The real Difference Between Cheap and Expensive Saunas

I’ve tested over 40 different saunas, from budget $2,000 models to premium $10,000+ builds, and the differences aren’t always what people expect. A higher price doesn’t automatically mean better comfort or results. Sometimes a $2,000 sauna outperforms one that costs five times as much.

In this video, I walk through what actually matters when comparing cheap and expensive saunas — from heater layout and build quality to comfort, sweat quality, safety, and long-term value. If you’re thinking about spending more on a sauna, this perspective could save you from wasting money and help you find the right fit for your needs.

Read the transcript >

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Transcript

You’ve tested 40 saunas or more. Is there a huge difference between the comfort and user experience from the thousand to $2,000 saunas that you’ve tested and the six to $7,000 saunas? Yeah, there can, but it’s not what you think. Sometimes the $10,000 sauna can be not as comfortable as the 2000, and it really comes down to you and how you plan to use it, but no one is going to explain it to you in this way when I get in that sucker, I better be sweating and I better be sweating good.

Otherwise I’m wasting my time. Are expensive saunas really better? And this is something that I actually changed my mind on through the course of working with you. There is a difference between a $10,000 sauna and a $2,000 sauna, but I don’t think the differences are exactly what people think they are, so let’s run through build quality and longevity, comfort and user experience, sweat quality and health results, safety and materials, and then the value versus cost between cheap and inexpensive saunas, there’s got to be a ton of differences that are small and some that actually don’t matter, but let’s start with a build quality and longevity.

So as far as like the budget saunas go, what do you see as a norm within the build quality of those, those cheaper saunas? Well, that’s typically like the things, you know, in your list, thin walls, uh, thinner, weaker heaters, sometimes tricky assembly, there’s some weird stuff, um, like the front wall going on last more of the floating floors, those stupid latches in the back, um, you know, my favorite stuff.

And then on the premium side, you’re going to get, you know, thicker wood, you’re going to get more solid build, but is that always true? No, there’s certain cases where, I mean, you’re going to have an $8,000 sauna that doesn’t have as good of heat coverage as the 2000. That’s why, you know, I point people to the FLIR videos and say, Hey, I understand wanting to pay for quality.

No problem with that. I want it to last a long time too, but make sure that the heater layout.

which is the, you know, solid wood, proper insulation, or at least, you know, the key points that make it built to last. There’s a couple of things with the wood finishes that I think people don’t notice. Like we harp on the Sana not having any MDF in it.

A lot of people think it’s just for VOC reasons, which it is, but I mean, you can Google it yourself. Look at the compounds that are in MDF fiberboard. Not great for you. So if there’s anything like that on the interior of the cabin that is exposed to heat, not the greatest thing for you to be breathing for the next 20 years.

And it doesn’t really cost any more to choose a different brand that doesn’t have it. So I harp on that quite hard. But the other thing is MDF like degrades. So if there’s any moisture anywhere, I mean, it’s gonna swell up and just turn to crumple dust.

Like it’s not, I would much rather there be plywood than MDF. Well, the main three points are number one, the design and heater layout. You know, does it have, if we’re talking about infrared specifically, it doesn’t have adequate far infrared coverage. If not, it could have the best looking glass.

It could be the most aesthetically pleasing thing. It could have great lights that you love, but it’s not gonna make you sweat well. So the whole point of it is kind of thrown out the window at that point. So that’s number one.

Number two is just as much quality wood as you can get that will ensure that the longevity of the Sana, has a really high chance of lasting decades instead of just a couple of years. You don’t wanna see cheap quality, build materials, both for your VOC levels and your breathing, but also just the longevity of the product and ease of install.

If it’s frustrating or if it’s got a weird door entry that doesn’t open the right way, or it’s hard to get in and out of, or it’s difficult for you to place in whatever space you have available, you know, that kind of impacts the likelihood for you to use it regularly.

It’s gotta be comfortable.

It’s got to be easy to use, you’ve got to enjoy it, otherwise you’re not going to use it very often. The next point I want to touch on is the comfort and user experience, which you actually started touching on in the last point. You’ve tested 40 saunas or more.

Is there a huge difference between the comfort and user experience from the $1000 to $2000 saunas that you’ve tested and the $6,000 to $7,000 saunas? Yeah, there can, but it’s not what you think. Sometimes the $10,000 sauna can be not as comfortable as the $2000. And it really comes down to you and how you plan to use it.

