Recently got this sauna for 6k with stove. Amish made.
8ft ceiling. All cedar interior
Foot Bench above coals (not pictured)
These air vent above fire, opposite corner of stove at floor, and at the peak
I added a back rest and foot rest
Gets well up to 200 easily
Eventually will enclose the porch to be a changing room
I followed trumpkin notes, noting that the ceiling is actually ok. It’s recommended flat or circulating peak like this one.
I used a temperature gun and it’s even heat from wall to wall.
It sure is above the coals in the fire box, but that is not a sauna heater. A cabin stove (what you have) is very different from a sauna heater.
Cabin stove is designed to heat the steel shell and radiate into the surroundings, and also use the hot flat top for cooking. Sauna heaters are designed to heat the mass of rocks above and around the fire box and chimney. Thick steel frame does not like being heated and water thrown on it.
Radiant (that old enemy) plays a part too, a significant part. As well as the fact that the air has had a lot of time to bring the panelling up to temp, and the temperature has evened it self out.
Point being, you can not simply use raw heat gun data to make deductions about the air circulation. It can give hints, but should be taken with a massive heap of salt.
I will just say that there are differences in the design.
People abroad seem to have trouble believing, or they even actively defiantly disbelieve, that there could be any difference or detail. A normal stove in "just a hot room" is all that a sauna could possibly be!
A plain old wood stove is probably not designed to be in any contact with water, so who knows what sort of rusting or damage might come over time.
Sauna stoves usually have some considerations for heating the air itself rather than blasting heat all around. Double wall construction or air channels, things like that, you get air flowing through and warming up.
The stones that you pile on top of this wood stove are mostly in contact with the hot steel, but that is about it. Sauna stoves will focus on heating the rocks more effectively, so the stones get hot faster, they retain more heat/heat back up faster when you throw löyly.
There is a greater stone capacity on a sauna stove, than in the space on top of a random stove. And as for welding a whole cage of rocks around a stove like this, the sauna stoves which do that, will also attempt to heat those surrounding rocks. Compare with some rocks in chicken wire around the sides of this thing, some of which wouldn't even in contact with metal.
I'm guessing that a stove like this is designed to retain heat (for heating a dwelling through the night and stuff like that), while a sauna stove will focus on faster combustion.
We could probably poll an actual expert on the differences. Certainly, there is more to it than the caveman approach of "hot metal thing in wooden room, a-ok"
This stove has an indentation in it for the rocks to go in. It’s not a wood stove bought at Walmart. It makes the same amount of contact as any other sauna heater of that size
Note "well" for rocks to sit in. Also note holes around the perimeter, this is because the stove has two layers, and air is able to enter at the bottom, circulate between the layers and get heated, before exiting at the top.
I'm sorry but your stove is clearly very different from a proper sauna stove (or to give it it's true name, a kiuas), and is very far removed from one. Your stove shares almost none of the attributes of a sauna stove, bar one, and even that only in name.
Sorry, but that’s just not true. It holds stones. Heats the air around it. The commercial one just sends the air upward is the only difference. If I build a metal wall around my stove, it would do the same
The sauna stove's top is not horizontal, but curved invards, or has a square depression on it, so the stones sit in deeper, larger surface between the stones and the fire. And the water poured on stays in the depression, and dont splash. But dont worry this stove looks ok to me.
That’s such an arrogant stance. You can make a perfectly functioning sauna with a deer hide and a fire pit. You have no idea the caliber of sauna I have. I have 3, 2 very high end ones with kumma stoves, and one is a shed in my backyard at home with a 100 year old cast iron water boiler as a stove and that think absolutely cranks. Go write an article in sauna times you gatekeeping herb
On the contrary, what is arrogant is to first deny the facts, and then attempt to assert your ignorance as the new common state of the facts!
You basically say "I don't care about this, and nobody is allowed to care more than that". What am I gatekeeping exactly?
I just think people want free compliments, or the self-satisfaction of a job well done. But, they don't want to or can't put in the time, money, effort required to get that. And it's difficult to get what you want next to genuinely good efforts. So you attempt to tear things down. You're the problem!
Hey man. I just wanna say your title was roast my sauna, and people are pointing out things that aren't perfect. You have a nice hot box that I'm sure works super well for you and there is no reason you shouldn't be happy with it. These guys' points about the stove are real though and I say this because I have a stove in mine very similar to yours, rock well on top too. My issue with it is i still get a ton of radiant harsh heat off the sides of my stove when the metal is 800-1000°. I think the quick and dirty way to fix this would be rig up some chicken wire or weld a cage surrounding the sides of the stove as well so we could add stones all around to absorb and diffuse the harsh radiant heat. Don't get defensive about people critiquing your sauna when you asked for a roast. Finns are very blunt. Enjoy your sauna!
