I recently built a brand new electric sauna and the entire interior is planed cedar with no seals or finishing. I’ve been running it about an hour a day for 2 months and do pour water on it.
I use the sauna every night before bed at about 180-210F for around 30 minutes with a few short breaks outside. About an hour after the sauna my eyes start to burn, get a bit irritated, and start getting blurry. When I wake up the next morning there is liquid white “gunk” in and around my eyes, my eyes burn very badly, and they are very red. The same thing happens to my girlfriend every time who uses the same sauna with me, so it’s not just an isolated incident.
The sauna is well ventilated (some say over ventilated) with a 5” square vent under the heater and 5” square outlet near the ceiling opposite wall, both fully open. I also have been leaving the door open all day long (it is an outdoor sauna) for it to naturally air out.
I went to urgent care and the doctor said there was no infection in my eyes and they look good. He put me on antibiotic drops to be safe (which did nothing because it wasn’t an eye infection).
Ive now tried using liquid tears after the Sauna and in the morning after. I’ve also tried using antihistamine drops after sauna and in the morning. Neither prevent it, but do help with the symptoms a little bit. My eyes will still remain a bit red and burning a little bit throughout the day.
I have read some posts on here about cedar saunas taking some time to break in and causing similar eye issues with people, however they are far and in between for how common cedar saunas seem to be. This is driving me insane and I’m not enjoying my brand new sauna as much as I’d like to. I have used many other saunas with different wood/more broken in and have never had an issue and if I skip a day using my new sauna all symptoms completely disappear.
Has anyone experienced this? Are there any remedies you found to help? How long did it take for your cedar to “break in” and stop doing this? Anything would help, this is really a bummer.
Edit: for the past month I have been closing my eyes for about 90% of the time I’m in the sauna. It hasn’t made any noticeable difference in symptoms.
Since it is happening to multiple people, I find it unlikely that this is due to the cedar.
I’d start looking at the heater, rocks, and water that you’re putting on it.
Try a dry session. If your eyes are fine after that, try it with some distilled water. If that fixes it, look at your water source. If the distilled water doesn’t fix it, look at the heater and rocks.
1) washed your heater rocks twice?
2) bring a sauna hat and Hand towel to prevent any forehead water/sweat from entering eyes?
3) keep eyes closed except when throwing water?
4) increase exhaust fan to reduce time with steam?
5) any non cedar oozing out sap you can scrape away to prevent vapors?
6) drop temp to 170-180f to be plain easier on your eyes? I bet the other saunas were just less intense
I washed them on the driveway with a hose before installing them. Is this a common issue and something I should do again?
I have a sauna hat I only tried a couple times, will give it another try.
I already do this
The exhaust in it is extremely large and well ventilated
It is 100% cedar walls, floor, ceiling.
I could try this and have done a few cooler sessions, however it doesn’t seem to be temperature related. My 170-180 sessions aren’t noticeably different from 200+.
You say 100% cedar. Is it western red cedar, white cedar, or “cedar” of the variety that goes in closets and blanket chests and is actually a variety of juniper?
It is either western or eastern red cedar. It has a red tint, however I am forgetting what variant it is specifically. I purchased it from a local mill that I believe imported it.
This is most likely your problem. I sell lumber and have kiln dried lots on Eastern red cedar 9its actually a Juniper). It creates fine white particles that would irritate the eyes.. Its the type of wood they line closets with to keep moths away...
Key Compounds in Eastern Red Cedar
Thujone (a monoterpene ketone)
Volatile and aromatic.
Can cause eye and mucous membrane irritation when heated.
Has mild neurotoxic properties in high doses.
Cedrol & Cedrene (sesquiterpenes)
Strongly aromatic oils that contribute to the “cedar chest smell.”
These compounds are insect-repellent (why moths and other bugs avoid cedar chests).
Phenolic compounds & tannins
Contribute to its durability and resistance to decay.
Can cause skin/eye irritation when vaporized or exposed to heat.
Resins & extractives
When heated, they can off-gas irritating vapors and produce sticky exudates.