But no one is going to explain it to you in this way. So, number one is the layout. If you’re a person that wants to put your feet up, flip sideways, you want to make sure that there’s good heat coverage when you do that. Sometimes certain brands of sauna only put the emitters in certain places.

The other thing is the bench design. Everybody likes, you know, ergonomic stuff. But if you plan to lay flat in your sauna or sit sideways or sit with your feet up, you probably don’t want any curves in the bench because it feels like there’s a stick up your butt, a hump, like a speed bump in the seat.

And when you turn sideways, that’s being jammed into your tailbone. At least that’s what it feels like after five or ten minutes. So, you can put, you know, as many towels, you can buy a bench cover, cushion thing, you can do whatever you want. But if the actual shape of the equipment isn’t in line with how you plan to use it, you’re going to have some issues.

While, you know, that’s some type of a benefit that people use to say, oh, you know, you should buy a more expensive sauna because it has a better seat. Well, a better seat for who? You know, maybe not. Now we’re getting into user comfort things and use cases where somebody’s individual needs really come into play.

And just because you’re spending more money doesn’t mean that it’s going to be better for you. It could actually be worse.

Individual person’s needs how big are you how small are you you know? I think all those things come into play where Like you said earlier if they’re just talking to a salesperson about saunas They’re not gonna get that perspective and probably not be asked those questions. Yeah very much Yeah, and that’s you know at some point the quality and the features and the tech and everything else will come into play But I mean not before you have your bases covered and you know Everyone’s got to make the decision.

Do you want the $60,000 Lexus, or do you want the $20,000 you know Kia? It’s you know it’s not that one is right or wrong necessarily But each one can be right or wrong for different groups of people What about control panels because I wanted to make sure you touched on the overall experience the person could have in any price sauna But let’s get down to some details about like the user experience like turning on the sauna Preheating it is that really where Expensive saunas start to kind of pull ahead, or what do you see there a lot of times?

There’s some that are coming out this year that are upgrading their control panels in the cheap saunas, but I mean Go look at something like a Costco, and then go look at something like you know I don’t know any of the other premium brands you look at a Sunlighten And you look at a Costco the control panel the build quality the way that it’s mounted and situated The use function of it if you care about quality It’s gonna be totally different right you can see it’s clear as day.

It’s not like This thing is necessarily Better, but the experience is a lot better Right yeah There’s a big difference in the experience of some of these things a lot of cheap saunas have Chromotherapy a lot of cheap saunas have all the cheap saunas have control panels of some kind But when you step into an expensive sauna, this is where I really see Big difference, I don’t really notice the wood I don’t really notice I do notice heater layout But I definitely notice if they have a nicer control panel if the lights nice if the stereo is nice like those are

Those are creature comforts that I think that I would expect if I was going to pay $7,000. Do you see that in all saunas? Are there cheap saunas that have those items and they are matching the quality of the nicer saunas? Sometimes.

It’s usually not 100% across the board, but they’ll have one of a couple of things out of it. You know, some of it too is, what are your touch points? And I’ll say this in a different way. I notice the control panel a lot more because every single time I turn the sauna on or go to use it, I’m touching, I’m using, I’m interacting with that portion of it.

Some of the cheaper saunas, you know, they have crappy speakers or instead of having a stereo set of speakers where you get two, they’ll have a mono speaker. It sounds awful, but I’m not always playing music and stuff in the sauna. That’s not something that I really notice that much.

So you know, is it a selling point? Yeah, but I could easily just bring my own speaker in too and save a couple thousand dollars if that’s not important to me. Sometimes I notice the lighting right away because every time I walk up to it and turn the lights on to go to use it, it’s, you know, prevalence right in my face.

So I appreciate saunas that have better lighting, better fit and finish. I agree with you too. All this stuff about the wood, though, as long as the wood is clean, it doesn’t smell like super, super strong because it’s overwhelming to me when the scent is so strong. Once you shut the door and the heat builds in that thing, that’s all I smell.

So I prefer, you know, a more mild smell. But I’m with you. As long as it’s not atrocious, the smell or really strong. Do we really notice that much difference between the different lumbers?

