FINNISH or HOT ROCK SAUNAS

The Finnish sauna has been around for over 1,000 years and was originally a log cabin in which wood was burn until a temperature of over 80 degrees was reached. At this point, the smoke was allowed to exit the cabin (there was no chimney) and the pleasure of enjoying the sauna began.

Today the sauna has evolved with gas stoves, electric stoves and wood stoves (with chimneys or flues) and more modern cabin and sauna room constructions, but the essence of the Finnish sauna remains intact.

Finnish sauna kits are still the most popular home sauna kits and this is unlikely to change, particularly in respect of outdoor saunas.

How a Finnish sauna works

A Finnish sauna uses either an electric stove, or a traditional wood burning stove to generate heat energy which is stored in a mound of stones on top of the open stove. Once hot, these stones conduct the heat into the enclosed atmosphere of the room (or cabin) by heating up the air and creating the typical sauna atmosphere.

The stones used in modern sauna kits are normally peridotite. This type of stone is stable, retains its heat for a long period of time and releases its heat energy evenly.

A Finnish sauna should provide a fairly even heat throughout the sauna room. It does this by increasing the ambient air temperature in the sauna room to generate the body warming effect that produces sweating and pore opening. (This is very different to an infrared heater which relies on radiated heat hitting the skin and raising the skin temperature through infrared rays.)

A Finnish sauna can be wet or dry

Finnish saunas use “stove heated” rocks that hold and release the heat energy and this enables the Finnish sauna to offer two different kinds of sauna experience, a dry sauna and a wet sauna.

If the stove and the rocks upon it are simply left to heat up the air, then the sauna experience is a dry one. The air will become warmer and warmer, but there will be no artificially introduced moisture in the sauna room and the heat will be a dry heat. (In the case of very hot saunas, it may be necessary to introduce some moisture to prevent the skin from drying and to make the experience more pleasant.)

If however water is thrown on the stones, then steam is generated in the form of a steam shock and the sauna becomes wet and much more humid.

It is of course possible to combine both sauna experiences in a single session.

How to use a Finnish sauna

The Finnish sauna is used extensively all over the world, however it is used in different ways in different countries and by different nationalities.

The Finnish way to use this kind of sauna is to have a minimum of three consecutive sauna sessions, each lasting for at least half an hour.

You enter the sauna (naked) and stay in it until the heat becomes uncomfortable. At this point you leave the sauna and take a cold shower, or a plunge into an ice pool, or any other “rapid cooling” method of bringing your body temperature down.

This process is then repeated several times and the benefits are reaped from these multiple repetitions.

In many other parts of the world, e.g. the UK and the USA, the sauna is used for a single and often more prolonged session. When the sauna is used in this way it is seen as a means of relaxing, possibly shedding a few pounds, and opening up and cleansing the pores of the skin. The social and ritual aspects of the true Finnish sauna are however lost.

One of the great beauties of a sauna is that you can customise its use in any way that you wish. In northern Europe (especially Finland), the sauna is engrained into family and social life. Having a sauna can be a social get together with friends, or the method of celebration between business partners once a deal has been struck. Elsewhere, it is used in a more health conscious and less social context.

Finnish sauna kits

Sauna kits based around the Finnish sauna have gas, wood, or electric stoves. These stoves will normally heat rocks that give off heat to the surrounding atmosphere in the traditional Finnish way.

Kits for Finnish saunas can be for sauna rooms, or outdoor sauna cabins, typical of the original Finnish saunas.

For information on the benefits of a sauna, see Saunas and your health.