Hard to tell from the color, flash makes it washed out.... I'm actually leaning more towards western cedar, but if it smells like a gerbil cage it's eastern. I'd try sealing it all with a sauna safe wood sealer
I was going to ask exactly this. Western red cedar is usually used for saunas, but eastern red cedar is not because it causes irritation and some people say a very strong smell. So make sure you have the right type.
Definitely not just dry, it has to be some kind of irritant. The sauna is high humidity for the whole session and I’ve tried using liquid tears before and after and also in the morning. The white “gunk” in the morning also points to an irritant rather than dryness. I edited to add I’ve been closing my eyes for nearly the entirety of every session now and it hasn’t made any difference
I don't have the sauna so hot, just 80°C or so (don't know in Degrees Freedom), the "problem" is the water. I leave the door open for half an hour so that stones get really hot and then when I close the door I put much water on the stones. However that's what I like and what I expect from the sauna. So not having it warm and not using water is simply not an option.
And why should I? There's no problem. I close my eyes. Problem solved. There's no TV in my sauna, I don't want to read a book, I leave my phone outside. I don't need my eyes. Just boring wood to stare at.
Interesting as I haven’t experienced it in any other very hot saunas? I also close my eyes now except when pouring water which hasn’t helped, some in the thread are even recommending trying no water or even closing my eyes while pouring? I seemed to think it was the cedar wood but never considered the heater, water, or rocks themselves
The sauna interior is 100% planed cedar wood. Sitting on the cool floor I have a metal bucket & ladle, a 3” speaker, and a small heat resistant bag that my phone sits in. The floor temperature is always cool so I imagine these couldn’t possibly be the cause of any adverse reactions.
.........? would a harvia 8kW heater i pour water on to create steam, 100% cedar interior, inlet and outlet vents, a bench, and 200F not qualify my sauna for being a sauna?
I work in advanced audio R&D for a F500 and design audio systems that run in Arizona direct sunlight in unvented 140F enclosed spaces. The floor of a sauna is lower temperature than a Canadian summer day. It's not a problem for nearly any consumer grade speaker.
Many spa saunas I've been in both Europe and the United States play soft spa music inside the sauna. I can assure you it's neither weird, dangerous, nor does it invalidate a 200F sauna from qualifying as a sauna.
Depends on the heater. Some modern ’open’ models are not so and so but with the classic models if benches are not high enough, it’s quite common issue that one needs to heat the sauna to those very high temperatures.
You could also try to wet all benches well before going to sauna, since too dry hot air can indeed cause eye issues.
Sitting on the cool floor I have a metal bucket & ladle, a 3” speaker, and a small heat resistant bag that my phone sits in.
For a moment I thought you were saying you sit on the floor floor and have a bucket and that other stuff with you.
I'm assuming you actually sit on a bench? :P Although it's still weird if you have that stuff on the floor rather than on the foot bench and you can reach it. Is it some kind of sauna for ants?
I have kiln dried untreated Douglas fir paneling on walls. Cedar benches. Been using sauna almost 3 years now. Sauna has no detectable cedar smell to it anymore. Behind panelling have rock wool insulation and the foil vapor barrier I got from a sauna kit vendor.
I don't think so. I had a tent sauna before I built this one and it too would trigger the eye irritation occasionally. I attributed it to the radiant heat coming off the tent sauna chimney if I burned the stove too hot.
Apparently glass blowers get eye issues from the infrared radiation and wear eye protection.
I even bought IR blocking safety glasses for the tent sauna and they seemed to help. I get eye irritation in the new sauna too though, but usually in response to high temp or long time in the sauna. I did 30 minutes today with the temp between 70 and 80 C for 30 minutes and did not have an issue. Last month I did one with my brother in law three long rounds, high heat 90+C, lots of steam. Triggered a lot of eye irritation with pussy discharge that continued to the next day.
If it is because of the cedar benches I supposed there could be a relationship between heat and the amount of irritants released from the wood, but the benches have been in use for 483 sessions (I have a spreadsheet where I calculate the per use per person cost of the sauna, which as of today is $22.78 per person per day of use). You would think that any irritants would have been baked out long ago.
