Thanks Wallace for sharing your experiences on self-modified Sauna Pod 2.0. Even though it shouldn’t be the customer’s job, trying to improve the product makes sense. I saw someone on a YouTube video throw a blanket on top of their pod, so I guess it’s what others are doing, too, and a good place to start the troubleshooting that seems so necessary with this product.

Good thinking with the fan! Needing one in the first place confirms that the promised “even heat” isn’t a thing, just as suspected.

That 40% humidity felt high at first, as the heater only provides dry heat and no humidity. (A real, heated sauna typically has a relative humidity of around 20% (or less) in the beginning, and around 40% (or more) only when approaching the end of the sauna session after you’ve poured plenty of water (löyly) on the sauna rocks.) So either you live in a humid climate, or what’s more likely, as you sweat and breathe in such a confined space, and that moisture has nowhere to go, that’s the humidity the hygrometer is sensing.

Thanks for your well-educated comment, Donal! It’s interesting to hear from someone living in Ireland where I didn’t stumble on any saunas myself. (There was a time when I lived and worked in Cork, Ireland. I’ve never seen more gray brick walls and dog poop on the streets than I did there. But the greenery was beautiful!)

How nice to come across someone so invested in Finnish sauna tourism that you visited a different sauna every day during your stay. I’m also happy to hear about your own sauna, and that clear improvements have happened with roofing since 2009.

I’m actually very glad you brought up this temperature issue. What you’re describing comes down to specific public saunas vs. most home saunas. Since the absolute majority (95% +) of saunas in Finland are home/private saunas, the conditions in them are far from the best (and few) public saunas. For instance, the sauna stove in Kotiharjun sauna has 1,500 kilos (!) of sauna rocks, and it takes a cubic meter of firewood and about five hours to heat it. The sauna is famous for its soft löyly despite the harsh heat, which is achieved by that gigantic rock mass and the sauna room itself being so large. (Löyly can actually feel much more intense and sting your skin in a 2–3 person sauna that has about 80 C.) Also, in the men’s sauna specifically, the highest bench was added later and meant for those who want extreme heat.

Similarly, Rauhaniemi offers a large and a smaller sauna, the latter being less hot. The few public, wood-burning saunas that have a heat-storing sauna stove (kertalämmitteinen kiuas in Finnish) and that take hours and a ton of wood to heat, practically can’t avoid getting super hot because the temperature is difficult to control. Rajaportti, too, has a heat-storing sauna stove that requires meter-long logs every half hour, for six hours straight. Since wood isn’t added after this (unlike in most wood-burning home saunas), the stove reaches its maximum heat that it then keeps releasing for hours, until it inevitably starts to cool down. This also means you probably don’t sit in 115 C just before closing time, as that would be very poor planning on the business owner’s side.

In short, the fact that the temperature can be as high as 115 C doesn’t mean it’s what it should be, has to be, or that it would be the best temp.

Also, you’ve managed to pick (probably not by accident) the few, most famous, and hottest public saunas that Finland has to offer. What I mean is that most public saunas are far less hot. Had you tried some other, still fairly famous public saunas, in Kuusijärvi or Sipoo, for example, you would’ve experienced much less intense heat. I personally rarely go to public saunas, having several of my own, but I visited Hämeenlinna in spring 2025 and tried three saunas there, all having less or around 80 C. The biggest of them (electrically heated) was still intense since the feeling of hotness and löyly doesn’t fade away like it does in much smaller saunas.

Home saunas, on the other hand, are perfectly ready when they hit around 70 C. That’s when everybody knows it’s a good idea to enter the sauna; starting with less than that wouldn’t be ideal, but when you start with 70 C, the temperature can afford to get higher, which will happen if you’re adding wood (or the electric sauna heater is kept on). Hitting 80 C is still totally fine, but if the temp gets higher than 85 C, that’s just unnecessarily high, which almost everybody knows and agrees on (people themselves, sauna manufacturers, and health sources). It’s not that 85 C + is too much to bear, but it just doesn’t give you any added benefit. It only costs you more in fuel.

Finns know that if you truly prefer a hotter sauna environment, it can be achieved with more löyly pouring, not by increasing the temperature, which isn’t wise and only makes the air drier and makes it more difficult to breathe. For a truly hot sauna, as long as you keep the stones hot and have a max. of 80–85 C, you can keep pouring water, and get intense heat and löyly for as long as you like. This is always true if your sauna heater is big and effective enough. It may be that some of the people who think 85 C isn’t enough, don’t have a sauna heater that allows them to pour enough löyly to bring that intense heat they’re after. With an amazing sauna stove, such as IKI, you can actually have the temperature surprisingly low (50–60 C) and still enjoy intense heat and löyly that feel everlasting. That can’t be achieved with almost any other commercially available heater. It’s this exact principle (temp vs. löyly for heat) that so many people, especially in North America, don’t get.

