Sauna Pod by The Pod Company: The Painful Truth (+ 7 Lies)
Did you think your sauna prayers were answered when The Pod Company (podcompany.com) announced their new “sauna:” a 185 F hot air sauna pod?
No more of those stupid steam booths that reach only 113 F, not to mention even more ridiculous infrared box costumes.
Finally you can somewhat affordably get a portable dry sauna that gives you a “proper Finnish sauna experience” (direct quote from their website).
Gosh, I wish they had known what a colossal mistake they made when crafting that phrase. I’ll break it to you already in the intro: the Sauna Pod has 0% of Finnish sauna in it.
But don’t worry: if you’re someone who loves the idea of the Sauna Pod (short 1-person box, dry heat, no steam, no infrared light, portability) and already placed your order, there’s a chance you’ll like what you get.
So, let’s not confuse negativity and bitchiness with facts. I’m simply going to show the lies, red flags, and problems that I see with the Sauna Pod.
How The Pod Company Dupes Buyers with their Sauna Pod: 7 Lies, Red Flags & Other Problems
1. Using Finnish sauna as a selling point
The Pod Company says you get a real Finnish sauna experience with their Sauna Pod and makes four claims regarding the Finnish sauna, three of which are false.
According to these false claims, the Sauna Pod gives you:
- a “proper Finnish sauna experience”
- “authentic Finnish functionality”
- Finnish sauna that uses “heat to warm the air”
In reality, a Finnish sauna always comes with a sauna heater that has sauna rocks (that are NEVER optional), and the heater heats those rocks so that they produce steam (löyly) when you pour water on them.
The air heats as a by-product of that process. Sauna has always been about löyly and never about hot air alone.
This means there’s not an ounce of Finnish sauna in the Sauna Pod that doesn’t have a real sauna heater, doesn’t have rocks, and isn’t able to give you löyly as it’s not supposed to be used with water (that’s a must in any real sauna).
What’s laughable to me is the “authentic Finnish functionality” that couldn’t be further from the truth.
Anyone who thinks black cloth, a wobbly chair, and the complete absence of everything that makes sauna a sauna (wooden benches, sauna heater, water, necessary sauna accessories…) equals “Finnish functionality,” is beyond delusional.
A great example of Finnish functionality in a sauna is the guard rail around the sauna heater doubling as a footrest. So again, where is the Finnish functionality of the Sauna Pod?
The only thing The Pod Company got right is that Finnish sauna has been studied considerably more, with more promising results, than any other “sauna” and that infrared saunas don’t get hot enough for maximum health benefits.
2. Very little info provided on the heater
Although the electric heater the Sauna Pod comes with isn’t a sauna heater, it’s still the most crucial part of the entire product, so buyers should be given most details about it.
If The Pod Company truly knew saunas, they would be answering questions like these:
🔥 Since heat always rises up, and you’re sitting so low in the Sauna Pod, how do you get “even heat” that the company promises? In other words, how does the Sauna Pod defy the laws of physics?
💨 Does the heater work like a fan, pushing hot air upwards (since visible air holes are on top of the heater) or is the heater able to make air circulate somehow?
⚡ As you’re forced to sit right next to the heater, how do you maintain a safe distance?
It’s exactly the positioning that suggests air has to be directed up only since it’s too hot to be hitting you directly. But if this is not the case, it’s The Pod Company who should tell us how their heater works!
It’s absurd and sketchy that they’re offering the least information on an item that matters the most.
The few details we do get (1500W, “hot air” heater not meant to be used with water, resistance coils used for heat generation, and the material being metal and plastic) reveal that the Sauna Pod heater resembles a small, portable space heater the most:
It’s likely that if you placed an Amazon space heater like the one above (1500W, said to heat 200 square feet to 95 F quickly) in a super tiny booth that’s insulated, you’d reach the kind of sauna temperatures the Sauna Pod promises.
I definitely don’t recommend anything like that as it’s potentially dangerous and because IT’S NOT A SAUNA! 😭
I don’t understand why anyone who’s truly interested in saunas would proceed to fulfill their sauna dreams with a product that’s not a sauna. It’s like going to the store to get winter boots but returning home with a pair of socks.
But I wanted to show you just how affordable 1500W space heaters are (even the ones with good reviews), which maybe makes you reassess the $697 price tag on the Sauna Pod ($830 USD if you extend the warranty to two years).
Below we have a few inconsistencies that show the Sauna Pod doesn’t defy the laws of physics after all:
After trying to reassure readers of even and consistent heat several times, The Pod Company finally admits that air is hotter the higher you sit.
Last comments about the “powerful heater:” for reference, I recently had to replace my electric kettle, and the one I bought comes in 1750W. This means it’s not so much the power (1500W) that matters in Sauna Pod’s case but the fact that the pod is an ultimately tight space.
A powerful heater isn’t necessary when heating such a confined space.
The last thing the company doesn’t disclose is the country of origin: where is the pod and the heater made? My guess is China.