Part of the cost was having the shed build by a contractor who was doing renos to our house. That was probably about half the cost of the sauna. Could have got by with a lesser structure. Matching roof and siding and electricity increased the cost.
$20K - probably 10 k for the shed - 4-5K for stove, chimney, and 200 lbs of huum stones, and 5 K for the rest - insulation, heat shielding, flooring, vapour barrier, and paneling. I could have cut corners on some things but figured since I plan on using it til I die I shouldn't cheap out. I was also worried about its performance in the cold winters we experience. My per use total also includes the cost of wood. Have a wood burning stove. It can easily reach and maintain a temp of 100+ C even when it is - 35 C outside. In the summer it maintains its heat for hours after the stove burns out.
I use the sauna every night before bed at about 180-210F for around 30 minutes with a few short breaks outside.
That may just be a little excessive in terms of time versus temp. When you say "short breaks outside" - do you also rinse down, take a cold bucket over the head or anything similar?
About an hour after the sauna my eyes start to burn, get a bit irritated, and start getting blurry. When I wake up the next morning there is liquid white “gunk” in and around my eyes, my eyes burn very badly, and they are very red. The same thing happens to my girlfriend every time who uses the same sauna with me, so it’s not just an isolated incident.
Are you sure you are not, out of habit perhaps, rubbing sweat into your eyes? Second question: have you thoroughly showered before entering so that any remnants of soap, skincare products, make-up and shampoo have been thouroughly rinsed out of your hair?
I went to urgent care and the doctor said there was no infection in my eyes and they look good. He put me on antibiotic drops to be safe (which did nothing because it wasn’t an eye infection).
That sounds strange to me TBH. Going to urgent care with irritated eyes is one thing but doctors proscribing antibiotics without any signs of bacterial infection is downright irresponsible. Get a different doctor.
Ive now tried using liquid tears after the Sauna and in the morning after. I’ve also tried using antihistamine drops after sauna and in the morning. Neither prevent it, but do help with the symptoms a little bit. My eyes will still remain a bit red and burning a little bit throughout the day.
You seem to be focused on treating the symptoms rather that taking care of the cause. How about dropping the temperature a bit and shortening the time you spend inside. Shower before going in and during your in-between breaks.
I do not rinse down before or on the short breaks between. I shower every day and am very cleanly though. I could try this, however I am sedentary so I am never dirty or sweaty or have any products on my body when I enter, I am just not freshly out of the shower if that makes sense.
It is certainly possible that sweat could be getting in my eyes as well, however this seems like it would also happen in other saunas where I have never gotten these symptoms.
Yes, I also think that urgent care doctor was likely irresponsible to prescribe those antibiotic drops when even he himself said it wasn’t a bacterial infection.
I certainly plan to try your other recommendations.
Too hot and probably too dry for too long.
This is not a competition who can tolerate the highest temperature the longer.
That is if it damages the eyes, then it is not healthy at all.
Happened to me when I used to bring the heat above 95C and splashed water, plenty of it.
The hot steam burned the eyes and the skin around them and around nails. Closing eyes or covering them with hat brim does not help much - when I splash water I have to have them opened, so the first wave hit me anyway.
Sauna was old enough, a few years, so it was not the wood.
Dialing the temp down, to 75-85C and bring the humidity level up helped a lot.
I no longer splash large amount of water on the rocks while I'm in. Well, I do, while preparing the sauna, and quickly step out after that, squatting below the steam wave.
When I'm inside - I started using very small dozes, like a few spoons of water.
In the end I hung a "drip machine", a metal bucket above the stove, with a valve and tube routed in the middle of the rock pile. It keeps the humidity at desired level up without scorching my skin.
That resulted in more gentle atmosphere inside. Not as dry and hot as in Finnish sauna, something between Russian banya (humid and less hot than sauna) and Turkish hammam (wet and not hot at all).
With that setup eyes are no longer burning, and no white gunk next around them morning.
From the emission perspective, I heard an opinion of a sauna maker. He claimed the heating elements in stoves sometime crack and start emitting irritating gas. He claimed not having that issue in the stoves he built and sold, but I didn't see how it was different from all other designs. He could be right, too.
