Advantages and Disadvantages of Home Saunas
If you are looking to add a touch of luxury to your home, whether you are designing your bespoke property, or similar looking to upgrade your existing one, a home sauna is the perfect choice.
Not only will a sauna bring a sense of luxury spa to your home life, using a sauna regularly also has a wide number of tangible health benefits, improving circulation, reducing stress, eliminating toxins, and soothing sore muscles.
In many countries, saunas are commonplace in domestic properties, but not quite yet in the UK, and many people are unsure as to whether this luxurious bathroom feature is really for them.
To help you make a more informed decision, we have put together this guide to the pros and cons of owning a home sauna:
Home Sauna Types
This first thing to note when beginning your home sauna research is that there are several different types of home sauna that you can install.
The most common of these include:
Traditional sauna
The classic sauna experience involves a wooden built room that is heated to around 70 degrees, fills with steam and creates a lovely home spa experience.
Traditional saunas are usually built from cedar, or a similar wood that does not warp or crack easily and is able to withstand exposure to a high amount of moisture.
Infrared sauna
Infrared saunas are a modern variation on the traditional sauna, where the body is heated directly, rather than heating the air nearby.
By applying infrared waves to the body of the user, sweating will occur at much lower ambient temperatures, around 40 degrees.
Infrared saunas can be used for much longer than traditional saunas as the lower heat is much more comfortable for the user and experienced users will spend as long as 30 minutes per session, compared to just 5-10 minutes in a traditional sauna.
Another one of the major benefits of opting for an infrared sauna is that there is no requirement for water or steam to be introduced into the room. This results in lower power requirements and means that the sauna can be located almost anywhere in the property.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Owning a Home Sauna
Home saunas are cheaper now than they have ever been, but they are still a significant investment to make, and like anything, there are a number of pros and cons to consider before you take the plunge.
Advantages of home saunas
Here are just a few of the fantastic benefits that home sauna owners enjoy:
Home spa experience
Enjoy all the luxury relaxation benefits of a spa experience from the comfort of your own home, with a home sauna that you can use whenever you want.
In fact, having a sauna in your own space that you don’t need to share with other gym or spa goers, makes this even more of a treat, allowing you the ultimate stress free relaxing experience.
Health benefits
Probably the most common reason that people install a home sauna is the wide range of excellent health benefits they provide.
Sauna sessions will help you flush the toxins from your body, literally sweating away unwanted substances such as nicotine and lead.
They will also help increase blood circulation, helping your body heal and aiding in the soothing of aching muscles. There is a good reason that so many professional athletes swear by saunas as a means of recovery.
A relaxing sauna session can also do wonders for your stress levels, giving you a break from the rush of every day life to sit and reflect.
One common myth to dispel, however, is that saunas should NOT be used as a weight loss tool. Any weight lost in the sauna is likely to be water weight, and replenishing this as soon as possible is essential to staying safe.
Increase home value
It is not only you who sees that advantages of having a home sauna.
They are also increasingly desirable among property hunters and having one installed now could see the value of your home go up when you finally come to sell.
Disadvantages of a home sauna
All sounds great so far? Well there are a couple of possible drawbacks to consider before you commit to installing a home sauna Scotland.
These include:
- Cost – Home saunas are coming down in cost, but they are still quite expensive, so you need to be sure that you are in a position to fit one into your budget.
- Space – Infrared saunas have made fitting a sauna into your home a lot easier but giving up valuable space inside your home might not be something you are willing to do.
- Maintenance – There is very little maintenance involved in home sauna ownership but you will need to clean the floor every so often if you have a water based steam room.