Traditional steam saunas (also known as regular or Finnish saunas) use a heating system to warm the air within an enclosed room. The heating system within the sauna works in tandem with a stack of stones to absorb heat and then radiate it throughout the room, creating a warm and relaxing atmosphere. The heat source can vary within the traditional steam sauna, ranging from wood-burning stoves, to electric heaters, or sometimes even gas-powered heaters.

Steam plays an essential role in the overall experience within a traditional sauna. You can control the level of humidity and moisture based on your heat tolerance, comfort level, and what type of experience you are hoping for. If you feel brave, you can pour more water on the heated stones to create a large cloud of steam and increase the overall humidity levels within the sauna. This combination of intense heat and humidity will induce relaxation and detoxification if you have accumulated a tolerance, and this is the sensation you are seeking.

While traditional saunas heat the air around you with hot stones and steam, infrared saunas use infrared light to generate heat. The infrared light penetrates your skin, deep into your muscles, cells, and tissue, raising your body temperature and promoting detoxification.

Infrared saunas often operate at lower temperatures than traditional saunas. The more manageable level of heat, combined with a lack of humidity, makes the infrared sauna experience more manageable and therapeutic for people. If you have ever used an infrared sauna, you know what we mean. The experience is relaxing, calm, and comfortable.

Steam saunas work by heating water to create pressurised steam that is released into an enclosed space.The steam creates a hot and humid environment that can have many health benefits, including:

• Improved circulation: Steam saunas can increase circulation, which can help deliver nutrients and oxygen to muscles and speed up recovery after exercise.  
• Reduced congestion: Steam can help loosen mucus and phlegm, which can help with colds, coughs, and allergy season.  
• Improved skin health: Steam can open pores and cleanse the skin.  
• Pain relief: Some studies have found that sauna sessions can improve pain, stiffness, and fatigue in people with chronic musculoskeletal diseases.  

Steam saunas are different from dry saunas, which are heated with hot rocks or a closed stove and have no humidity.

Infrared Light Vs Steam and Humidity

Both traditional and infrared saunas provide many health benefits, and when used appropriately, either method can leave you feeling like a new person. The major difference between the two is the use of deep and penetrating light in infrared saunas rather than stones, steam, and humidity in a Finnish Sauna.

Despite the benefits of a regular sauna, studies show that infrared saunas provide several additional benefits and is a superior system to improve your overall health and wellbeing. 

Additional Benefits of an Infrared Sauna:

1. Blood Circulation and Detoxification:

The deep, penetrating heat from an infrared radiation is like nothing else. The infrared light penetrates deep into your skin, muscles, joints, and tissue. This penetration helps to increase blood flow, reduce blood pressure, improve oxygenation, and therefore remove impurities and toxins within your cells. The sweat you produce during your session also helps dissolve harmful substances such as cholesterol or heavy metals that have accumulated in your body.

While a traditional sauna also helps to dissolve toxins in your body through sweat production, the additional penetration that comes with infrared saunas accelerates this process and creates much greater levels of detoxification.

2. Relaxation and Stress Relief:

Within the first few minutes of an infrared heat session, you will feel any anxiety you are experiencing leave your system, and it will feel like a weight has been lifted off your shoulders. Due to the reduced humidity, less intense heat, and gentle warmth you feel during an infrared sauna session, it is a more relaxing and stress-relieving experience than a traditional sauna. On the other hand, many people struggle to relax in a regular sauna. This is also common in another form of heat therapy: steam rooms. While some people love the sensation of intense humidity and steam, it can be overwhelming and smothering for others. 

Moreover, the infrared light, combined with the heat, releases serotonin and increases your brain’s dopamine levels, providing a similar endorphin rush you feel from exercise and an overall sense of joy and happiness.

3. Recovery and Pain Relief:

If you are struggling with pain, both infrared saunas and traditional saunas can be helpful in the recovery process. However, infrared saunas provide more significant relief and are more effective at improving recovery after exercise, relieving pain, and reducing overall muscle soreness.

The deep penetrating infrared light helps your blood vessels to dilate, improves blood circulation, and brings more targeted relief to the affected muscle, joint, ligament, or tendon. While offering some relaxation and relief, the traditional sauna does not provide the same focused health benefits and is not as helpful at targeting localised pain within your body.

Another incredible benefit of infrared technology is the capacity to help those suffering from chronic injury or pain. Chronic pain can be disheartening and debilitating, so infrared saunas are a great way to relieve the severity of this pain and help with your physical and mental struggles.

4. Improved Skin:

Both infrared and traditional saunas are excellent for your skin, mainly due to the extreme levels of sweat you achieve. The resulting sweathelps to cleanse your pores of toxins and expel dead skin cells.

Additionally, the increased blood circulation that you experience during an infrared sauna bath draws natural nutrients to the surface of your skin to minimise the discomfort of conditions such as acne or eczema.

Ceramic Infrared Heaters:

Ceramic infrared heaters are hollow rods that measure 650mm long and are 15mm in diameter and inside the rod is the heating element wound around a glass tube. The ceramic tube heats up and emits far infrared rays. These tubes are strategically located around the cabin to ensure that the user is heated from all sides.

Carbon Infrared Heaters:

Carbon heaters are large flat panels varying in size from 900mm by 100mm up to 1000mm by 600mm. these panels have a coating of minute carbon particles, which is how the infrared heat is created. These panels have a much larger surface area than the ceramic heaters so cover more of the cabin.

Which one should you choose?

One of the major benefits of infrared saunas is energy efficiency. Both ceramic heaters and carbon heaters have a lower energy output than traditional saunas as they work by directly penetrating the body to increase core body temperature from within. Traditional saunas heat the room and use steam to raise body temperature.

Carbon fibre heaters use less energy than ceramic heaters as they have lower surface temperatures while being able to heat the body more intensely and penetrate the infrared waves deeper. Ceramic heaters have to heat up to a maximum of 150°F to heat the entire sauna.

Since both carbon and ceramic heaters heat the body directly, the heat is more evenly distributed through the sauna, though ceramic heaters will create warmer spots directly in front of the heating panels which could result in cold spots further away from the panels.

Infrared saunas also operate at lower temperatures so people can usually withstand longer sessions. This means that users can enjoy more intense benefits through deeper sessions than they may be able to enjoy in a traditional sauna.

Carbon infrared sauna heaters penetrate the skin further due to the frequency of the infrared light waves. This has further health benefits, as the light waves are able to stimulate cell generation at a deeper level and helps to detoxify the body more.

One of the major differences between carbon and ceramic heaters is their life expectancy. As newer technology, carbon sauna heaters have a longer life expectancy (we guarantee ours for five years!). Their ability to operate at lower temperatures means that it takes longer for them to reach the end of their optimal usability.

On the other hand, ceramics are simpler and much cheaper to replace. Ceramic tubes must be heated to higher temperatures in sauna use, which means that over time they can become brittle and crack, but they are simpler to replace if this does happen.

Saunas that use carbon heaters are often more expensive but this cost may be outweighed by potential replacement costs in ceramic saunas.

Although ceramics are more brittle than carbon heaters, they still have an average lifetime of around 5,000 hours.

Ceramic is one of the most conductive materials available. Ceramic absorbs and radiates infrared waves at a higher rate than any other material which is why it is so regularly used in sauna production. Ceramic heaters produce infrared waves at a higher rate but carbon heaters produce longer waves which have slightly different benefits compared with shorter waves.

The choice between ceramic and carbon is ultimately a preference. Choosing a sauna is a big investment so carefully considering your options is advised. If you would like to speak to one of our sauna enthusiasts, get in touch today to find out more about your options.