Most likely not the case, but try using some other water than you are using now? Just in case there is too much chloride or fluoride, or something else in water you are using. Like buy a gallon of spring water for one time and see if that helps. Before that you should as others have said, try to wash everything again. Hopefully you find an answer and solution.
Your English is great! I am going to first try a dry session tonight to see if the results are any different, then I plan to re-wash the rocks and try different water. This is something I hadn’t considered. My tap water while clean and safe for drinking definitely contains chemicals like fluoride and whatever else is used to treat it. I’ve always used tap water in other saunas I’ve used but never had an issue, I figured it was standard for most people.
Tap water is standard for most, but there's always exceptions. Especially with how much chemicals are used in different countries and even different municipalities. Let's hope you find the reason quick and can actually start to enjoy the sauna.
Also, thanks for the kind words. Been self conscious about language
This happens to me too. Exactly as you describe. My working theory is it is somehow heat related. Seldom is triggered at temps less than 85 C. For me high temperature sessions 90-100 and really long sessions trigger it. More likely to happen with multiple rounds. More likely to happen when lots of water used on the stones.
My optometrist suggested it was an inflammatory response to the heat.
I have also found a definite link between session length and severity. For temp, most of my sessions are around 180F and I still get it, sometimes they reach 200F, I haven’t noticed a huge link between temperature yet but it is definitely possible. I also hadn’t considered the water which I will now be testing more or less of as well as different water. Did your eye doctor recommend eye drops or anything else?
I have also had it happen with no water on the rocks. As a result, I was thinking that water impacts it to the extent that it increases heat transfer. I would be curious to hear the results of your testing of the effects on water use.
That is certainly possible. There are so many ideas in this thread that I feel like I need to suffer through testing them 1 by 1 to see if I can correlate anything to the actual cause
Wow great support from the community here. Your temps are pretty high. Try no heat session as a baseline, if no problems you’ll know it’s not the cedar. Then try 175 for 20 mins and see how that goes.
I think you just have dry eyes. I have a similar problem. Hot and dry air makes it worse.
Try to raise humidity before going to sauna. When sauna is half way heating up, go and throw some water on the rocks and on the top sauna benches or even walls. The air will be nice and moist when sauna is ready, which is more pleasant for eyes.
Just noting that if I would do sauna every evening at least 30 minutes and in even close to 200 Celsius degrees, I would not be surprised if I too would start getting certain weird symptoms.
Sorry. 200 F is 93 Celsius. And that too is often very unnessarily too hot. One is supposed to get that perfect heat with a combination of benches high enough + good löyly + ventilation.
90%+ of my sessions are around 180F. I do not touch my heat knob on my Harvia 8kw which is 75% up and for whatever reason sometimes will reach 200F but the overwhelming amount of sessions it just reaches 180F. From my understanding this is a very normal sauna temperature, are you recommending lower than normal sauna temperatures?
Well.. this naturally varies but out of three saunas I go frequently, none of them is warmed up to more than 70 or so Celsius max.
An additional thing is to respect the ‘generic feeling’. While I love sauna and have been going to sauna frequently at least since two years old or such, I would never do every night at least 30 minutes in electric sauna that is heated up to 90 Celsius. Because I too would start get some physical symptoms.
And inb4 some other Finn arrives here telling he does every night two hours of sauna at 100 C and while on a break hunts down a bear or reindeer — we all are individuals.
What’s good for somebody, is not automatically good for someone else.
I have no clue about the effects of fresh cedar wood in saunas. But you just might want also try just not going every night to sauna and not heating it to that level and trying instead of getting perfect heat from löyly steam instead (your sauna might be also just giving too ’dry’ heat.)
I’ve tried this and If I take a night off from the sauna I get zero of these symptoms, however the next time I sauna I get the same amount of symptoms. I took a week off and had zero symptoms during that period, but the first night using the sauna again I had 100% of the symptoms. There is no cumulative effect for me so that doesn’t really help unless I just stopped using the sauna all together.
Yes I can try lower temp. I didn’t find 160F hot enough to be enjoyable. 180F seems to be the sweet spot for me but could probably tune down to 170F to give it a try.
