Traditional Saunas

A traditional sauna heats the air. An electric heater (or a wood stove, in the original Finnish form) warms a bed of rocks, the rocks warm the room to somewhere between 150°F and 195°F, and you sit on a wood bench in hot, dry air until you sweat. Ladle water onto the rocks and the room fills with a short burst of steam that makes the same temperature feel much hotter; let the rocks run dry and it is a dry sauna. "Dry sauna", "steam sauna" and "Finnish sauna" all describe this one cabin used in slightly different ways, which is why Medical Sauna calls its line "Traditional Steam Sauna". This is the sauna you know from a gym or a hotel, brought home as a kit.

The other kind of home sauna, infrared, does not heat the air much at all; its panels warm you directly at 110°F to 150°F, with no rocks and no steam. The two are compared below.

The heater

Traditional heaters are rated in kilowatts, and the right size depends on the cabin's volume: roughly 1 kW per 45 to 50 cubic feet of room, so a two-person cabin runs a 4 to 4.5 kW heater and a four-person cabin 6 kW or more. That rating is why every traditional sauna, including all three here, needs its own 220 V circuit rather than a wall outlet. The heater ships with the cabin and controls are built in; we do not sell sauna heaters on their own. We are confirming the heater rating, rock quantity and rated maximum temperature for each of our three cabins with Medical Sauna and will add them to the table.

All three are Canadian hemlock cabins from Medical Sauna with an electric heater and rocks, built for indoor use, shipped as a flat-pack kit and backed by a lifetime warranty on the wood and 1 year on the heater and controls.

• Medical Sauna 2 Person Traditional Steam Sauna (Traditional 5), $4,999: two seats side by side, 220 V 30 A. The entry cabin and the one most households pick; it is also on our 2 Person Saunas page.
• Medical Sauna 3 Person Traditional Steam Sauna (Traditional 6), $9,199: a wider bench for three, 220 V 30 A. For a couple who want to lie back, or a family.
• Medical Sauna 4 Person Traditional Steam Sauna (Traditional 7), $12,199: the largest, seating four, 220 V 30 A. For a home gym or a household that will use it together.

Exact interior and exterior dimensions, bench lengths and weights are on each product page; we are adding them to the compare table as Medical Sauna confirms them. We do not stock a 1 person or a 6 person traditional cabin, and nothing here is rated for outdoor use; a garage or a covered, dry space with the circuit run to it works. For every sauna we sell, infrared included, see Home Saunas.

The question behind most searches for a traditional sauna is whether to buy one or an infrared cabin instead. The practical differences:

• Air temperature: traditional 150°F to 195°F; infrared 110°F to 150°F. If you want the heat you remember from a gym sauna, that is traditional.
• Heat-up: traditional 30 to 45 minutes for the rocks to come up; infrared 10 to 20 minutes.
• Wiring: traditional needs a dedicated 220 V, 30 A circuit; most infrared cabins plug into a standard 120 V outlet.
• Steam: traditional, yes, by pouring water on the rocks; infrared, none.
• Running cost: a 4.5 to 6 kW traditional heater for an hour with heat-up is about 4.5 to 6 kWh, roughly 70 cents to a dollar at 16 cents per kWh; an infrared cabin at 1.5 to 2 kW for 45 minutes is 1 to 1.5 kWh, around 20 cents.
• Price here: traditional $4,999 to $12,199 for two to four seats; the Medical Sauna infrared line runs $3,199 (one seat) to $11,999 (four to six seats), and infrared units that fold flat start under $200.

Pick traditional if you want high heat, steam and the ritual, and you can run a circuit. Pick infrared if you want a plug-in cabin, a gentler temperature or a lower price. Which is "better" for health is a medical question we do not answer on a product page; the two differ in how they heat you, not in any claim we make. Our infrared cabins and fold-flat units are on Infrared Saunas, with the near, mid and far spectrum explained on Full Spectrum Infrared Saunas.

Wiring and room

Book the electrician first: each cabin needs a dedicated 220 V, 30 A circuit run to the sauna location, which usually costs $300 to $1,000 depending on the distance from the panel. The cabin goes on a hard, level floor that tolerates a splash (tile, sealed concrete, vinyl), with a few inches of air behind the heater wall and about 7 feet of ceiling for assembly. A basement, spare room, garage or home gym all work; carpet does not. No plumbing is needed; a bucket and ladle supply the water.

What a kit is

A traditional sauna kit is the cabin broken down for freight: pre-cut and pre-assembled hemlock wall and ceiling panels, the bench, the door, the heater, the rocks and the controls, on a pallet. Two people assemble it in an afternoon with a screwdriver and no cutting; the electrician connects the heater. Freight is curbside, so plan how the crates get inside.

What a traditional sauna costs

The cabins on this page run $4,999 to $12,199, which sits inside the $3,500 to $16,000 band that two to four person traditional saunas sell for across the market (Costco is one retailer in that band, not affiliated with us). Add the circuit, and budget under a dollar per session for electricity. Freight is free to domestic USA addresses in the lower 48; Alaska, Hawaii and international by quote.

How long to sit

A traditional session is rounds: 10 to 20 minutes in the heat, out to cool down (a shower, a cold plunge or just air), then back in, two or three times, with water between rounds. Start at the low end and at a lower temperature, and leave when you have had enough; nobody benefits from staying past comfort. Anyone with a condition that affects heat tolerance should ask their clinician before buying.

Buying from us

Every cabin is new, with the Medical Sauna warranty (lifetime on the wood, 1 year on components) handled through us as your US point of contact. 30-day returns on eligible products in original condition; cabins only unopened, so measure the room and the doorway first.