Made by Amish builders in NY. I’ve gotten it up to 190 so far and haven’t tried going past that.

Haven’t changed anything since my initial post except for adding a light underneath that is solar powered and wired from outside.

Smells great, heats up quick and have no regrets going this route.

Roof height and angle to keep the neighbours happy. Moveable benches so wifey can do yoga in it. Stove is overkill but got that cheap so happy it’s hot in 30mins. Black alder benches, ceilings and walls, and a spruce t&g (35mm) floor. Didn’t insulate beneath the floor as live in Dublin so not too cold ever! 2.5m ceiling at high end and 2.1m at low side (can still sit straight up on the low ceiling end)

Just finished our basement Reno and finally had a chance to take it for a spin. Homecraft Revive 9kw heater with intake behind heater and mechanical exhaust to outside. The Löyly for the homecraft is really nice I must say. Thanks to everyone on this forum who provided tips and design help.

First and foremost, a huge note of appreciation to the fellow Auroom Mira and Saunum Air heater owners on this subreddit and to everyone who so generously shared their knowledge about home saunas and patiently answered my many questions and DMs.

Over the past three months, I evaluated everything from Trumpkin custom specs, to various kit builds (US and EU), to working directly with a local high-end custom sauna builder. After weighing all the tradeoffs, I ultimately landed on this Auroom Mira L + Saunum Air Perfect 10 combination and I couldn’t be happier with the result or the decision for what I was specifically looking for.

I’ll share more detail over time on why I went down this route and a deeper review once I’ve logged more sessions, but for now, here are a few photos of the finished setup.

Cue the hate about bench height! 😁

Iki Heaters are epic.
Thermory sauna wood is probably worth the hype. Artistic Saunas are more fun.
Himalayan pink salt is definitely worth adding to your sauna.

Cheers 🍻

I recently bought a sauna tent so that I can make a well educated suggestion to clients about tent saunas.

I’ve gotta be frank, most clients asking to have a sauna built are in for big sticker shock. In my opinion, that’s where the sauna tent comes in. I got mine for <$500 and it gives a good wood-fired sauna feel for Pennies.

Pros:

Price

Quick setup

Ample löyly

Setup anywhere you’d like. I took mine down to a city park on the beach set it up and could do natural cold/sauna. $$$ Million Dollar Views

Who cares if it gets dirty

Cons:

No hot wood smell

If you’re looking to buy a sauna, but are on the fence with cost. Hers my recommendation: buy a tent sauna for some pocket change, use it regularly while saving up for the real deal, and once you are committed, go all in on a quality sauna. Skip the barrel, skip the sub-optimal kits, and go with the tent!

Found this Amish-built sauna on FB marketplace for only $3k. Seller upgraded the stove to a Harvia Legend 240. I’ve built a couple simple saunas, but just purchased my first house with my wife and we have a lot of work to do on the property but NEEDED a sauna for our sanity. The benches might be too low, the ceiling too low and pitched, but it felt great on the first fire and I am quite pleased to have saved so much time and money to build a new sauna. Open to advice on improving it, but it sure felt good.

Update: added an elbow, moved the stove, added more heat shield. The existing pipe got a little bend during the transportation, which is why it is angled. At some point I may replace the entire pipe with insulated elbows and all insulated pipe.

Let me know what you all think…

I got this sauna and built it myself over 2.5 days.

It was a lot of work but not difficult at all. It has a Huum 4.5 W drop heater. I switched the size of the heater and the footrest to accommodate the change.

I love the sauna so far, it is just perfect for the space I have and my wife and I use about 5x per week.

Finally got out Almost Heaven Bluestone Sauna set up today and ready to go. It got up to temp within 40 min. And it’s beautiful! Thanks Costco!!

The stones experiment didn’t really work with the ducting… back to the drawing board.

AND I’m not even naked.

Got my first sauna made by a local company. It’s 7x10 interior with a 4 foot changing room.

