Infrared vs. Traditional Sauna: Which Should You Buy?

Every price below comes from our store as of October 1, 2026, and the temperature, power and warm-up figures come from Cleveland Clinic, the North American Sauna Society and the manufacturers' own specifications. Sources are listed at the end.

Infrared and traditional side by side

How each one heats

The difference is where the heat goes. Mayo Clinic puts it simply: a regular sauna warms the air, and the warm air warms you, while an infrared sauna heats your body directly without warming the air around you.

• Traditional: an electric heater, wood stove or propane gas heater heats a basket of stones, and the stones heat the room. The whole room gets hot, including the air you breathe.
• Infrared: panels on the walls give off radiant heat, the same kind of warmth you feel from the sun on a cool day. The North American Sauna Society describes it as heat sent straight to your body rather than to the air or stones.

Our Finnmark infrared saunas are "full spectrum": they combine long-wave carbon panels with Finnmark's short-wave Spectrum Plus heaters, and they also have near-infrared and red lights in the ceiling.

How hot it gets, and how it feels

Cleveland Clinic gives typical ranges of 110 to 135°F for an infrared sauna and 150 to 195°F for a traditional one. In a traditional sauna you feel the hot air on your face and in your lungs. In an infrared sauna the air feels milder and the warmth builds in your body, so you sweat at a lower air temperature.

Finnmark rates its full-spectrum FD-1, FD-2 and FD-3 to 170°F, warmer than a typical infrared room, and says they reach it in under an hour. Even so, the North American Sauna Society defines a sauna as a room that reaches at least 150°F where you sit, and it calls infrared rooms a "heat therapy room" rather than a traditional Finnish sauna.

Steam: the biggest difference

In a traditional sauna you can ladle water onto the hot stones. The burst of steam, called löyly in Finnish, makes the room feel hotter for a moment and raises the humidity. The North American Sauna Society says this is how the bather controls the room, and that the common American belief that you shouldn't put water on the stones is wrong.

An infrared sauna has no stones and no steam. You never pour water on the panels. If steam matters to you, you want a traditional heater, or a combination sauna that has one.

Warm-up time

• Traditional: Harvia says its electric heaters run at full power for the first 30 to 40 minutes, depending on the room size, insulation and the temperature you set.
• Infrared: Finnmark says its full-spectrum saunas reach 170°F in under an hour.

Either way, most people switch the sauna on and come back when it's ready. Finnmark's FD-6 and FD-7 barrels have Wi-Fi control, so you can start them from your phone.

Power and installation

This is where infrared saves the most money.

• Finnmark FD-1 and FD-2: 1,450 and 1,750 watts on a standard 120V, 15-amp household outlet. There is no circuit to add, but use an outlet with nothing else big running on that circuit.
• Finnmark FD-3: 3,150 watts on a 240V, 15-amp outlet. Most homes don't have one where the sauna goes, so plan on an electrician adding it. Angi puts the national average for a 240V outlet at about $220.
• Traditional electric heaters: most are hardwired to their own 240V circuit, sized to the heater. HUUM's U.S. manual, for example, calls for a 30-amp breaker for 6 kW, 40 amps for 7.5 kW and 50 amps for 9 kW. Our home sauna cost guide covers what that wiring typically costs.
• Wood-burning stoves: no electricity at all, just a chimney and the clearances in the manual.
• Propane gas heaters: no electricity and no chimney, just a propane cylinder and the air intake and exhaust openings in the manual, as with our gas sauna heaters.

There are small exceptions. The Harvia Vega Compact heater in the Finnmark FD-4 combination sauna is a 1.9 kW traditional heater that runs on 120V, on its own 20-amp circuit.

What it costs to run

At the U.S. average residential rate of 18.31 cents per kWh (EIA, July 2026):

*Traditional figures assume an hour and a half at full power to cover warm-up plus a session. That is a ceiling, because the thermostat cycles the heater off once the room is hot. Infrared figures assume one hour at full draw.

What each type costs in our store

Infrared

The heat source is built in, delivery is free, and there is nothing else to buy:

Traditional

With a traditional sauna you are buying a room and a heater, and some brands put both in one price:

• Kohler Indoor Sauna Kit: heater, stones, control panel and lighting included, from $15,412.50 for up to 2 people in Scandinavian Spruce, or from $17,156.25 in Graphite Grey. The room runs on 240V.
• SaunaLife X2: a 1 to 2-person indoor kit with a glass wall for $6,789.75. The heater and stones are sold separately, and delivery is $950. Size the heater with our Heater Size Calculator.
• Outdoor: barrels, cubes and cabins start at $3,990 before the heater. Our guide to the best outdoor saunas compares them, and our DIY sauna guide prices a room you build yourself.

Both in one: combination saunas

Finnmark's combination saunas pair infrared panels with a traditional heater and stones, so you can run either one:

Finnmark rates the Trinity saunas to 170°F on infrared and 190°F with the traditional heater. On the FD-6 and FD-7 barrels, the infrared side plugs into a 120V, 15-amp outlet, and the barrels reach up to 185°F once a heater is added. The Harvia KIP45B Pkg is $1,214 in our store and comes with 44 lb of stones.

Which one should you choose?

• Choose infrared if you want the simplest install, a sauna for one or two people in a spare room, gentler heat, or the lowest running cost.
• Choose traditional if you want real heat and steam from the stones, the classic Finnish sauna, or a sauna outside. Most of the outdoor saunas we carry are traditional rooms.
• Choose a combination if the people using it want different things, or you can't decide and want to try both.

What about the health claims?

You will see plenty of claims for both types. Here is what the research actually looked at. The best-known long-term study followed 2,315 middle-aged men in eastern Finland for about 21 years and found that men who used a sauna more often had a lower risk of dying from heart disease and from any cause. Those were traditional Finnish saunas, and the study shows an association, not proof that saunas caused it. Research on infrared saunas is smaller, and Mayo Clinic says larger, more exact studies are needed. We sell saunas, not treatments, so talk to your doctor about what one can do for you.

Browse every infrared sauna, combination sauna and indoor sauna we carry, or call us and we will help you choose.