3. Extremely lightweight “sauna”
Some people are so excited about portability that numbers and digits almost lose their meaning. That’s why I made this comparison:
Above you can see my go-to dumbbells that weigh 35.2 lbs (16 kg), meaning they’re heavier than the Sauna Pod that weighs 31 lbs (14 kg).
If you watch the assembly video they provide (https://podcompany.com/products/the-sauna-pod), you can see the heater shakes after installation because the whole structure is so light.
Why any of this is seen as a pro beats me. Saunas aren’t meant to be light. They’re heavy and sturdy so that they last for decades.
The lighter the “sauna,” the more skeptical you should be.
4. Edited promo pictures vs. reality
Below we can see just how digitally enhanced the promo pictures are while reality looks much less glamorous.
The proportions are off as well since the chair is extra short as opposed to being “extra tall” like promised. The chair itself looks nothing like the promo picture.
The shape of the pod is more limp and less majestic than in the promo material where it’s like a modern space pod from a science fiction movie.
These discrepancies could be the result of several things, such as dropshipping, outsourcing, and a strong link to China. The truth looks much cheaper than the vision that’s being sold, which can’t be a good sign.
5. Vague (or fake) endorsements
According to The Pod Company, the Sauna Pod is endorsed by the best sports leagues and Andrew Huberman himself.
In reality, whenever a professional athlete or celebrity works with a brand, you’re not left guessing who that person was.
Besides, half of the logos are from past sports events (2022 & 2024) while the Sauna Pod was launched in spring 2025, making these future recommendations impossible.
Also, let’s not forget the obvious: many professional athletes are either wealthy or filthy rich, which means they can afford proper saunas and don’t have to resort to gimmicky “sauna” products.
Regarding Andrew Huberman, I have only bad news.
Either The Pod Company used Huberman’s likeness without permission, meaning he has nothing to do with the Sauna Pod (I’m guessing this is the case), or he really does endorse this product, which would make his diabolical sauna reputation even worse.
Also, I can’t get over just how stupid that quote is! Sauna isn’t primarily used for performance of any kind since there are far better reasons to sauna, such as enjoyment, relaxation, pain relief, and improved sleep.
6. Bogus health claims
These I have debunked so many times before that I’m not going to waste anyone’s time.
No, using a sauna won’t lead to detoxification because sweating is NOT the main way your body gets rid of toxins.
What about weight loss, then? Does sauna reduce belly fat, for example? NO, sauna use doesn’t lead to weight loss in the sense many people hope. It leads to temporary water loss, not fat loss.
Sauna use increases calorie burning so slightly that it doesn’t have a slimming effect.
7. The core problem: NO interest in creating a sauna
One thing I’ve started to pay more attention to as I age is companies that actually care about what they’re producing versus companies that just want to make money.
And I’m not even talking about ethics or lower profits but the real interest the original founder had in the product they started manufacturing.
(The McDonald brothers, for instance, weren’t nearly as interested in burgers as they were in streamlining their process in order to make as much money as possible, but many other global brands, such as Nike and Adidas, originally had true passion and shoe craftsmanship behind their products.)
So, was the Sauna Pod created with genuine passion for saunas? Absolutely not. It became very clear to me when I saw The Pod Company appealing to the best sauna research:
These two studies (the JAMA one was actually published in 2015 and the BMC one in 2018) are so known because they lasted for 15–20 years and had thousands of participants.
If The Pod Company truly cared about saunas and their health benefits, they wouldn’t have created a product that’s not a sauna! None of the participants in the studies above used a fake sauna like the Sauna Pod. They all used a Finnish sauna and enjoyed löyly!
As saunaing is not a performance, but psychologically rewarding, you’ll never get that feeling in a dry, claustrophobic black box with red lights and no löyly.
Let’s hear it from the sauna research power couple themselves, the same people responsible for the studies above (Laukkanen & Laukkanen 2020, p. 65):
“The most likely health-promoting factors of sauna are heat, humidity, and water.”
Hmm, who would’ve known? Well, EVERYBODY who actually knows something about saunas. The Pod Company clearly isn’t one of them.
Final Thoughts
Unfortunately, the Sauna Pod didn’t answer your sauna prayers. Instead, The Pod Company managed to bring yet another fake sauna on the market.
I’m trying to think in which order I’d rank the Sauna Pod, Nurecover, and Relax Sauna, but as they’re all terrible choices, maybe ranking them isn’t necessary. They’re equally bad but in different ways as their selling points are hot air, steam, or infrared radiation respectively.
If you want a real sauna as affordably as possible, your options are a sauna tent or building a sauna yourself (by using a kit).
However, since I know some people are so interested in the Sauna Pod that the first batch(es) sold out, I can think of one encouraging thing to say: if your idea of sauna is sitting in a drying cabinet, and you think you’d actually prefer it to a real sauna, then it’s likely you’ll love your new pod.
But if not, you can use it to dry your laundry!
Book source:
Laukkanen, Tanjaniina, & Laukkanen, Jari (2020). Sauna, keho & mieli. Docendo.
