I Tried the Cheapest Sauna on Wayfair

This sauna is not made from cedar, but from the cheaper hemlock, which means you won’t get the same gorgeous cedar scent you’re familiar with from more classic saunas. That said, Canadian hemlock has a wonderful woody scent that persists after months of use. Even with all the sweat, it’s still a calming place judging by the aroma.

Quick and painless

Unlike traditional saunas that take longer to warm up, this infrared sauna mode is quick and painless. You press a button on the thermostat built into the door to decide what temperature 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 small box.

The included thermostat goes to 149 degrees Fahrenheit, but I was able to consistently get it to about 145 degrees Fahrenheit only after 45 minutes of preheating. The timer counts down from 99 minutes, so you can preheat it and leave it on for however long you want to sit on it. The sauna is very light and not very well insulated, so if I were not using the sauna in Portland, Oregon’s mild winter climate, I would keep it indoors.

There are infrared heating panels behind the legs, sides, below and behind, which can heat the body relatively evenly. I found the floor heat can get a bit toasty if you have your feet right above the space beside a slat on the wooden floor, but otherwise I was fully sweating as much and feeling as overheated as I would be after a similar time in a traditional sauna.

It was nice to sit outside under the covered area, look at my garden, and sweat it out for a few minutes before heading to my non-icky, non-gym shower. It really felt like I was in a spa. I can pair with the built-in Bluetooth speaker and watch my latest show or YouTube meditation.

If you’re like me and don’t go to the gym regularly for saunas anymore and find how much you miss the heat exposure, there aren’t many options that are as affordable and easy to set up as this. I’ve even moved it between houses with no issues. (Movers don’t have to disassemble it because it’s so lightweight.) How long it lasts is another question and only time will tell, but it’s been holding up for a few months now.

You can’t share this experience with friends and loved ones, but that’s okay because I use sauna time at the end of the day to unwind with social interaction. If you want to host a sauna at home, you’d better larger model or traditional saunaand of course, Wayfair also sells them.