Sunday, November 18, 2007

Home Sauna Advantages

By Pertti Olavi Jalasjaa

Many people first discover the joy of sauna bathing in a spa or a health club. Others may be introduced to the pleasures of the sauna by friends who already own their own traditional Finnish or far infrared sauna. However a person may experience a sauna bath for the first time and however wonderfully relaxing or invigorating that experience may be, it simply does not compare with the delight of being a home sauna owner.





With a commercial sauna or a residential sauna that belongs to a friend, you can never be sure of its availability, what other people have been using it, how clean the sauna is, or how properly it is being maintained. You also have only so much control over the sauna’s temperature, supplies and accessories.

If the sauna belongs to you, however, you can be in complete control of its operation, and you have access to it 24 hours a day, seven days a week. You don’t need to worry about who may have been in the sauna before you, not being able to sit or lay down where you want, or rules about what to wear or not wear in the sauna. It’s your sauna, so you can do with it just about whatever you wish.

In addition to control, two other great reasons to buy a home sauna are privacy and convenience. Public saunas may offer some good opportunities to socialize, but there’s never any guarantee that you’ll find complete peace, quiet and undisturbed alone time in a sauna that’s not your own. As for the positive social aspects of communal bathing, there’s nothing stopping you from hosting a sauna party at your place whenever you feel the need for fellowship. But when it’s two o’clock in the morning and you feel like soaking solo, your own home sauna is pretty much your only – and best – option.

Monetary cost is another important factor to consider. Certainly the initial expense of buying a home sauna can be significant, but the increasing number of sauna manufacturers and sauna dealers has resulted in more affordable prices on home saunas and sauna kits. Besides, imagine what it would end up costing you in membership fees and gas expenses to make use of the sauna at the nearest spa or gym on a daily basis for, say, the next 20 years. Now think how much easier and cheaper it would be just to walk a few steps into your bathroom, basement or backyard to utilize your personal sauna.

Perhaps the most important consideration of all is the many health benefits associated with regular sauna use. Increased cardiovascular strength, improved lung function, stress and headache relief, and alleviation of muscle stiffness and joint pain are just some of the positive health outcomes reported in medical studies that have examined the merits of sauna therapy. Given these findings, it seems logical that a home sauna owner would have the advantage over a gym or spa patron, as the sauna owner has fewer obstacles and deterrents to accessing the sauna on a consistent basis and, in turn, reaping the rewards of its use.

Today’s home saunas can be found in many styles and sizes. Available as permanent installations or portable devices, they can also vary significantly in how they operate. The far infrared sauna, for example, functions quite differently than the traditional Finnish dry sauna.

Prospective home sauna buyers would be wise to assess their individual needs and expectations and then conduct the necessary product research and analysis before making any final purchasing decisions. If you shop for, select, purchase and accessorize your home sauna with the appropriate amount of knowledge and confidence, you are almost guaranteed to know the tremendous delight of being a happy and satisfied home sauna owner.

Pertti Olavi Jalasjaa is the Finnish-born author of “The Art of Sauna Building,” an acclaimed reference book on sauna construction. He is also the general manager of Great Saunas, which has been manufacturing and selling high-quality saunas and sauna kits to sauna enthusiasts around the world since 1974. Visit Great Saunas online at http://www.greatsaunas.com.

Labels: Great Saunas, home sauna

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