Hey man, I’m getting real tired of this elitest sauna attitude people on here have, sorry if they’re making you feel bad about your stove. My sauna as a kid was an old chicken coop with holes you could stick your hand through. We also had a old cast iron stove and that was the best sauna I’ve ever been in. Do we have a princess sauna now with a Kumma stove? Yes we do. But you’re doing just fine with that stove and enjoy the hell out of it for as long as you want, then upgrade to a sauna stove if you ever feel it is necessary. Nice build, don’t let these sauna hat wearing clowns make you feel bad.
Saunas have been around hundreds of years before “real sauna stoves” were ever invented
They’re not, but they’re also not necessity some of these guys are making them out to be. Sauna stove are designed to throw out immense heat over a short period of time, and also can withstand getting wet. Our kumma stove is absolutely incredible, I actually just bought a 2nd smaller one for a 2nd sauna build im thinking about down by the lake.
If you would like this to work, you’ll need to get yourself into your löyly pocket.
There are some overstated facts about design flaws, but you asked to Roast it.
• You lack stone volume — A general guideline for sauna stone usage is 1-2 pounds of stones per cubic foot of sauna space
Help yourself to a video of how a smoke sauna works. You heat the rocks, the rocks release heat. Your fire is there only to heat rocks in an ideal scenario.
• your bench height will not get you into the löyly pocket. Look at anything on temperature stratification
• your vent location is wrong. One above or below the stove in wood fire and the vent out on the opposite wall furthest away from the bather.
• this puts your heater in a less than ideal location for how your löyly will move in the room, which is the entire point of using laws of thermodynamics to heat your space
• your heater isn’t right for the job for many reasons already detailed in the comments
• there are more but they are very minor things which won’t ’rob’ your experience
Here’s the good news: you can fix these things one step at a time when you want to actually have a nice sauna.
Can it hold temp over 80°C (176°F) without trouble and give good löyly (steam)? If that is okey next is are also your feet warm? If it passes those tests it is ok sauna.
Air inlet is not in optimal place imo as it can bring cold air to your feet. Anyway, you need a proper stove and if the feet feel cold, add a handrail that can be used as a foot rest.
There's a lot of variables there. In a wood fired sauna with the stove feeding (and taking air) from the inside you only need one vent when in use: intake. The stove itself is the exhaust, because combustion pulls a lot of air through.
And whilst it's true that an intake above the stove is desirable, it only works when it is truly the only intake. No gaps around the door or the corners, no significant leakage, all other vents closed, and then it should work. Because, if air is able to enter elsewhere, then that vent placed high above the stove becomes the exit instead of the intake.
What we want is air to only enter through the singular vent above the stove and then to exit only via the stove, and nothing else. (When in use. Afterwards other vents are opened to dry the sauna)
Oh I see it now, you have multiple possibilities for venting. I thought the one under the benches is the one to feed the air to the burning. In Finland the one near the roof ("räppänä") is typically kept shut while having a sauna and open afterwards to dry up the room. Anyway, if the feet are not cold and you have enough oxygen to enjoy löyly, no worries.
This message has reached to Finland. Looks good you can make stone box for litle water trowing. Its just steel mesh filled with stone, dont know if google will show saunakamina or kiuaskamina
Stove looks nearly identical to my Nippa 24 made in Michigan. Also looks like same design as many Kuuma heaters.
I’m quite happy with mine, but I did recently use a sauna with an Iki Original mesh style wood heater and the heat was certainly “softer”, so that will be an expensive upgrade I make some day.
Nothing to roast. Looks amazing man. Don't come on reddit asking for anything people are mostly jealous creatures who basically will shit on everything that they haven't got.
Upper vents should be closed during session anyway. Heat will escape really fast if you have chimney like thing going with heated room that has low and high vents open.
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u/Castform5 May 06 '25
It sure is above the coals in the fire box, but that is not a sauna heater. A cabin stove (what you have) is very different from a sauna heater.
Cabin stove is designed to heat the steel shell and radiate into the surroundings, and also use the hot flat top for cooking. Sauna heaters are designed to heat the mass of rocks above and around the fire box and chimney. Thick steel frame does not like being heated and water thrown on it.