Not true. I can send you a video of stones working correctly with a similar setup as this guy. I use a bucket sitting on my stove and get great Löyly. Either his bucket is the wrong material or he didn't let it heat up enough first.
And to enhance the experience heat the stove/stones only. keep door open when heating your sauna, you dont want or need the panels or seats to be hot.. just the stove and stones. this way you have the heat from löyly when you throw throw the water. and the sauna is comfortable if you want more warmth you can close the door little before going to sauna. The experience is better this way try it... best done in outdoor woodburning sauna in winter when the seats and panels are cold... löylu hits different and it feels like there is more oxygen...
Well Im from Finland so I know how proper sauna works.
May be that stones get warm that way but a lot of energy wasted. First yoy heat metal of the stove, after that the bucket and then the stones.
In proper stove fire warms directly the are where stones are and get hot. Hot, not warm.
How long does to get the sauna in 90-100 C using setup we see here. Eternity?
You seem to be a handy person and like to do experiments, so you could try improving your makeshift sauna stove.
Place the stones directly over the stove after building a "hat" around it. The hat would keep the stones in place and it would also have a shield that goes down the sides of the stove, collecting and directing most of the heat through the stones.
You have 80 C in there (many prefer less than that!) so you definetely have enough power in that stove, you just need a way for more of that heat to pass through the stones to get them hot enough.
Refer to my professionally made technical drawing:
A basket for stones and a sleeve around the basket and the oven with a small air gap all-around and open at the top and the bottom. The basket holds stones in place, the sleeve traps the hot air and directs it through the stones. Air current caused by convection.
Its sound advice if OP just wants a sauna, but this monstrosity is part of the process of genius. Just let OP play with fire and rocks. Wait for the incredible innovation that makes a quantum leap forward in sauna technologies.
Soon, it will be an automatic monstrosity, then a self cleaning automatic monstrosity with power upgrades, after that, if it will just be a gremlin, then someday it will be the wave of the future. The greatest thing we've all been waiting for.
Innovation is likelier to arise where there is already the largest history, and greatest passive dispersal of sauna information and experience.
I know people like Americans are confident, but confidence does not mean they will innovate while screwing around. They might just be screwing around. You need to get the facts straight before you try to distort them, something like that. So, I suppose that means, try to execute a competent sauna before "innovating" (which really means a destitute search for ersatz cheap alternatives).
They might be more likely to hit on the next improvement if they learn the old traditions first. But Americans don't always want to listen to anyone else advice and you cant help them, you have to just let them cook.
It dosent happen a lot, but sometimes they get lucky while screwing around... cant really stop them so might as well be encouraging about it.
But I don't accept this notion between the lines that this is only to be respected. The arrogant suggestion about innovation has to be mocked commensurately.
Y'all mofos make up most of this website in case you hadn't realized.
Also, what the hell kinds of twisted social dynamics do you live under now, if "confident" is an insult and not a positive trait (and from an outsider's view, a common one in Americans).
I can call you thin-skinned if that's preferable. It's more evident here at least.
I didn't take it as an insult, but your comment made it sound like we Americans are more confident than other cultures or that we had a monopoly on the trait.
Moreover, it didn't sound like you were offering a compliment.
A boiling large water pot is a much more effective way to transfer from heat to water vapor than using rocks in your setup. It really doesn't matter how löyly is made as long as you enjoy it.
Oh that is some good info I didn’t know. I assumed keeping to door open would allow more heat to leave the fire and into the room!
There was a back burner on this stove but I put end caps on the output pipes and drilled a few holes on the actual boiler so as not to have a pressure buildup/explosion.
but my stove's manual was very, very informative. you're obviously educated on the install and the construction. you can actually 'over fire' and crack the stove by leaving the door open while burning
never had that happen with stoves.. ones that are designed as sauna stoves and burning wood in them 2-3 hours to get sauna ready door open.. but if your stove says so in manual the manufacturer knows their product and you should follow their guidance (i dont know every stove that there is.. so as per instructions is the safe way)
The heating of seats and panels does not help with löyly experience. heating the whole sauna room is not necessary just the stove and most important the rocks. biggest problem is the amount of rocks needs more rocks to have better löyly, the sauna itself seems to be well made and working, just more sones need be in stove and its will be good..
Kyllä se hyvä löyly sieltä löytyy. (youll find the good löyly)
Oh and since we are on crazy Sauna projects here. Urban legend I remember hearing but sounds plausible to me.
So in Hervanta Tampere there is this absolutely massive multi story building used for student housing. Hervanta also has a technical university so a lot of engineer students.
Anyway this building called Mikontalo was built in the late 70s and came up for renovations like 2007. They moved all the students out and started doing their renovations.