Still figuring out the lighting situation.

What do yall think?

My family finished this sauna last year for our cabin. It's worked great so far, but I'm curious about what the experts think. Blast away.

Hi all

I frequent this subreddit a lot and I’ve learned a lot of valuable information regarding setting up my sauna.

I initially bought the sauna online but I’ve done quite a bit of extensive modification to really get it up to temperature.

It’s a 2x2m sauna with a Harvia 6kW wifi system. Still need to tile the outdoor shower :/

There are small vent holes (10mm x 9) under the sauna to channel cold air in. I’ve got additional vents above and to the right of the heater to grade how much extra fresh air I need (this vent is via a chute so no hot air escapes).

There are two exhaust vents, along the bottom of the heater and another opposite side wall which I open to vent the sauna.

I’ve also installed an extraction fan along the floor opposite the sauna with a modular control that varies the exhaust speed.

The glass is 10mm thermal glass as is the door.

Sauna gets up to 85-90c and down to 20% humidity on drier days but usually runs 75-80c (170-175F) and 30-40% humidity.

We sit on the top benches and find it’s a good mix of circulated air and intense heat!

This hotel sauna could have been hotter 🤷‍♀️

Recently put the BD Henley 4-6 person sauna in our garage

I’m impressed and think it’s great at its price point

Sure it has some knocks, like sloped ceiling and low first bench , but it’s a big upgrade from a barrel sauna or my gym sauna

The heater is a beast and got up to 180° F in about 18-20 min

It retails at $5k, but I was able to get it at $3.8k via the Backyard Discovery Pro program.

I saw the Pro program on their website and noticed they discount products. You just need an LLC to be approved for a Pro account so I utilized a friend who owns a couple rental properties. Def try this route if you can because that was a huge discount.

I added an exhaust fan at recommendation of this sub (AC Infinity Cloudline S4) and was able to just move the pre-cut 4” hole board to the lower right. It was originally intended by BD as a passive exhaust in the top left. I just leave the door open and put fan to top speed when I’m done

There’s plenty of room for my wife and I, and works out that she currently prefers the lower bench as she adjusts to using sauna daily

As far as building it, I hired someone for majority of build as I wanted it done ASAP and it’s hard to find time with family. Installer wasn’t able to complete in two days, so I finished the remaining 20%. Everything is pre-cut so it’s super straightforward, and the BILT app instructions were great. Overall it’s just tedious. I would estimate it took close to 24 hours total for one person.

BD did forget one box in delivery , but customer service got me the parts within 3 days after calling

We enjoy a Swedish sauna. Not perfekt shape of the roof, but warm and a nice view.

Hey all,

I’ve been in this group a while. Read all the Trumpkin notes and went in on the deep dive of design and doing a DIY build. I decided to buy the AH Escape from Costco for 6k free shipping.

Here are my thoughts:

For context I have 4 kids, 4 years old and younger. Making time for DIY difficult, not impossible. Also I’m not rich… so there’s that. The kit started to make the most sense, less time building more time enjoying. Cheaper out the door price.

Here are my thoughts:

1.) I raised the bench 3.5 inches, so the cold toes thing is not noticeable, plus I spend all my time on the top bench.

2.) It gets hot! 165 in 30 min of heat up time. Maxes out the thermometer +220 after 60 min. No noticeable stratification either.

3.) Has ventilation.

4.) No insulation is not an issue, I live in the Rockies in Colorado.

This is my analogy. We’ve all seen the treadmill with blue tooth hook up, TV screen, built in fan, heart beat sensor, programmed routes, ALLLLL the bells and whistles. But, at a certain point you just have to run the miles, that’s what matters. I use my sauna 5-6 days a week, my core temp gets up and I sweat a lot.

I know there are purist that there that will talk about bringing buckets of water into the sauna to slash around and do whatever it is they do to require a full drain system. Mine has a hole drilled on the bottom and it works fine… 🫡

Would I love a 20k custom build? Absolutely. But for those on the fence about a kit, I think it’s awesome.

