OT: Saunas | Page 2 | The Boneyard

OT: Saunas

knicksin7 said:
Love Finnish sauna. A bit drier than the Russian, do you guys also do the cold plunge in between sets
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Somewhat. There’s a brook with a decent little hole in it about 70 yards away. It’s usually too cold outside of late soring or early fall, - but we have all rolled in the snow naked. I find that pretty brutal - the snow feels like it gets under your skin.
 
WhereistheDove? said:
@Scottzer hot enough for you?
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Hot eough, but too Smokey. Our sauna is similar - couple key features. The wall with changing room’s access to the stove is brick for the first 3 or 4 feet. One wall of the sauna will get hot - and you need to hose it down on hot saunas. Those tongue in groove boards turned a bit black, as if they were starting to smolder.

The other key is a ventilation peep hole - and we always open that when leaving the sauna. Spraying down the hot walls and opening the peep hole will go a long way toward fire avoidance.

The stove itself, at this point, is the danger. It was fabricated in the 1980s, but it’s not a traditional stove. Walls are a bit thinner, and after 35 plus years of high temp fires have caused the sides to buckle a bit. We’ve take the stove out to repair - and the lighter weight of it make it possible to lift over the rails to do the work. But, I think we would have been better off with a more robust stove and never having to repair it, and removing the two lowest benches for access when that stove would finally need replacement.

The short chimney run has meant that we probably clean it every other year (and it’s never too bad).
 
Perfect timing for this thread. I'm looking at putting a sauna on our property by a pond. Should be perfect for a cold plunge! No electricity on that part of the property so we have to go with either wood fired or propane (which I'm not sure exist).

Any recommendations for saunas and heaters very much appreciated.

.......and if you need the mandatory old, fat, sweaty old guy for your sauna I'm your man.
 
uconndogs said:
Perfect timing for this thread. I'm looking at putting a sauna on our property by a pond. Should be perfect for a cold plunge! No electricity on that part of the property so we have to go with either wood fired or propane (which I'm not sure exist).

Any recommendations for saunas and heaters very much appreciated.

.......and if you need the mandatory old, fat, sweaty old guy for your sauna I'm your man.
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We got our barrel sauna from Costco. It came with an electric heater…can probably get with wood stove. It was a great deal at 4K for 4 person. They also had a 6 person I think it is made by Almost Heaven.

Only addition was I had a boat canvas guy make a cover for the top 1/2, as rain dripped through it the boards. Did the trick
 
uconndogs said:
Perfect timing for this thread. I'm looking at putting a sauna on our property by a pond. Should be perfect for a cold plunge! No electricity on that part of the property so we have to go with either wood fired or propane (which I'm not sure exist).

Any recommendations for saunas and heaters very much appreciated.

.......and if you need the mandatory old, fat, sweaty old guy for your sauna I'm your man.
Expand ...
Years ago, my aunt had a campground, and that sauna was propane. It was a barrel stove with the rocks on top, but I have no idea what the configuration was inside that barrel.
For the sauna at my father’s - about 100 feet from the house - we dug trenches for a cold water line and the electricity. We have buckets that sit on the benches and ground level for our shower water, and mix the hot and cold buckets in a tub. We find that 6 gallons per person is plenty when you’re pouring it on yourself 1 quart at a time.

I would highly recommend building and not buying a kit. My brother is looking at a $4000 kit, but to me it looks too small. We like having a decent sized changing area for the cold winter nights when you cool off quick, but aren’t ready to jump back in immediately.
 
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Did a one-night stay in the New Paltz area last week and this little electric sauna was on site. I don’t remember the brand name but IIRC, it costs about $2000 all in. We’ve only got a 1/3 acre, but we’re thinking of setting one up near our garage.
 
Scottzer said:
Eh, studies conflict with each other. Hard to say exactly where is best, but the quick sweat release at the higher temps really seems to help with the removal of toxins. Our sauna record is 240, but I wasn’t there that day. I’ve been in at 220 multiple times, and that is brutal. Have to hose the benches down with cold water just to be able to take a seat. 200 is about the max relatively comfortable temp for me. And yes, from an honor perspective, we only sit on the top bench.

I recall one of my junior high friends did his science fair project on body temp in saunas. His temp got up to about 105 - I wouldn’t want to go too far above that. (He’s a Finn, so I’m guessing his sauna was in the 185 range).
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Look...

I paid a lot of money for all those toxins. And I invested time to invest them all.

Seems.like wasted mo eyes and effort.to onstruct a devise designed to eliminate them all, at an uncomfortably high, sou vide style temperature.

But that's just me.

BTW, does the sauna place sell some kind of pop-up timer thingy that let's you know when you're done?
 
After visiting my friend in Finland last summer and going to Iceland this summer, I've concluded I will be installing a sauna in my future house. The traditional hot stone sauna followed by jumping into a cold lake 8-10 times in Finland was insane but an amazing experience.
 
I Bleed Blue said:
After visiting my friend in Finland last summer and going to Iceland this summer, I've concluded I will be installing a sauna in my future house. The traditional hot stone sauna followed by jumping into a cold lake 8-10 times in Finland was insane but an amazing experience.
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images
 
temery said:
Anything plugged into a wall outlet is not likely to be approved by the sauna gods.

I've been researching options. Most of the options that plug into a regular wall outlet are useless - one exception is a pellet stove made for a sauna.
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This just isn’t true. Check out Lassi Liikanen’s works. I ended up contracting him to help design our (still being built) sauna.

Also check out Trumpkin’s notes. Although not Finnish, I think he wishes he were. :)

Trumpkin’s Notes On Building A Sauna
 

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uconndogs said:
Perfect timing for this thread. I'm looking at putting a sauna on our property by a pond. Should be perfect for a cold plunge! No electricity on that part of the property so we have to go with either wood fired or propane (which I'm not sure exist).

Any recommendations for saunas and heaters very much appreciated.

.......and if you need the mandatory old, fat, sweaty old guy for your sauna I'm your man.
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Are you in CT? I deeeeeeeep dived this topic so happy to provide a little assistance. Or a pep talk. I’m in Fairfield.
 
temery said:
Regular outlet, or did you need an electrician to wire the sauna?
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You might get a small IR sauna that is plug in, but it prob won’t get hot enough to really get that sauna benefits. My wife using a curling iron and blow dryer can trip a breaker

Running a 220 line is a piece of cake if y have room in your breaker box and should not be very expensive at all. Imo worth the $$ to not be disappointed in your sauna.

Most of the studies that look at sauna benefits use 20min @175 as the min
 

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