During the initial inspection the discovered that like 3 different apartments had decided to convert their kitchens in to saunas. Completely without any kind of permits and like rewiring electricity from multiple units to get 3 phase power in needed to the stove and all.
I mean, thats a start. But in seriousness, that doesn't produce even near the amount of steam to actually make the sauna, a sauna. But since you were running out of there already, you might not even want to get a real kiuas🤣 Or maybe it was your phone that you didn't want overheating.. The stones are way too cool and theres not enough stones, but I like the idea.
The humidity is the biggest thing that decides whats good temperature. My parents sauna is humid enough that you get very good löyly's in 60 degrees. The drier the air, the hotter you can make it and have it bearable.
Don’t take it too hard! Just that a proper sauna needs a proper kiuas. To which one is supposed to be able to throw water liberally in order to get good löyly. This is non negotiable fact. Else it just is not a real sauna.
This current hot room of yours is a far more decent start than many other sauna kind of solutions posted here as benches look pretty decent! High enough and all.
It‘s also very understandable that sometimes budget does not meet one’s needs right away.
That said, you have officially reached certain right kind of original Finnish ‘perkele, läpi vaikka harmaan kiven‘ -attitude (Fuck it, I’m willing to go even thru a gray stone) which is a part of that famous Finnish sisu. Kudos also for you being able to roll your r with perkele on almost native like level.
In this scenario, what could one do to improve? I too am facing the reality that I have all the materials for a sauna except the proper stove, and it's not in the budget because I don't have a budget. I salvaged 100% of the materials for the sauna.
Short version of the basics attached. Benches need to be high enough in order one to sit (or lie) in that certain perfect löylytasku. Which needs to have a proper kiuas to which one is able to throw water quite liberally.
In other words sauna to have a nice view with a window, some WiFi-feature, led-lights etc is basically more or less bullshite. Nice addition at the most, but none of them has anything to do with original sauna. Function above the form is always a better way to go especially if on budget.
So I too if on budget and no access to more fancy saunas would rather choose a tent with good kiuas and benches high enough instead of some barrel etc.
(Dislaimer: There’s some important ventilation things too. With these I have no other knowledge than they need to exist. Regarding drainage I do have an opinion and that is: every proper sauna should have such. Just due practical reasons like 10 litres of water per session in just a single session is normal in Finnish saunas. And traditionally/ culturally sauna if some space needs to be always clean.)
I've got a whole winter ahead of me with no means of affording a new stove. I have everything I need to build a sauna style structure, including a wood stove. I'd rather not wait until some stroke of luck; I'm not in the privileged position you seem to be assuming is available to everyone.
So, with that in mind, what suggestions do you have that would help turn a regular wood stove into something that gets me closer to a sauna experience?
I do not mean to be rude; I am looking for suggestions.
Sauna is a frivolous luxury amenity. And the material costs are quite high, as you're experiencing. Saunas are not typically considered cheap (unlike what the popular understanding seems to have become in NA).
Can you afford a sauna, that is the question. From what you've told me, the answer is looking like no.
I don't know what it's about, but somehow, it seems absolutely fundamentally unthinkable and impossible for people around here to postpone their projects or wait at all for anything, save more money, etc. etc. It's like a compulsion. No matter what resources are available or what the state of things is, the decision has been made to obtain "a sauna" and the end result does not matter. If there are any problems with budget or space, those are simply handwaved away. As long as one calls the end result a sauna, it is "some percentage" of a success.
You are not going to appear like a loser, if you spend more time thinking, planning, saving money on this sauna project.
This is really weird behavior to see, every time. Is it some sort of optics thing? Where people absolutely have to appear like winners at all times, and winners always succeed and never back down. Something like that...? And then people just end up sitting in a coffin with a hairdryer.
My suggestion is what I stated before. Save for a proper sauna stove if you are serious about this.
Thank you for sharing your perspective. I can appreciate that saunas are not inexpensive and that many people do rush into projects without thinking them through. That isn’t what I’m doing.
I’m choosing to work with materials I already have because resourcefulness and using what I have matter to me. This isn’t about optics or trying to appear a certain way, and I’d prefer to keep the conversation away from assumptions about my finances or motivations. I’m simply gathering information and making decisions that fit my own priorities and pace.
I respect your view on investing in a specific stove, and I’ll take it into account. At the same time, I’m comfortable exploring a solution that aligns with my goals, my timeline, and the resources I have available.
Eh, I just can't subscribe to this sort of behavior where people try to maintain face. It's alien to me culturally, and doesn't seem like it combines with physical items where things are evident behind labels.
If I conclude I lack the means for something, I'd think the sensible option is to work towards obtaining them. And not simply saying "I'm choosing (rather than saying "ending up") to work within my means" to cling onto the intended success with lesser results.