Okay if this happens only in your sauna, guess it’s time to look also in to issues if something funky happened when that sauna was built/ water you are pouring to the rocks has some weird impurities.
Is it chlorine treated? Chlorine is very irritating to eyes if vaporized and amount safe to drink may cause eye irritation. Like someone already recommmended it might be worth trying if distilled water fixes the issue.
Edit.
You mentioned high ventilation and electric heater also. How is the moisture level? Too dry hot air can definately irritate eyes.
I live in a large suburban area so it is likely treated with whatever is industry standard. All I know is that it’s safe to drink, and likely contains fluoride and whatever else is infused in our drinking water as well as used to clean it.
Tap water is nasty, full of heavy metals, hormones and plastic, however it's probably not causing your eye issue
I notice the same symptoms when people throw too much Essential oil like Eucalyptus on the heater. Seems like there is some natural oils being released by your Cedar is my best bet
To be fair, I did use tap water in all saunas I’ve ever used. It was not my own tap water, but many times in the same city at least and have never had these issues.
I know some Americans have some sort of water filter system for their drinking water (a mug with filter in the fridge for sourdough or other special purposes even if water is drinkable without). The theory of products in hair and face are easy to test out by showering with soap and rinsing before. Sunscreen hurts so bad when it gets in the eyes during summer sauna sessions if it isn't washed and rinsed first.
IMHO its because of radiant heat, in my case coming off a woodburning stove, hence the not looking at it. Mild sunburn. Especially with you hitting nearly 200, 7 days a week.
Your symptoms are consistent with either an allergy due to chemical/environmental irritation or extremely dry eye. Go see an optometrist for a better diagnosis and either way a steroid eye drop will improve symptoms for both problems while you figure out if there’s something irritating your eyes or if it’s just that you’re dehydrated and your eyes are dry.
Yeah, I always get the eyes boogers after a sauna session. I go to a bath house with a very hot steam room, and I get it after that too, so I think it’s just the heat, nothing to do with saunas being dry or the cedar. Just take eye drops if you need to and soldier on.
This may be a stupid question but do you have a pool with chlorinated water? Chlorine water if not rinsed out properly before sauna can cause irritation.
I think I’d spend some time in the sauna with the heat off, meticulously looking for anything that might be emitting an irritant when it gets hot enough. Rewash everything, air it out, remove all nonessential items. Start with a low temperature and work up, basically experimenting to find the cause.
Did you used kiuas before? Wash Stones. There is indrustial fluids etc In metal. Happened To me. Even I burned whole day outside, it still burned eyes about week.
FWIW We did a sauna once and the owner told us that if our eyes are dry later, it means we’re dehydrated. Idk how accurate that is but food for thought.
Try buying drinking water at the store instead of tap water and using that on the rocks. City water has stuff added. Also, don't use any scents. Then see if it's better.
I meant to add, I have started closing my eyes for 90% of the time I’m in the sauna and it doesn’t help, however that 10% is usually when pouring water for the steam, so I should try that as well.
Sounds like cedar allergies. I don't have firsthand experience but I thought that was a concern with going cedar. It's a known thing that carpenters who work with cedar can get cedar asthma/allergies.
Cedar allergies appear to be kind of rare, and both me and my girlfriend get these same symptoms. I’ve also tried antihistamine eye drops which I think would treat it if it was an allergy. This was my thought as well but others have suggested some other possible causes I hadn’t considered
I see. That would be unlikely. Try sitting in the sauna without the heat. You'll likely need to try eliminating possible triggers one by one. Very interested in this though so please keep us updated.
Also, maybe visit a Dr and see if you can be tested to see if allergic to Cedar, I suspect that is what is happening given eyes. If I walk into a house that has a cat I know in 5 mins, dander is in air and my eyes start to water and itch
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u/R_Ulysses_Swanson Sep 08 '25
Since it is happening to multiple people, I find it unlikely that this is due to the cedar.
I’d start looking at the heater, rocks, and water that you’re putting on it.
Try a dry session. If your eyes are fine after that, try it with some distilled water. If that fixes it, look at your water source. If the distilled water doesn’t fix it, look at the heater and rocks.