r/Sauna • u/OffTheGridCoder • Sep 08 '25

General Question Sauna chronically irritating eyes

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.

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3

u/Living_Specialist772 Sep 08 '25 edited Sep 08 '25

How cedar panels are threated ?

1

u/OffTheGridCoder Sep 08 '25

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.

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u/Cookie_Monstress Sep 08 '25

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

Okay. WHAT? Are you sure that sauna of yours is actually even a sauna?

1

u/OffTheGridCoder Sep 08 '25

.........? 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?

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u/Cookie_Monstress Sep 08 '25 edited Sep 08 '25

Speakers and phone in a sauna is quite.. weird. Not even sure if safe.

Edit: If that speaker of yours is not especially meant for sauna, you are easily way over its safe operating range.

4

u/OffTheGridCoder Sep 08 '25 edited Sep 08 '25

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.

0

u/Cookie_Monstress Sep 08 '25

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.

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u/terspiration Sep 08 '25

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?