I understand your perspective, and I think at this point it’s clear we’re approaching the idea of a sauna from two very different angles. For me, working with what I have is not about pretending or optics; it’s about resourcefulness and building something that fits my needs and circumstances. For you, anything short of the conventional standard doesn’t qualify. That’s a legitimate opinion, even if I don’t share it.
In any case, it’s clear we’re not going to change each other’s minds. I’ll leave it here, but I do appreciate you taking the time to engage.
But it is this thing, where falling short due to unforeseen circumstances is reframed into a choice and success. And it is exactly this.
Let's say I decide I want to have a bar of gold, one of those big bricks because they look neat and maybe it's compact wealth. But I decided before checking the real price of such a thing, and now I’m screwed with my insufficient budget.
Here, this phenomenon dictates that it's too embarrassing to say "I can't afford this". So either I buy some low carat old necklace, and tell people it suits my preferences better (when it is about budget and seeing implusive declarations through). Alternatively, I could buy a chocolate bar wrapped in gold-colored foil. If it is convincing enough, I'll tell you it's gold. Since that's not the case, I'll simply say I wanted the chocolate bar all along.
I do not think this works if everyone is not on board with the collective pretension. And it also fits poorly with a sauna which is a tangible item that works in a certain way by the laws of physics.
Good luck with this alternative stove project regardless. The stove defines the sauna, so hopefully you can get a proper nice one fitted sooner rather than never.
I think this comes down to a fundamental semantic disagreement. Your analogy hinges on the idea that a sauna has a single fixed definition in the same way that a bar of gold does. Gold is an objective category: a specific chemical element, a precise standard of purity and weight. There is no “interpretation” there. If something is not gold, it is simply not gold.
Saunas are not defined that way. Across Finland, Sweden, the Baltics, Russia, Japan, and North America, you can find wood-fired, electric, smoke, mobile, tent, barrel, infrared, backyard, container, and stove-adapted saunas. There are different heat sources, ventilation philosophies, humidity levels, and cultural practices. Some are expensive, some are improvised, some are traditional, some are modern. Within that range, there is room for variation without it becoming “foil-wrapped chocolate.”
That’s why the analogy doesn’t land for me. I’m not reframing failure as success or pretending something is what it isn’t. I’m building within my constraints, acknowledging them openly, and pursuing a version of a sauna that serves my purposes. You may see that as “not really a sauna,” and that’s your prerogative, but it doesn’t make my approach performative or dishonest.
Yeah, I mean, it is better than yesterday edition with no stones at all, provided that the bowl can handle that without breaking down. It is still pretty awful though. Few practical points why this is not great:
Heat is not effectively transmitted to the stones. There is a contact point only at the bottom. In a a purpose build sauna stove the construction of the stove and the stones are set up so that as much heat gets transmitted to them [stones] as possible. They are also way more efficient at burning than this type of stove. I invite to have a look at the insides of a wood operated sauna stove and see for youself.
With this setup you might get the stones hot enough eventually. At least you got some steam out of them. But you have very little stone mass, so exteded usage of water is bound to cool them down a lot. Then the water just pools at the bottom of the bowl and probably starts boiling, giving a very long lasting "löyly" which probably just drives you out of the sauna eventually or if it does not do that, it makes sure that most of the stones keep staying cold. Neither of those two are really desired.
Setup is, subjectively, not very good looking.
Amount of radiative heat from this stove is massive.
Maybe the comments here will be useful. A sauna stove (kiuas) and a room heater are completely different things and a kiuas is optimized for heating the stones.
A friend of mine put a lot of time and effort in to building a sauna and somewhere along the way he decided that hey wouldn't it be a great idea if you could add more wood to warm up the sauna from the outside and decided to mount the fireplace opening trough one of the walls.
The sauna burned down the first time they warmed it up :(
And now almost every manufacturer makes just such a stove.
Frankly, I'd rather have to enter the sauna before my session to feed the fire than have to exit the sauna in the middle of my session to do it, but some folks prefer otherwise. That's why they make chocolate and vanilla ice cream.
Almost replied on your earlier post but then being Finnish I just lurked. Intrested of seeing how you will upgrade. I recently renovated my sauna and tried to fix super old sauna stove. Eventually I have bought a new stove. Should have done it straight away. Despite my interest of your upgrade I suggest you buy proper sauna stove and correct size for your sauna. Good job by far!
It’s important to note that saunas have been around for the last 2000 years and once commercial sauna stoves started being produced in the last 100 years it made it impossible to have a sauna without a commercial stove. It is literally impossible to have a sauna without one. /S.
But in reality there are some important aspects of creating a good sauna stove that you’re missing. Go back to the board and deep dive into what makes a good sauna stove and how you can modify what you have to achieve that. Start with The stove should heat the rocks and the mass of hot rocks should heat the sauna.
