I tried the cheapest sauna on Wayfair

This sauna is not made from cedar but is made from cheaper hemlock, which means you won’t get the same wonderful cedar scent you may be familiar with in classic saunas. However, Canadian hemlock has a pleasant woody scent that lingers after several months of use; It’s still a soothing place, smell-wise, even with all that sweat.

Quick and painless

Unlike traditional saunas, which can take a long time to preheat, this infrared model is quick and painless. You press the buttons on the built-in thermostat inside the door to decide how hot the device is and how long you want it to run and it starts heating immediately. I usually give it at least 20 minutes to warm up to the ambient temperature of the little box.

The built-in thermostat goes up to 149°F, but I wasn’t always able to get to around 145° after 45 minutes of preheating. The timer counts down from 99 minutes, so you can preheat it and then keep it running for as long as you want to sit. The sauna is lightweight and not well insulated, so I would keep it inside if I didn’t have the mild winter climate in Portland, Oregon.

There are infrared heating panels behind your legs, on the sides, under and behind your legs to provide relatively even heating of the body. I found that the floor heat could get a little warm if your feet were directly above the space next to a slice on the wood floor, but other than that, I was quite sweaty and overheated after a similar time in a traditional sauna.

Photo: Parker Hall

It’s nice to sit outside under the covered area, look at my garden, and sweat for a few minutes before heading to my non-gross, non-exercise bathroom. I really feel like I’m in a spa. I can pair with the built-in Bluetooth speakers and watch my latest show or meditate on YouTube.

If, like me, you can no longer regularly access a sauna at your gym and have discovered how much you miss your exposure time, there aren’t many options that are as affordable and easy to set up as these. I moved it between houses with no problems (the movers didn’t have to take it apart because it’s so light). How long this will last is a different question, and only time will tell, but it held up for me for several months.

You can’t share this experience with friends and loved ones, but that’s okay because I use the sauna time at the end of the day to unwind from social interactions. If you want to host sauna sessions in your home, you better do so Larger model or Traditional saunawhich Wayfair also sells, of course.