of the industry was built on marketing lies, half-truths, and gimmicks. I wasted money on saunas that didn’t work, lost years I could have been healing, and had to learn the hard way which claims were real and which were complete nonsense. That frustration is exactly why I started this channel.

In this video I’m breaking down the biggest misleading claims, design flaws, and shady practices in the sauna world—things I personally fell for so you don’t have to. From fake temperature promises, to “two-person” saunas that barely fit one, to gimmicky red light add-ons, to no-name brands that disappear when something breaks… I’ve seen it all.

This is the stuff I wish someone had told me years ago. My goal is to save you the wasted time, money, and frustration so you can actually get the benefits of sauna therapy without the headaches.

Read the transcript >

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Transcript

Aaron A
So through the years of you making hundreds of videos on YouTube, getting to interact with the SANA industry, there’s a theme that keeps popping up over and over again, which is either misleading, misinformation, or just flat out lying in a lot of SOMA claims. So it seems like there are brands that stand out that are very transparent and honest about their products. But as an industry, I don’t want to say an industry-wide standard, but pretty much an industry norm, there’s a ton of misinformation in the Sona industry. And I think that that was the motivation behind you starting this channel, which was this was so frustrating for me to get into. I don’t want anyone else to have to deal with this. If I ever figure this out, like, I’m going to do this better. So leading off of that, can you talk a little bit about some of the biggest misconceptions or the biggest misleading sonic claims in the industry?

Matt Justice
Yeah, I mean, you’d have to go back to my videos from 2017 or so in order to, you know, get the real feel of that. but I would buy stuff that people would recommend, and then it turned out not to be, you know, what they said it was. So I started getting really pissed off. I really didn’t want to make, like I never wanted to be the sonic guy. I wanted to make business content because that’s what I was passionate about. But after six months of struggling, you know, with my health, chronic fatigue, you know, not being able to really work, the only stuff that I could really share was this kind of health stuff. And I thought, well, if this is all I can do right now just for myself, maybe I might as well share this and maybe you can help somebody else because I keep buying things and it’s not, it’s nowhere close to what they said.

Aaron A
I mean, that’s a frustrating position and there’s probably a ton of people out there that have gotten benefit from the channel that are in that exact same position. You’re not, you probably weren’t alone in that and there were other people struggling with very similar issues and struggling with the fact that they couldn’t find good information on how to fix these issues. What were some misleading things that as you started pulling back the layers of the industry you saw at first and then what are some misconceptions about the industry now well

Matt Justice
largely they’re similar um you know through my content and a few other people it’s not as wide spread as it used to be but to start with everyone thinks it’s the EMF thing but that didn’t come until later uh the first things were like temperature claims and heat up times you know i was buying these saunas where they said you could get a great detox and that’s what my functional medicine doctor you know was telling me that i needed and i didn’t really believe in in sauna. I’d use them before, but it wasn’t like some life-changing thing yet. It would be a couple of more years before I would figure all this out and then actually get the real benefit. So I feel like the greatest deception, like the most harmful thing from it, really isn’t the money that you lose. It’s those couple of years that I could have been getting improvement or had a better life. Yeah. And instead, I kind of struggled through it. So the first thing, I bought a couple, I bought one sauna with credit card points because I was a little unsure. I didn’t know it at the time, but this is why I talk about heater layout so much. It only had heaters on the back wall. There was no heaters on the side walls, no heaters in the floor, no heaters in the front, nothing hardly under the bench. So basically, you had this temperature difference in the damn thing where your back was on fire and then your front was completely cold. And these are one -to-one -person saunas. It’s not like you can just turn around. So I realized pretty quickly that the advertised benefits, I wasn’t getting on my whole body. And there really was no way to, you know, do that. Yet they said, you know, it was amazing and reached this temperature and da-da-da-da. But it’s kind of like the design of it was flawed from the get-go. And I bought into it hook-line and sinker. So now what do I do? The only thing I could do is get rid of it and get something else.

