Top 8 Things Every New Sauna Owner Should Know

If you just set up your first sauna, this video will save you from making the common mistakes that ruin the experience and shorten the life of your unit. I’ve tested over 40 saunas in the last seven years — infrared, traditional, and everything in between — and I’ve seen what actually matters in real-world use.

In this video, I go through the eight questions every new sauna owner has, from how to set up your towels to what to drink inside, and how to clean it without wrecking the wood. You’ll learn how to protect your investment, keep it fresh, and actually enjoy your sessions instead of second-guessing everything.

Keep it clean, stay hydrated, and focus on building consistency — that’s how you get the real results.

Read the transcript >

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Transcript

The new sauna owner had general questions about using his sauna correctly. The importance of using towels to protect the sauna from sweat was emphasized. Placing towels on the backrest and floor to collect sweat was recommended to maintain cleanliness. Cleaning the sauna with a damp cloth and vacuuming periodically was suggested to prevent buildup of sweat and debris. Regarding drinking water in the sauna, it was noted that personal preference for temperature is key, with no significant impact on the sauna session. The recommendation to sauna naked was given, with the use of glass vessels for drinks inside the sauna to avoid potential issues with plastic. Allowing the sauna to dry out after a session by cracking the door was advised for maintenance.

In those situations, I leave the door shut. I should have said right in the beginning, we’re talking about infrared saunas here. They’re a relatively dry sauna. The only moisture in them is sweat from your body or condensation from condensing ambient air temperature on the glass from the heat control in the cabin. Heat control, meaning like, you know, the controlled temperature, that temperature difference creates a little bit of sweating. It’s kind of normal to have dew on the glass, you know, when you’re using one.

In other cases where saunas are in the office, somewhere else, like not in a bedroom where I don’t care that the heat escapes and is heating up the room, like the last thing that I want to do is use a sauna in my master bedroom and then leave the door open so that when I go to bed a little while longer, it’s heating up the room unless it’s wintertime. That’d be kind of nice. So it’s very much situational. I do both. I don’t, in an infrared sauna, I don’t think it really matters that much either way. Yeah. If you had a finished sauna, something with moisture, humidity, I would definitely leave the door open, let it air out. You could say the same about infrared a little bit, but it’s not going to kill you if you don’t.

Okay. The last question, it’s not contrast therapy, but he’s essentially referring to contrast therapy. What is your routine afterwards? Do you take a cold shower? How do you approach after sauna? No, not typically. If you wanted to do like a cancer protocol or you wanted to do some specific detox regimen or for a set duration of time, I wouldn’t recommend doing it all the time. But those people are wrapping themselves in hot blankets, keeping core temperature elevated for 45 minutes post sauna session. So sauna session’s totally done. They’re trying to insulate and hold that heat. I don’t do that. I don’t think that’s appropriate for modern lifestyle either. I just don’t have time. I go right into the shower. I don’t care if it’s cold shower, hot shower, it depends on what I have to do next. If it’s a shot, you know, like if I’m showering at night, it’s different than if I have to get ready and be somewhere in a half an hour and I just got to work out in a sauna session.

So, you know, I just, I don’t think, I think people are very dogmatic. Like it has to be this way or that way or dah, dah, dah, dah. I think you should do what, you know, is appropriate for your next daily steps. If you have time and you can tolerate it, obviously contrast shower is amazing. You got hot and cold, it’s great for your body. If you don’t like that, do a lukewarm shower, turn it slightly cold, then back warm. I mean, adjust it to however it suits you and then improve as your body performance improves from there.

So, you know, for anyone really that has this question and kudos to this gentleman for, you know, investing in his health, asking all these questions. Some people just like, yeah, you know, maybe this, maybe that. Good for you being very specific, being diligent about trying to do the right thing so you get the most benefit out of your investment and get those longevity years because that’s what we’re all kind of after. Better life, better health, better everything.

I think, um, if I had to summarize all this into one point that would be most important for someone is to develop a routine that works for you just because a guy on the internet or some researcher or some scientist or some, you know, whatever doctor says that this has to be this way and that has to be that way and dah, dah, dah, dah for you to get optimal results. What if you could get 60 or 70 or 85% of those results just by consistently getting your sessions in? Maybe you modify it a little bit to suit you. Maybe that makes it tolerable. Maybe you know, something integrates into your day better. Maybe you know, you need a little alteration or you need a little kick in the ass or you need a little feedback from me or from our group or, you know, once you figure out, you know, a method that works for you, you stick to that because it’s those three to four sessions a week that are really going to accumulate to give you that momentum that really are going to create these life-changing results.

You just saw, you know, here and there every so often, it’s not really going to do anything and you’re also not getting your body dialed into the process. So if there was one takeaway that I could give everyone, come up with a routine that works for you, stick to it. If you have to modify it a little bit just because some people on the internet are dogmatic in their thinking, forget about them. Do what works for you. Do it consistently and you’ll reap the reward. So if you just set up your new sauna, don’t overthink it. Keep it clean. Stay hydrated. Build consistency in first. You’ll see results faster than you expect. If you want to follow up on advanced habits, just drop a comment below and I’ll make that next for you.