I don’t think so. I always mention the sanding because I notice how smooth the bench is. And then I’m also, I’m usually nitpicky about any wood splintering, but that’s because I don’t want to get any splinters because I’ve put so many of these things together. And when the wood splinters, you know, you got to watch your hands and everything else.

But other than that, it really doesn’t matter that much as long as it’s not that fake coating that they spray.

gray on the you know on so like that varnish thing yeah you got a sauna in the very beginning of you testing out saunas uh that had poor heat coverage that one wasn’t cheap though was it no that was uh i think it was like over three thousand dollars and that was okay not 10 years ago but close to it that was not cheap back then so now i mean a comparable sauna to that would be what five like four to six 55 to 65 i mean they’re pretty much double what they were back then and it didn’t have good heater coverage did not did you see did you see an effect on that on the results for health well yeah because you know i liked certain things about it sure it looked nice but it wasn’t giving me i mean you could sit in there for a half an hour and your front side was still cold so i mean if you’re if your chest is dry what are you really doing in there you’re not you’re not getting the benefit that you think you’re getting because your core temperature uh the sauna just wasn’t designed in a way where it performed the way it needed to that leads me into this point which is do you see a huge gap in premium versus budget saunas as far as sweat quality and uh the health results that people are trying i mean the point of this sauna is to improve their their health so do you see a huge margin there like is there a huge gap between the quality that you get out of a premium sauna and the cheap ones or are they is it the same it does depend on the model i say yes and no it depends on the people behind the brand and who’s designing them because you could take like if you took that costco thing where my feet were cold if you took that one dynamic model where there’s no heaters in the floor no heaters that go all the way to the uh edges on the sidewalls my legs from the knee down were pretty much dry and it was cool in the front and it’s not just me who thinks that i mean you can

look at the Facebook group and there’s tons of people who bought one and said, yeah, my, I’m, there’s no heat in the front. You could, you could compare that to a four or $5,000 sauna and you wouldn’t have those issues, but you could also compare something that’s a little cheaper than the Costco, like a life pro or one of the other brands that’s just now coming out, um, to, you know, I don’t know, a clear light and they’re kind of neck and neck, you know, still, still missing some of the heat coverage in both.

Um, so price, not necessarily the deterrent, the only determining factor. Um, now all the other stuff we talked about, is that still valid? Sure. The clear light looks way better, has better control panel, much better wall construction.

The walls are way better, uh, sourcing of materials, much higher end. I mean, you could just look at it and tell, look at the glass, right? Yeah. The clear light is like the nicest looking sauna on the market.

It looks awesome. Clear light sanctuary. There’s nothing like it. Um, you know, and there’s pros and cons to all that.

Like we talk about, you can go watch the other videos and see that stuff. At the end of the day though, I don’t know if price is the only determining factor of, of whether or not an expensive sauna is better than a cheap one or vice versa, you could pick two other brands and the opposite is true, but it really comes down to the design of the individual model and then, you know, the usage of the, the individual needs of the person.

The people behind the brand is what I’m seeing as a consistent, because I’ve seen new saunas come into the certified saunalist, I’ve seen other saunas that had been on there go out and I’ve seen them rotate through throughout the years. And what I’m seeing is that when it’s a company that genuinely believes in these things and genuinely wants to provide health benefits to other people, the product really, really shows.

Yeah, it really does come down to the people because the people that argue about one sauna brand or if theirs are better than another one, all this kind of stuff, can’t compete with the.

people behind another brand where they say, you know what, thank you for the feedback. We’re going to fix it. We’re going to make the product better. So those are the ones that ultimately win.

And those are also the customers that ultimately win because the company isn’t spending time defending themselves. They’re spending time making the product as best they possibly can and they own their mistakes. You know, maybe they did the best that they could the year before and they didn’t know about this stuff, but they get enough people using them and enough customer feedback.

We try to give them feedback too. Um, and it’s, it’s the ones that are really care about the brand and the product being the best that it could possibly be enthusiasts of the product, using it themselves, uh, caring about their customer base. Um, those are the ones where the product gets better year after year, it gets refined.

And now all of a sudden you do have something that’s worth paying more money for, because there is a difference between one like that that’s designed with intent in mind and one that’s just designed for mass resale at a Costco or a box store. And you can, that’s what you, that’s what we feel when we take them out of the box and we try them for the first time.