Aaron A
there’s someone out there that’s in the same boat as you were at that time, where they bought a sauna,

Matt Justice
it

Aaron A
has, let’s just use the inadequate heat coverage or the improper heat coverage. They got it and they’re using it and they’re like, I don’t really feel like I’m getting any benefit from that. What were like the signs for you that you were like, hey, this isn’t seem right? And also what was the next course of action for you? Because, I mean, you have different sonnas now. So something did change, you know?

Matt Justice
Yeah. So I kind of had a little bit of a head up for. an advantage in this situation because I was paying to see a functional medicine doctor. And so I was specifically buying these things to do whatever detox program she had me on at the time. And really quickly, I could tell that it wasn’t going to work for the effectiveness level that she was saying that I needed. So when my whole body wasn’t sweating or when it would take forever to, you know, reach a temperature that would kind of like make my back half sweat. we knew really fast that hey something is wrong here this isn’t how it’s supposed to be so in less than 60 days I mean we pretty much knew within a couple of weeks that something was up and then later I would find out it was the design of the sauna so the only thing you could do in that case well now we modify them and make them work but I didn’t know how to do that back then this was many many years ago so one of the things if you get a sauna that doesn’t work well or you know it’s not living up to the temperature claims yada yada yada yada these days days, you can check the certified sauna list or some of the reviews that we have because there’s so many and get an idea whether or not it’s going to work well. Alternatively, we have ways to modify them now, too, over the last five years. So look at the certified sauna list or do one of the heat lamp modifications in the Facebook group. We’ve got the patio heater. There’s a bunch of ways that you can add heat to a poor performing sauna. I just didn’t know that was a possibility, you know, seven or eight years ago.

Aaron A
What is another thing that you see coming from the standpoint of someone’s trying to get into sanas, they’re new to this, they think that they’re buying the right thing, and then they get it and they’re like, this is not what I expected it to be. Is it the design of the sauna? Is it the type of sauna that they chose because they thought that was the best thing that fit their needs, but it wasn’t.

Matt Justice
Well, for me back then, there was a few of those. I mean, you could break them up into categories if you’d like, but I didn’t have access to try a bunch of stuff. All I could do is go rent a session and, you know, whatever a local spa place had. But one thing was the sizing. You know, you, I would look online. I’d buy this one to two person sauna. I’d get it. I mean, I fit in there fine. But I couldn’t turn sideways. I couldn’t put my leg up. Couldn’t put my knee up. I couldn’t really do anything. So it’s kind of like, how do you call that a one to two person size? You’d have to be basically like under five feet tall, under 100 pounds, both of you in order to get two people into something like that. So, I mean, maybe two people if you’re kids, but not two adults. They just want you to think. that it’s, you can’t actually see it before you get it. Like, it’s not like you’re sitting in it. So if they tell you it’s a one to two person, it kind of creates this idea in your mind where it’s like, oh, you know, maybe the family could use it or something. But it’s kind of a gimmicky thing. You’ve got to look at the dimensions. And I was too naive in the beginning to know that. Later, like around 2019, you would see some old videos of mine where I recommended that people take a kitchen chair, put it on the middle of the floor. and then take the blue painters tape or a cardboard box and make an outline of the dimensions of the sauna. And then you get a real feel for, you know, what does it really seem like when you’re in there? You’re trying to create like a false, you know, a little temporary enclosure that you can sit between as if you had two walls, you know, on your sides or behind you. So you can use a cardboard box. You can sit in the middle of painters tape on the floor. A lot of times people will take the dimensions, the exterior dimensions of the sauna that they’re looking at and then go in the room where they think they want to place it, and then lay a blue painter’s tape border out on the floor, make sure that it sits right, pay attention to where the hinges are on the door. So if it opens to the left or opens to the right, you can kind of take that into account for the space that you’re going to put it in. Because sometimes the sauna itself fits fine, but using it, opening the door and getting in and out of it, won’t work for certain rooms, especially if you have spare bedroom, you have a bed in there, you know, yada, yada, it could be a bunch of different things.

