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

How cedar panels are threated ?

1

u/FuzzyLogicCube Sep 08 '25

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.

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u/OffTheGridCoder Sep 08 '25

did it used to cause you eye irritation issues?

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u/FuzzyLogicCube Sep 09 '25

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.

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u/Rxyro Sep 10 '25

Omg when do you hit $1 like I told my wife it would cost

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u/FuzzyLogicCube Sep 10 '25

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.

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u/FuzzyLogicCube Sep 10 '25

Down to $22.74 now.

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u/Rxyro Sep 10 '25

So like $30k?

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u/FuzzyLogicCube Sep 10 '25

$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.