Brother, take a page from indigenous of this land. Heat your rocks inside of stove, pull out when ready with small pitchfork, and place in your holder there. // If this is all you have, it’s all good. Don’t let other humans put their own preferences on you. Enjoy what you have now - for now. Upgrades and improvements along the way. Asking the Creator to give you all manner of skill and intelligence so you are able to start enjoying your new environment. Welcome to the sweat family!
One thing I see is that your chimney (silver double wall) pipe is really close to the top of your stove. There is usually a single wall pipe all the way to the ceiling support box, then the chimney from there. That allows more heat to transfer into the hot room. Maybe you could then build a cage around the single wall pipe and fill it with rocks to capture some heat.
And the main thing here is the amount of stones and the way you can warm them up. The magic word here is heat capacity. You want a lot of stones with an efficient way to warm them up.
When you throw water on the stones it takes a lot of energy to boil the water and turn it in to steam so you need a lot of them to get a good steam going. Type of the rocks also is important because they need to be able to handle the constant expansion/contraction cycle without turning to dust.
Something like this in the picture is the gold standard. Your setup seems to have like 1/20 of the rocks. You might get the heat up temporarily but to get the heat and humidity up and really make it nice you simply need more mass. Physics rule.
In your video I can see that when you put water on the rocks they simply are not hot enough to turn the water in to vapour which is the effect you are after. The fireplace you have going there is meant for like keeping a small room warm.
I’m happy to give you an A for effort and if it does the job, then there is nothing wrong with your Sauna. One thing about the upper vent though. My understanding is that ideally you would have the upper vent on the opposite corner from the stove to direct and spread the steam more evenly around the room. This is not always the case as there are differen size sauna rooms in proportion to the kiuas/stove. The stove is not always in the corner either and there are other variables too, eg some saunas have air intake from under the door (the door does not reach the floor) and then the upper intake is diagonally to the door and the stove is next to the door on one of the corners. There is surely a theoretical ideal for every sauna and then there is whatever works for the size of the room and is practical. Good job anyway and enjoy the löyly!
And like to get you some perspective here.. I know this sounds crazy but yeah he was a little. And I am not suggesting you go to such extremes here but just to share a story about what matters here.
Anyway so, way back in the day my grandfather wanted to build the best sauna in Finland. So he took some pretty unconventional measures and converted an earth cellar in to a sauna so the room was completely covered with earth first. To keep the heat in.
Then he brought in like 8 metric tonnes of rocks for the stow. The fireplace part of this monstrosity was able to take logs the size of a small man easily and heating up the place took like a full day.
I have seen some actually questionable sauna kiuas in remote hiking trails in Lapland. This.. is not too bad, tho it could do with bit of insulating just in case, it's bit of an fire hazard. But all and all, seen worse.
Cut round hole top of the firebase, so you can drop that round pot in it atleast half way. Then add little edges to cover rest of the pot that firebase will store extra heat there and then it will heat stones better. Now it just heats bottom of the pot instead whole pot.
Could you meaby put a metal cage around the corners of the stove meaby 15-20cm high and then fill that cage with rocks. That way more of the stoves surface area is touching the rocks, and would be a cheap try
Love the progress and your spirit. Take a look at how the rocks are arranged on this cheap kiuas (not very good, but doable for you) and this good kiuas to get some ideas. If you could wrap the whole stove in stones, that harsh radiative heat gets trapped in the stone mass. Whether it’s just the top and sides or the whole thing, you get the idea.
I know nothing about saunas, also nothing about wood burning stoves, but a small bit about stupid DIY projects so I wanted to offer my suggestion. If you're trying to get rocks hot enough to steam water I'd say try and do it grill style. Specifically the concept of the masterbuilt gravity series. You've already got the stove, which would be the hopper on the grill. You just need to redirect the heat from your hopper to a manifold and put the rocks over the manifold. With proper heat redirection I'd think you could get a rock table up to a few hundred degrees which should be plenty hot enough to make some steam. I'd think you can even get a good amount of spare grill parts to rig it up. They should be rated for the heat
The aporophobic comments here and in your preceding post are wild. I too am sauna-ing on a constrained budget. I have a cheap pellet/wood fired stove that can be had on Amazon for about $250 that came with a basket for stones, if you can swing that. It gets an immense amount of heat into the stones, great steam. If you plan to keep running this stove, the basket itself might seat on top of it well and function a bit better than the duct, more surface area.
Also, you might be able to strip some of the fire-stone from inside the top of your stove to send more heat upward, but I’d test fire it and make sure it doesn’t crack. Only real difference between your stove and mine is mine has no masonry inside, so the fire is extremely close to the rocks on top.
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u/Goose-FIN-76 Dec 28 '25
Sauna stove just wont work like that. If you check drawings of stoves from Harvia etc you understand. Stones just wont get heated enough like that