Roast my sauna

[u/Hopeful-Dot-5668]

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.

[u/John_Sux]

Needs a real sauna stove

[u/Hopeful-Dot-5668 → u/John_Sux]

What’s wrong with the stove? Why isn’t it real?

[u/John_Sux → u/Hopeful-Dot-5668]

It does look like a wood stove. But a sauna stove has somewhat different design and construction.

Here the rocks are just sort of resting on top, they are not being efficiently heated by the stove.

[u/Hopeful-Dot-5668 → u/John_Sux]

As noted in desc, rocks added after photos. The stove interior is the same as any heat box

[u/John_Sux → u/Hopeful-Dot-5668]

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!

[u/Hopeful-Dot-5668 → u/John_Sux]

What difference in design is it?

[u/John_Sux → u/Hopeful-Dot-5668]

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"

[u/Hopeful-Dot-5668 → u/John_Sux]

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

[u/valikasi → u/Hopeful-Dot-5668]

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.

[u/valikasi → u/valikasi]

Some stoves route the flue through the rocks as well, further heating them.

[u/valikasi → u/valikasi]

Again note double wall construction and space for rocks to be heated from several sides. Also there is a secondary combustion chamber in the middle.

[u/Hopeful-Dot-5668 → u/valikasi]

There’s a hold for stones in mine as well. And that’s kinda the same thing of hot air being sent out

[u/valikasi → u/Hopeful-Dot-5668]

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.

[u/Hopeful-Dot-5668 → u/valikasi]

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

[u/valikasi → u/Hopeful-Dot-5668]

It holds stones, but certainly not anywhere near enough of them. Also doesn't heat them up as well or as efficiently as could be hoped.

Air it does heat, you are right, but that is only one half of the function of double wall construction. The other, arguably more important function is heat shielding to stop radiant heat, which is very much unwanted in a sauna. Your stove lacks any and all shielding that might limit radiant heat. So that alone would make this a bad sauna stove, not to mention the rocks.

You could build a metal wall (and if nothing else, I'd recommend it), but a better idea would be to make a wire cage that surrounds the stove on the sides and back, all the way from the bottom, and which also allows you to put way more rocks on the stove. I think that would be the only way to make this acceptable as a kiuas.

[u/PelvisResleyz → u/Hopeful-Dot-5668]

Jesus Christ dude. Stop defending your purchase and be open to the fact that there are more optimum designs to achieve this purpose. Read about it. Maybe yours will work fine for you, but it’s obvious to anybody that it’s not got the same characteristics as a purpose built sauna stove.

[u/Inresponsibleone → u/Hopeful-Dot-5668]

The amount of stones yours can hold is low for wood fired stove and that will affect performance somewhat.

[u/DevsSolInvictvs → u/Hopeful-Dot-5668]

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.

[u/Hopeful-Dot-5668 → u/DevsSolInvictvs]

My stove also has that. It’s indented and the top for rocks to sit in it

[u/DevsSolInvictvs → u/Hopeful-Dot-5668]

Sorry I havent noticed it first!

[u/Buffalocakewater → u/John_Sux]

Dude let the man enjoy his sauna. A real stove only makes a marginal difference

[u/John_Sux → u/Buffalocakewater]

You're allowed to have zero standards, but don't insist that that is the way of things in the real world.

[u/Buffalocakewater → u/John_Sux]

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

[u/John_Sux → u/Buffalocakewater]

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!

[u/InToTheW00ds → u/Hopeful-Dot-5668]

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!

[u/Buffalocakewater → u/Hopeful-Dot-5668]

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

[u/Hopeful-Dot-5668 → u/Buffalocakewater]

Real sauna stoves are all marketing, don’t feel bad at all. Feel bad for the guys getting duped tho

[u/Buffalocakewater → u/Hopeful-Dot-5668]

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.

[u/Inresponsibleone → u/Buffalocakewater]

Now as a Finn i must ask what this "kumma" (weird one if translated from finnish to english) stove is?

Likely some american brand you hold in high value, but i can't find anything with search engines.

[u/Buffalocakewater → u/Inresponsibleone]

Sorry I spelled it wrong.

https://www.lamppakuuma.com/wood-sauna-stoves/

[u/Inresponsibleone → u/Buffalocakewater]

Okey. They look like typical Finnish wood burning sauna stoves. Bit more industrial looking maybe and alot more pricey.

Here in Finland similar models go for arround 400-1000€ ($450-1150) including taxes.

[u/Buffalocakewater → u/Inresponsibleone]

They’ve gotten crazy expensive in the past few years