Aaron A
Can we talk about red light add-ons or, in my opinion, the general features that they add on to sanas and how some of them are gimmicky and then touch on red light specifically in a sauna?

Matt Justice
Yeah, it’s not as prevalent today, but pre-2020, one of the big things that companies would sell as an add-on would be like a photo bi-modulation kit or something that goes in the ceiling that has, you know, colored lights. Nothing wrong with these things, but the way that they were presented, it was like you were going to get some great benefit by using these things. But now that red light therapy has caught on so much more, most of the time people can see what’s fake photobiomodulation versus what’s real therapy. And when it comes down to it, you know, some little puck lights that are green, purple, red, whatever, in the ceiling, whether they’re extra or have their own power supply or not, they’re not going to deliver, you know, any kind of meaningful red light. therapy like a photobiomodulation therapy you’d see in a PubMed research study or something like that. So in the past, companies were kind of using this as a way to, I don’t know, differentiate their product, upsell the customer, but it was really just colored light therapy. And I think that’s okay. Some people really, really enjoy, especially in the evening, having, you know, a particular colored room, no issue with that. But saying that you’re going to get photobiomodulation benefit from that is complete fallacy. Many, many ways that you could rectify that today. You could actually buy a red light therapy panel and stick it in the sauna. You could hang one on the side of it and use it outside. You know, when you’re on your rebounder or something while the sauna is preheating. You could do yeah, you have tons of options these days that you didn’t have back then when I got started.

Aaron A
There are a few sonnas on the market that actually, like that have those add-ons that actually do what they claim.

Matt Justice
Yeah, Heavenly Heat is one. They have the red light sauna. Clear light has an add-on panel that you can add on, but don’t confuse that with a full-spectrum emitter because it’s a different wavelength. Some other brands that we don’t usually recommend, like a sunlight and impulse. I haven’t seen too many others that have a real red light therapy panel in them. You’ve got some from Amazon and Wayfair, but my issue with those is that a lot of times they’re mounted behind you, like on a 45-degree angle next to the bench. And I don’t see how anyone’s actually going to get, you know, red light therapy benefit from using that.

Aaron A
So the next thing is something that we’ve dealt with recently. There’s that mini Wayfair sauna that has been in a few videos that have come out recently. Cool sauna. The problem is that the brand is unrecognizable and it’s difficult to find. Is this the exact model or the exact brand I was looking at on this website that said it would do these things and perform this way? Like am I looking at the correct sauna here? I feel like that question was all over the place. Do you get what I mean?