There, of course, are few Finns that actually enjoy extreme heat (both in temperature and plenty of löyly pouring), but they certainly are a small minority. Usually they’re men, many of whom have bigger bodies (not because of muscle but mainly fat), which means they also have more “padding,” allowing them to tolerate extreme heat better.

Finally, the decades-long Finnish sauna studies (by Laukkanen & Laukkanen) with thousands of participants show that people sauna in slightly less than 80 C. That’s also the temperature where all the health benefits were achieved, not in 115 C!

All in all, it simply wouldn’t be accurate for me to say that the ideal or best sauna temperature is 115 C when the reality is so different. The experiences that saunas like Kotiharju and Rajaportti offer are very unique and special, and for many, they would lose their appeal if they suddenly became “normal” saunas. Like any attractions, they have to offer that something little extra.

I’m glad you’ve been happy with your Kastor stove (it really is a good brand) and hope you haven’t required 115 C from it! 😅

My background: Barrel sauna in my garden since 2009, made of red cedar and lasting very well. My heater is a Kastor wood-burning stove and thanks to your article, I now know its made by Helo! As you say in your article on barrel saunas, it heats up very effectively. I use a bucket shower to cool down between sessions. All barrel saunas sold here (Ireland) now come with a shingle roof. Back in 2009, no roof cover was supplied so I use a light tarpaulin.

Thanks for bringing up these good points, Michelle. No commenter before you had mentioned the resale value likely being close to zero, which tells a lot about the product in general.

I recently saw a video of a guy reviewing the Sauna Pod, and he also said he reached 160 F at the very top of the booth, while he naturally sat at a significantly lower level where it’s even cooler. That could easily explain why it feels like you’re not sweating.

This product is NOT a sauna and not even a poor imitation of one. It’s sad the market is so saturated with fake saunas like these that just make people lose their money.

Thanks Derek for warning others and showing how Nurecover deals with unopened returns. It’s beyond unfortunate that although you were wise enough to review their policy and leave the boxes untouched, you still haven’t gotten your money back. I hope you do end up getting it back even though it’s not looking too good.

And yes, I agree Nurecover isn’t a credible business. They tried to threaten me by sending me a cease and desist letter, demanding I remove this article. Apparently reporting the truth is illegal, while stealing people’s money is perfectly fine! 🤦

Thanks Michelle for sharing your insights; I’m so glad to hear you measured temperatures with two thermometers and that you placed the other one at the level where you actually sit.

What you discovered is exactly why real saunas so often have at least two benches: it’s always significantly hotter the higher you sit, and cooler the lower you sit. Also, with real saunas, the instruction is to NEVER place the thermometer above the heater as it’s the hottest area in the entire sauna and will skew the measurement (and possibly break your thermometer), so it’s very deceptive that the Pod Company tells you to measure temps this way. They must know that if the thermometer was placed lower and on the opposite side of the pod, users would be getting much lower readings just like you.

I’m happy you thought to measure the temp accurately but sad that you ended up losing so much money! Then again, this is the kind of first-hand experience you want to have before you get that real home sauna of your dreams. Now you’re much more likely to get a good quality home sauna kit instead of falling for the inferior ones!

P.S. And yes, dry electric heat easily dries out the skin. Löyly (steam), on the other hand, that you get in a real sauna often has a moisturizing effect. That’s one more thing to look forward to once you get a real home sauna!

Thanks Ty for leaving such a detailed and honest review. When you described the annoying lights, it’s almost tragicomic there has to be something wrong with this part of the product too. What a way to literally crown an overpriced and falsely marketed “sauna!”

It’s great you got a functioning heater, which unfortunately can’t be said for all customers. The canvas being well insulated makes sense and was my prediction all along; that way the heater doesn’t have to be that effective to get close to the temperatures it promises to reach.

About the heater (not) shaking the frame: I noticed the Pod Company removed the video where you could see how shaky the whole construction was. Also, their “new” Sauna Pod 2.0 package, that you most likely got, weighs over six pounds more than the original (37.5 lbs instead of 31 lbs), so it’s likely the added weight combats the shakiness a little.

They’ve also replaced some plastic parts with metal, according to comments on Reddit, which is likely to increase the weight but more importantly, help with the strong plastic smell people had complaints about.

Since it’s early days, I hope that no new issues arise and that you get to enjoy your Sauna Pod as you keep using it!