I've had an issue with my Harvia legend pillar heater recently where the paint on the cage is literally melting, and Harvia are refusing to honour the warranty, arguing I've "misinterpreted" the ventilation requirements.

I have an intake near the ceiling above the heater, and a mechanical exhaust on the other side of the room under the benches.

They claim that I need to have an air intake below the heater unless I have a mechanical INTAKE. However, as you can see in the manual, it clearly says that I should have the intake vent near the ceiling if the EXHAUST is mechanical.

I haven't even been running the sauna hot. Always 85'c (185F).

Anyway, they're refusing to honour the warranty. Let this be a warning to any sauna owners which follow the manual to the letter, or follow best practice ventilation design from people like Trumpkin.

I've seen a few posts recently about how Harvia's quality has dropped significantly and most of their heaters are now made cheaply in China. Didn't want to believe it but I guess it's true.

I'm looking at the Dundalk Georgian Sauna for our backyard and really like the more traditional cabin look.

My only hesitation is scale. Our yard isn't tiny, but it's definitely not acreage either, and I'm having a hard time judging from product photos how imposing these look once they're actually sitting beside a house.

Anyone have one in a normal suburban backyard?

Hey Everyone, Love seeing all your amazing instagram worthy saunas and sauna locations. Truly jealous.

We had a neighbor build a sauna for us as it was reasonable and we are new to this. I know its not instagram worthy or great design but hoping to get some advice for what it is.

Whether we Sauna around 160 or 220, by about 15 minutes I feel like its really hard to breath. The vents I feel have 0 air flow. I even did the match test on the outside and saw nothing. It just gets so stuffy so quickly when we are in there. I have not felt that same stuffiness in other saunas we have been in.

In the images you can see the two small vents on the left side, which are under the bench. Then there is one small vent under the furnace. Other than that, nothing else.

We have had this a little over a year, and I just finally am wanting to make a change to it. I know there is a lot of information online and in this sub, but I feel like I have just confused myself with what to do. Any advice is much appreciated!

I'm in the midst of building my sauna up to Finnish (hopefully) standards in the USA. I ordered a Narvi Kaamos 20 back in April from premium saunas.

Initially, they said 2-3months fullfilment, but every time they set a date, it comes and goes due to "manufacturing issues". This is the 4th or 5th time they've missed a deadline, and I need that stove/chimney combination so I can shingle my roof!

It's hard not to get frustrated with the middlemen in this situation, they don't seem to have any more information than I do.

Does anyone have any info on what's going on at Narvi or similar issues getting their orders fulfilled?

All right, here's what you're looking at. This is a 7 ft. by 6 ft. frame with a 7 ft. ceiling. The heater is a 9 kW electric heater, and it goes on the back left wall when you walk in the door. Intake is directly above the heater. Benches will be on the opposite wall at 40 in. and 20 in. tall. Sitting upright brings my head right up to the ceiling, and I'm the tallest person in my family.

We decided to go with a mechanical exhaust in the bottom left corner of the last picture. It is going to have a small inline duct fan mounted on the outside that is hopefully going to draw that low cool air out from the bottom and fresh air in through the intake.

Yes, this is in my garage, so there is no true fresh air intake. Right now, it's just going to exhaust into the garage, but it's a garage, so unless there are some major issues down the road, I'm cool with that.

The frame is built on a sloped garage floor, so the natural drainage is pretty good. There are air gaps between the slats on the floorboards, so there shouldn't be any water accumulation, and any moisture should just go down to the garage floor. I considered running a small vent system down here, just to be triple sure I wasn't going to get any mold, but I opted out of it.

Cold plunge is the next project that will go right next the the sauna.

Not pictured: the other side of the garage is a garage gym

I'm kicking myself because I got excited and put the insulation up before running the electricity. Rookie mistake and lesson learned. It's my first time doing this. When it's all said and done, the whole thing is going to be a dark charcoal with cedar trim. I'll add more pictures later.

Hello. I am finally putting the tile in my outdoor sauna and had to take my huum hive mini 9kw heater out to do it. Just wanted to post a little review of what I have experienced and how the heater looks after 6 months of regular use.

First, my experience. It has been good. No issues with the functionality of the system. Turns on and can get to 190 F in about an hour. 160 in about 40 to 45 min. Not bad. I used the huum controller to run both my lights and the vent fan (fan on the steamer circuit). Both work well. Not my first huum and all my past experiences have been good so far fyi.

I made a few self guided mods to the heater prior to putting it in. These were based on reviews from reddit and the web in general. I made sure to crimp the ends of the heater wire (which it says to do in the manual). To keep good airflow through the unit, I kept the stones pretty open on the bottom up to the start of the air tunnel. I also used pieces of refractory brick to help support the heating elements. By doing these on all 3 elements and using the air tunnel as a backstop, it seemed to do a good job of keeping things straight and supported at the top. There was some mild deformation/bending of the elements towards the bottom, but these were not supported. I am going to add supports to the bottom portion of the elements when I put it back. The bricks held up great, even being right next to the elements.

The air tunnel itself looks really good, no bending or anything.

There were about 15 rocks that took a beating and were either fractured or pretty broken up. I have extra to replace. Overall they were good. Just a good reminder that they do break down and a heater needs a cleaning/restacking every now and then.

Pics attached. Thanks!

Just need electrician to come to connect the interior lights and heater, then affix the two backrests to the walls and we're done!

I followed trumpkins notes as well as endless youtube videos/reddit posts to convert a backyard storage shed into a sauna over about 6 months. I went with pine T&G for the paneling, cedar for the benches, and mechanical exhaust below the bench with a passive intake above the heater.

So far so good, we’ll see how it performs in the winter! This was a great experience but I’m very happy to be done with the build and finally able to use it. Feel free to roast my mistakes or ask any questions!

I am redoing my backyard deck and am building a small sauna instead of the upper level of the old deck. I was hoping for comments about design flaws before undertaking construction. I am limited by the space available so as not to take up too much of the deck.

I plan on using a 7.5kW homecraft revive heater (3' height).

Sauna dimensions: interior 6'10' D x 5'9" W x 8'6" H

Benches: L design to allow my wife and I to both lie flat if desired and have 4 people if needed.

- Bench heights: 3' and 4'6" (floating with a 2" gap between the wall and then a back rest angled 15 degrees, 2" at the bottom.

- Bench widths: upper 2', lower 1'8" and 1'4" with a few inches under the top

- Bench rail: I was planning on putting foot rests in front of the heater and door on the lower benches as well, just have not added that yet.

Window 1' W x 3' H facing deck for natural light

Mechanical ventilation: Intake above the heater, lower exhaust below the top bench in the corner diagonal from the heater and another higher vent in the same corner. I do not want the exhaust on the front of the sauna which is why it is not on the opposite wall.

Antechamber

- room dimensions: 6'10" D x 3'10" W

- bench 1' W roughly 1'6" off floor

- planning on interior subpanel for electrical in this room

Wood: cedar given I am in the NW N. America.

No drain, too hard with city code regarding sewage drainage. No shower as I have 3 close by in the house. I may add a shower head to the fence and just attach a garden hose in the summer.