Most people think the hardest part of getting a sauna is deciding to do it.
Then they start researching and quickly discover that the market is full of options, with brands of every size making big promises. Heaters from manufacturers you’ve never heard of. Pre-cut kits with no real support behind them. Lumber that looks right but isn’t built for sustained heat.
A home sauna installation is not something you redo. You build it once, and it either serves you for decades or becomes a problem you live with for years. That’s exactly why the company you choose to work with matters as much as the sauna itself.
You Only Buy a Sauna Once
This is the part that catches a lot of buyers off guard. A sauna isn’t like most home purchases where you can swap out a component when it wears down. The heater, the wood, the ventilation, the electrical setup. These decisions are locked in once the build is done.
If the heater is undersized for the room, you’ll know it every single session. If the wood species wasn’t suited for sustained heat and humidity, you’ll see the warping and cracking within a few years. If the vapour barrier was installed incorrectly, the damage hides inside your walls until it becomes a mold problem.
Getting these things right from the start requires a company that actually understands the full scope of what a home sauna installation involves. Not just the product they’re selling, but how it performs over years of real use.
What Separates a Serious Sauna Company from a Reseller
The sauna market has grown fast. That growth has brought in a lot of brands that are really just resellers moving imported equipment with no engineering behind it and no support after the sale.
A serious sauna manufacturer is different in a few specific ways.
They build to actual safety standards. In North America, that means CSA certification for Canadian homes. This isn’t just a label. CSA certification means the heater has been independently tested and verified to meet the electrical and fire safety standards required by Canadian building codes. An uncertified heater isn’t just a safety risk. It can void your home insurance if it’s ever involved in a claim.
They design equipment for how saunas actually work. A heater that cycles on and off erratically, that can’t hold temperature under steam load, or that degrades within a few years isn’t just inconvenient. It changes the entire experience. Quality heating elements, like industrial-grade Incoloy, resist sustained high temperatures and repeated steam exposure in a way that cheaper alternatives simply don’t.
They understand that a sauna is an indoor environment with specific demands. The wrong materials fail in that environment. The right ones last.
Why the Heater Is the Decision That Matters Most
You can have beautiful cedar walls, perfect bench angles, and thoughtful lighting. If the heater isn’t right for the room, none of it matters.
A heater needs to be sized correctly for the cubic volume of the space, accounting for ceiling height, the amount of glass in the room, and how well the room is insulated. An underpowered unit turns a custom sauna into a warm closet. An oversized one burns through energy and creates uncomfortable swings in temperature.
The Saunacore Special Edition Heater
For most indoor custom sauna builds, the Saunacore Special Edition Heater is the right fit. Saunacore has been manufacturing in Canada since 1985, which means over 40 years of building heaters specifically for North American homes and safety standards.
The Special Edition uses triple-wall construction that keeps the exterior surface cool while directing heat inward and upward through the room. Air moves through a vented body with heat deflectors, so the room reaches temperature faster and holds it more evenly. The heating elements are industrial-grade Incoloy, which handles sustained high temperatures and repeated steam far better than standard copper elements. Stones are included.
It runs from 3kW to 10.5kW and covers everything from a compact two-person room to a larger family sauna. Corner and flat-wall mounting options give flexibility on placement depending on how the room is laid out.
Every Saunacore heater carries CSA certification, which matters for insurance compliance and for personal safety every time you use it.
When the Elite Series Is the Right Call
For larger indoor rooms with extensive glass walls, high ceilings, or high-demand use, the Elite Series goes further. These floor-standing units hold significantly more stones, produce softer radiant heat, and generate larger volumes of steam. Multiple units can run side by side for very large rooms.
If the build involves generous glass panels or an open layout that creates more volume than a wall-mount heater should manage, the Elite Series gives you the performance headroom the room needs.
What the Right Company Tells You About Wood
Wood selection is one of the most overlooked decisions in a sauna build, and the one that creates the most problems when it’s made wrong.
Western Red Cedar is the standard for sauna construction for real reasons. Its cell structure allows it to expand and contract with heat and humidity without warping or cracking. It’s naturally rot-resistant, which matters in a room that sees repeated cycles of heat and steam. It stays cool to the touch even when the air temperature is high, so you can lean against a cedar wall at 90 degrees Celsius without burning your skin. It’s also naturally antimicrobial, which keeps the room hygienic over years of regular use.
General construction lumber, such as pine, spruce, and fir, behaves completely differently in a heated environment. These species leak hot resin under heat stress. They warp. They degrade faster than cedar by a significant margin.
A company that knows sauna construction tells you this upfront and builds with the right material. A reseller sells you what’s easy to ship.
The Technical Details a Good Company Gets Right
The difference between a sauna that performs well for 20 years and one that develops problems in 3 often comes down to details that aren’t visible after the build is done.
Vapour management is one of the most critical. An indoor sauna produces significant moisture. Without a continuous, properly sealed vapour barrier behind the cedar, that moisture migrates through the wall assembly and eventually condenses on the cooler exterior sheathing. The result is mold inside walls you can’t see until the damage is extensive.
The barrier needs to be foil-faced on the warm side of the insulation, every joint sealed with aluminum tape, and every penetration including electrical boxes and vent openings taped as well. The goal is a complete moisture seal with no gaps.
Ventilation works on a convective loop that a good company understands and specifies correctly. Fresh air enters low on the wall near the heater. Heat rises. An exhaust vent on the opposite wall, positioned about one-third up from the floor or under the top bench, lets air exit. This loop keeps temperature even from floor to ceiling. Without it, heat stratifies, the top bench gets too hot, and the floor stays cold.
Electrical requirements are also more involved than most buyers expect. Most traditional heaters run on 240 volts and require 40 to 60 amps of dedicated capacity. Wiring inside the sauna room needs to be rated for high heat. Standard insulated wiring degrades under repeated exposure to sauna temperatures. High-heat silicone wiring is the right specification.
These are not areas where a good company cuts corners or leaves you to figure it out.
Controls That Match the Experience
The SSB Bluetooth Controller from Saunacore replaces old mechanical dials with a full control system. The LCD keypad manages temperature, timers, and safety cut-offs from inside or outside the room. A remote sensor option gives accurate temperature readings at bench level, which is where the session actually happens rather than at the ceiling.
The Bluetooth integration adds two practical features. Audio streaming runs through built-in speakers for music, podcasts, or guided relaxation. Chroma LED lighting control gives you adjustable ambiance based on how you want the room to feel.
Safety timers and high-limit automatic cut-offs are standard. The system is straightforward to use and built to handle the environment it’s installed in.
Why Saunacore Exists
Saunacore has been manufacturing sauna equipment in Canada since 1985. The reason the company exists is exactly what this article is about: there’s a right way to build a sauna, and most of what’s available in the broader market doesn’t meet that standard.
Every heater we produce is CSA certified and backed by a limited lifetime warranty. Our equipment is designed for real home installations where the build quality has to hold up year after year. The Special Edition for compact indoor builds, the Elite Series for larger or more demanding rooms, and the SSB Bluetooth Controller for a complete and reliable experience.
Pair the right heater with a proper vapour barrier, Western Red Cedar, and correctly sized ventilation, and you’re building something that performs the way it should for as long as you own your home.
You only do this once. The company you choose is the decision that makes everything else work.