Matt Justice
Yeah, sometimes it’s really hard to tell. I mean, I do this every day, and it’s hard for me to tell sometimes. But I think, you know, it goes back to some of the build quality standards. This is an unregulated industry. So I think part of the issue is all the white labeling. It looks like to me the manufacturing of a lot of these, you know, so-called brands is all coming from the same place. So it’s the same manufacturer, just modifying them somewhat slightly. You know, different people are selling them under different brands. So they kind of all look the same. And so you can, you know, it gets really confusing. The one that you’re talking about, though, that’s, I have it behind me. We still have it set up in the office. The issue with it is it works fine. The build quality is good. The, you know, the standards of testing it and stuff weren’t that great. But it does work. The price is right. I think you’re on your own, though, if you buy that thing and you have any issues. Because we can’t find anywhere to get support. I can’t even pronounce. the name of it, you know, I can give you a link directly to it, and it’s like the D-D-S-T-P, whatever, you know, initials, that’s the name of the company or the brand. So that makes it really difficult. And then if you look at another one that’s within $100 plus or minus of the same price range, same style, you know, maybe the bench has a little different design to it or, you know, maybe it’s one inch bigger or smaller or something like that. Looks relatively the same thing. Some other, you know, phantom brand. We have no idea who they are. I think it’s just an overseas company that sells them under, you know, various names. Looks like it comes from the same places, but I don’t know how you can, I don’t know. It’s tough because, you know, people buy these things. It seems fine. But what if it breaks in eight months from now? What if ours breaks? I don’t think I’m going to be able to get any help with it. So kind of take that into account too. How do you take that into account when you’re sifting through products and stuff? well, for one thing, there’s no like recognizable brand. So if there’s no recognizable brand, there’s probably going to be no recognizable support. So if you have an issue or something breaks, there’s no customer support. And that leads you down to warranty. You know, the listing can say whatever the warranty thing is. But how do you actually get a hold of somebody and get, you know, a part? Or what if it’s damaged in shipping or I don’t know. What if, you know, a heater stops working or something? How are you supposed to have a connection? Because that’s what I like is a connection with the brands so that I know we’ve got a person on their staff that we can email or call or text. And some companies even say, hey, you know, if people from your Facebook group have issues, you know, have them message, you know, so and so from our customer service team. I like that a lot because then I have a sense of security that going forward, you know, I don’t know. If I drop that thing off the forklift, Can we, you know, can we get a new glass door?

Aaron A
Yeah, yeah, no. So it’s less of a misconception or a fallacy in the industry. It’s more of like buyers beware, like emphasizing the importance of reputable brands. Because that’s, I don’t think there’s as much of it. And I’m sure there are large sonnas that are very expensive that are no-name brands. But I see a ton of it in the lower end sonnas, like sub-2,000. There’s just a million different brands. And you don’t know if, one, you don’t know if it’s the model that you were really thinking it was. And two, you have no idea if you can get a hold of those people after it’s done.

Matt Justice
Brand recognition kind of matters when it comes to serviceability and long-term reliability. So a lot of times we’re not thinking about that in the beginning. But once you start having issues, you’re kind of like, you know, if you’ve been through it before, then it becomes more prevalent in your mind and you look for it when you buy stuff. But I, largely, I don’t think most people have bought a bunch of sonnas. So it’s not really something that you would be experienced doing. So I don’t expect people to know the ins and outs of what to look for. But, you know, you can see it in the reviews. When people talk about, hey, this was my experience, it’s kind of like, well, we should have a little checklist. You know, when you go to look at one of these things, it’s kind of like buying a car. You should have this, this, this, and this so that you know you can be taken care of. A lot of that comes from reputable brands, longstanding reputation, somebody that’s going to be around and be in business. This thing from Amazon that you’re asking about, I mean, they could literally just wipe it off the face of the earth tomorrow and disappear, and there would be no trace that it ever existed. Yet you spent $1,000 for this thing and are stuck with it. So one of the last points would be the EMF claims. Most people think that came first, but it really wasn’t until I hired a building biologist to do home assessment in my home. And they walked into my sauna room and they were like, why do you have this? And that kind of sparked the whole, you know, EMF thing. But that was back in, geez, 2018, 2017, 2019. Again, unregulated industry, people can make and say any kind of claims that they want. Most of the sauna companies do not do a good job of testing their saunas. Kind of like in a real world application where the whole thing is assembled, they take it apart and send pieces of it to a lab to get these certification. reports. But we’ve got a gazillion videos on the channel if you want to learn about that in depth. But most of the time, it’s, you know, we got a tested for ourselves to really see. It’s been time and time again where I’ve bought stuff. It’s supposed to be one way. You get it in your house and it’s just the opposite. Well, at the end of the day, marketing can say whatever it wants, but real world testing is always going to tell the truth. So if you’re shopping for Asana, you know, don’t just trust the brochure or the Amazon listing or wherever. you’ve got to look at real reviews. You’ve got to look at the build quality, if possible, test before you buy or watch videos or reviews from people that have. That’s the only way that you’re going to avoid being misled.