The pandemic changed customer perspectives on all
home-based wellness and
relaxation products, from
swimming pools to spas to workout
equipment, and saunas were right
there in the mix. With more emphasis
on a healthier lifestyle, and an equal
focus on activities that bring the family
together, saunas saw a concomitant
boost in sales.
For some new home sauna
customers, it was the simple desire
to bring the features of the workout
facility home. For this group, in the
pandemic age and its aftermath, a
small unventilated room — which
puts one in very close proximity with
strangers — is problematic.
For others, as they built the
backyard empires that have marked
the last four years, as an integral part
of a fully developed wellness lifestyle,
saunas just fit right in. Especially in
winter, the sauna maintains a big draw
to that magnificent outdoor-living
haven, which in January features a closed swimming pool and a snowcovered
outdoor kitchen.
But for most new sauna converts,
given the health and wellness benefits
saunas offer, the product is simply a
good deal.
HEALTH BENEFITS
Each year, the sauna — once a niche
product from northern Europe —
becomes more mainstream in North
America. And for one simple reason:
The sauna’s benefits become more
widely understood and documented.
The physical and mental payoff of
regular sauna bathing have become
recognized by wellness authorities and
even the formal medical community.
Among these known benefits is an
increased heart rate, and while a half
hour session in the sauna is not the
equivalent of a jogging or swimming
session, it does offer a mild cardiac
workout of some sort. During a sauna
session, the heart rate can increase by
50% or more.
Another benefit of saunas is the
effect they have on blood vessels. The
heat causes blood vessels to expand
and therefore increase blood flow,
which helps directly in the healing
process, enabling the transport of cell-building
materials to the injured area.
Saunas are probably the oldest form
of detox. Toxins produced in the body
are expelled in a variety of ways, but a
significant proportion (approximately
30%) have to pass through the skin,
as the skin is the body’s largest organ.
The sweat produced during a sauna
session provides ample detoxification
for this organ without the effort and
expense of special cleansing diets. And
it’s more fun.
Along with a sweaty detox, the
high heat of a sauna raises the body’s
temperature creating a fever-like state.
When you get sick, a fever is the body’s
way of fighting off the disease. Bringing
your body into this state without
sickness helps prevent diseases like
cold and flu with an increased white blood cell count.
A BREAK IN THE BATTLE
But most users would say that the
biggest drivers of sauna growth are
the benefits it provides to the mind
and soul. It is a product that provides
direct stress relief — a major decision
driver in the early 20’s — and saunas fit that bill perfectly. Nobody can
emerge from a long soak in a sauna’s
ambient heat in a tight ball. A sauna’s
power to ease mental strain comes in
part from its unusual position in the
functionality of the home.
There is no other space in the
home that serves a single wellness and
enlightenment function. It is a room
unlike any other, built for a unitary
purpose, and that purpose is to raise
the level of health and spirit of the
user.
That focus is the reason why the
sauna escape is so effective — users
grow to expect the mental benefits
that are always to be found in the
small wooden room. And expectation
then becomes reality: When the sauna
is entered, there is only one goal
— departure from the multitasking
multiverse that creates the stress
of modern life. Even a short break
in the battle provides a chance for
detachment and evaluation. When the
door of a sauna is closed, the world
just melts away.
HEAT SOURCE
The practical business of the sauna
— heat — is generated in two
ways, either through infrared rays or
traditional convection, and the choice
of technology is determined by the
particular taste of the buyer.
For those who enjoy steam in the
sauna, higher temperatures or perhaps
the idea of hewing more closely the
same sauna methods that stretch back
literally for millennia, then a traditional
sauna will hold more appeal. This
type of sauna will often feature rocks
that heat up and produce steam when
hydrated with a ladle. For the sake of
convenience, electricity is the most
popular energy source of this type of
sauna heat, although wood-burning
and gas-burning saunas are available.
Most saunas using electric heat
will reach the desired temperature in
40 minutes to an hour. And there are
heaters designed to maintain a base
temperature of approximately 100
degrees Fahrenheit, which can cut the
heat-up time in half. Also, many of the
controls available allow homeowners
to preset a heat-up time of day to avoid
the wait.
For users that prefer lower ambient
temperatures and generally lower cost,
infrared saunas offer an attractive option. These saunas do not heat the
air in the sauna, just the user, so they
are ready for use faster than traditional
saunas.
This rapid availability of heat
can make infrared saunas part of a
workout, where the user can switch
it on, warm up muscles in the sauna,
and upon emerging from the unit,
be ready to exercise. Or, as part of
the workout recovery process, an
infrared sauna can be used to speed
up the blood flow and help the healing
process.
For those unfamiliar with the
physics involved, the use of the term
“infrared” juxtaposed with “sauna”
can cause confusion and even doubt,
but this is groundless. Infrared saunas
do use infrared radiation to heat the
body. But so do campfires, metal and
ceramic steam-fed radiators, and the
sun. Literally any warm body, such as
a rock or a human, produces infrared
rays and transfers heat.
In fact, traditional saunas also
create infrared rays that contribute
some heat to the user. The difference is that traditional saunas primarily use
convection to heat up the room and
the user, whereas an infrared sauna
primarily uses infrared rays as a heat
transfer mechanism to directly warm
the user.
THE WORD IS OUT
All of these factors continue to feed
the elevated, post-pandemic sales of
saunas: the growing body of research
that points to direct health benefits, the
growing body of anecdotal evidence
that points to mental health benefits,
and the now-well-established but
slightly diminishing surge in consumer
support for backyard wellness and
leisure products in general.
Retailers expect these trends to
continue, and believe the sauna
industry has fully emerged as a
mainstream product. Consumer
education is not as urgent as it once
was — the word has gotten out.
This article first appeared in the August 2024 issue of AQUA Magazine — the top resource for retailers, builders and service pros in the pool and spa industry. Subscriptions to the print magazine are free to all industry professionals. Click here to subscribe.
