Sauna Bath

You're down to making decisions about what to use for venting in your sauna. It's a toss up, but you want to make sure your venting is right. If you don't know what you are supposed to be doing, then check with the home sauna manufacturer or hop online and look for some expert information.

In general for your sauna venting, you will want to consider one lower vent. It should be about 4" off the floor, and somewhere near the sauna heater. The second vent can be on any other wall, and it should be about 6" below the ceiling. Your upper vent may also be put in the ceiling.

However, this is something that should only be done if you know for sure that you have adequate airflow. Venting for a home sauna is really not a safety issue as they (vents) are used to make things more comfortable for the bather. The reason two vents are suggested is because it provides for better and more efficient air circulation. The lower one brings in air, and the upper dispels used air. By the way, do not put your upper vent directly above the sauna heater.

It's fairly easy to do the venting for your sauna too. Venting locations (usually about 4" x 10") are either a cutout in the wall or a passageway from the sauna to an existing room next to the sauna. When venting your sauna, you do not need any ductwork. So that's one less thing to worry about for venting.

The best method for venting, and usually the one most recommended by those in the know, is venting your sauna to an area inside the house. You might be thinking, yeah, but what about all the hot air getting out, isn't it going to damage the interior of my house? In a word, no. Why? Because there is minimal heat loss from the vents, and it will not do any damage to your drywall, wallpaper, paint or anything else. Additionally, exhausted air has no smell and can be released back into the home without any worries about air quality. Warm air exhaust in the winter months is actually kind of nice.

If you aren't sure about venting to the inside of you home, then you can opt to vent to the outside. However, you would need to remember cold air coming in from the outside, will increase your sauna warm up time. Translation: your heating costs are going to go up.

Let's take a quick look at a couple types of venting systems. The naturally forced sauna ventilation system is where heat pushes air upward, drawing cold air from an opening at the bottom of the wall behind the heater. On the wall across from the heater is a vertical vent. What happens is, a chimney effect draws the air through the vent and out of the sauna. There is low heat, and no steam under the bottom bench.

Mechanically forced sauna ventilation does what it says it does, forces air to be mixed over the heater. It then spreads the heat evenly all through the sauna. The exhaust vent on the wall opposite the heater has a fan that draws air over the heater, and circulates the resulting heated air in the sauna. Again, there is low heat and no steam under the bottom bench area where the ventilated air is exhausted.

All in all, venting shouldn't be a difficult thing to do, but if you do have questions, always make sure to ask an expert and save yourself some grief.

Sauna Bath |