This year, Heavenly Heat is exploded because they have taken direct feedback from the people who actually use the saunas and said, how do we just make this better? And I think that is, if that becomes the norm for the sauna industry and that is how it is, uh, regulated internally, I think that’s going to yield better products for everybody.

It’s going to make the, the, the industry more transparent and then hopefully we don’t have to make misconceptions, uh, videos in the sauna industry anymore. Yeah, that would be great. And you’re totally right. Just to clarify in the last five years, six years, I think Heavenly Heat is the only company that has been acquired and in less than 12 months, all the sauna models revamped, fixed, and they’re continuing to refine them, right?

The, the.

First set of models have been improved twice, released red light therapy, made outdoor saunas, which didn’t exist for the brand before, all in less than a year. It’s kind of hard to ignore the amount of effort that they’ve put in. I know they’re going to go through, they may have some growing pains and stuff, just like any company that goes through that.

But you’ve got these other companies like, and it’s products that we like, but they’ve largely been the same for the last eight years. So when somebody comes in and is really paying attention, taking the customer feedback and improving the product, it’s kind of like, wow, where are these going to be in the next three to five years?

Last point I want you to touch on, and then I want you to go through value and cost, is safety and materials. Don’t dive deep into this because this is its own video altogether, and you have a million helpful resources on this. Let’s talk about the difference in high EMF, cheap wiring.

Let’s talk about VOCs and safety and materials and support that you get from expensive versus budget saunas. Yeah, I mean, usually here is where it does start to make a difference. Your questionable adhesives, your off-gassing, definitely the cheap wiring, sometimes the EMF, sometimes not, is generally always going to be better in the premium saunas just because of the attention to detail.

It’s a higher end assembly line. They’re using higher quality components. They’ll spend more money on the wire shielding. Generally, they’re not using undersized power supplies.

A lot of times an Amazon sauna or something like that will have between an 8 to 1,200 watt power supply. That’s really in line with what you get in a portable zippy tent sauna. So to start stretching the components and cheaping out and using that in a full-size wooden sauna, this is where you get some of the questionable performance stuff.

But we really see a difference in the proper use of materials and shielding and everything else in the higher end saunas. And we’ve even had some companies explain to us exactly why.

I, you know, like some of the ones that are sold at, um, big box stores, Wayfair, your Costco, um, all the ones that are white labeled that you can find on, you know, they’re syndicated, right? It’s kind of like when you list a house for sale, it appears on 50 different websites.

Those are usually built for, you know, a volume sales quota. And it’s kind of like getting a black Friday TV from Best Buy for 300 bucks. Usually they don’t have certain things like the audio ports or, you know, the company will specifically make a model that’s cheaper like that.

And most of the ones that are sold at the big box stores, um, like your Lowe’s, your Home Depot, your Costco, your Wayfair, they’re usually lower end like that in order to hit that quota. I can’t tell you what to do. I can only tell you what I think when I test these things and everything else, I’m a little biased because I’ve used so many things.

So for me, like if it’s a thousand bucks more, $2,500 more for me to get something that I like a lot better, and I know I’m going to keep this thing for 10, 15, 20 years. When I do the math for myself, I mean, what’s an extra thousand bucks per, per 10 years?

It’s like a hundred dollars extra per year out of the lifetime that I use this thing. So if it’s something that I really care about, I’m willing to splurge for that. Now somebody else might say, you know, well, I don’t think like that, Matt. And that’s okay.

No problem. You know, I’m in a different position and I’ve also tried a lot of these. So for me, seat of the pants feel matters a lot more than any kind of marketing brochure or feature or wifi connectivity thing, or stupid smartphone app that, you know, so-and-so says is going to, you know, do this or do that.

When I get in that sucker, I better be sweating and I better be sweating good. Otherwise I’m wasting my time. So my time is the most valuable thing here and the health benefit that I get is also the most valuable thing. So for me, I care less about the price and I care that the time that I spend investing in doing heat therapy, I’m getting the maximum health yield out of it.

So if there’s any way that I can pay for that, I’m happy to pay for it because I don’t really care about the money. I care about, you know, especially after leukemia treatment and stuff, people are arguing about all these little things and I’m like, this is stupid.

Spend the two extra grand, stop talking, start using it and get on with your life because there’s a lot of other things to worry about other than this.