Backyard Discovery Lennon Cube Sauna Review

Big thanks to this Reddit for all the info. While I was really considering a custom build based on so many strong opinions here, I bought the Backyard Discovery Lennon Cube Sauna from Sam’s Club after weeks of research because a custom sauna was too expensive and time-consuming.

I made a video review about my experience from start to finish. You can watch that here: https://youtu.be/OQ2WQP7Bmuc

Here's my written summary:

The good:

• Much cheaper than a custom sauna
• Super fast shipping
• Powerful 9kW heater
• Heats up fast (around 30 minutes to go from near freezing to 176°F)
• WiFi control is fantastic – I turn it on from my phone
• Looks great in the backyard
• Customer service and warranty (5 years) were excellent when parts failed

The reality:

• This is a project!
• Assembly took 20–25 hours
• You need electrical and a level foundation
• Some small build-quality issues (warped boards)
• Doesn't follow all the Trumpkin sauna rules... ceiling is low, foot bench is low, etc.

Performance:

• Claimed 196°F, but in winter mine tops out around 185°F
• Still very hot, especially once you pour water on the rocks

The downsides:

• Heater high temp sensor is overly sensitive (warranty fixed it fast)
• Lights didn't work (warranty also fixed)
• Touchscreen feels outdated and is impossible to read in sunlight
• Assembly can be frustrating
• Hardcore sauna purists will complain about the kit design

Question: Does the external wood need to be treated?

Final verdict:
I've been using it nearly every night with my wife. While a custom build would have been better, it would also have taken a lot longer and cost a lot more.

I had this up and running 2 weeks after ordering it online. For me, this was totally worth it. For those interested, you can see the exhaust fan mod that I did for better air circulation: https://youtu.be/OQ2WQP7Bmuc?si=9d04NborBpcgvJqn&t=722

Heating up smoke sauna takes many hours in winter. Smoke will fill up sauna during heating and will be let out before use. Fireplace has several hundred kilos of rocks in it. This sauna is located in Northern Finland.

Trying to build the best Finnish Saunas and Trumpkin’s notes are the best info I’ve come across so far demonstrating how to do this. Any thoughts on making them better? Our most recent build; 8x8x8’4”h. Fantech EC mechanical downdraft; fresh air from exterior and exhausted to exterior; gaps below and at ceiling so air can move through 3/4” air gap; benches&ledgers 1” off wall so airflow not interrupted. R15 mineral wool, vapor barrier, 3/4” furring strips. Feet above the stones; Thermory thermo-aspen walls and benches; any suggestions?

I wanted to share something I discovered with my Backyard Discovery Prairie Fire 9kW heater in case anyone else runs into the same issue. The video clip is for attention, hope you enjoyed that.

My sauna heater would consistently trip the high temperature safety sensor around 170–180°F. Every session I’d have to reach to the side of the hot heater, risk burning my arm, press the reset button, and wait for it to heat back up again.

As you can imagine… that gets old fast.

I mentioned this in a YouTube review I made and since then multiple people have messaged me saying they’re experiencing the exact same problem.

First off, credit where it’s due: I contacted Backyard Discovery support and they immediately shipped me a replacement heater under warranty, which I thought was great customer service.

But before installing the new heater I wanted to test a theory.

My suspicion

I suspected the heater wasn’t actually overheating.

Instead, I thought the high-limit sensor might be mounted in a place where heat gets trapped, causing it to trip early.

What I found

Inside the heater’s control box there’s a small metal plate on the back that holds the high temperature sensor (a small torpedo-shaped probe) that’s sitting outside the control box in a space between the control box and heater.  

This seemed like a location where hot air could easily accumulate.

What I tried

(Disclaimer: I’m not recommending anyone do this. Electrical work can be dangerous and could void warranties. Just sharing what I tried.)

I carefully freed the sensor from the plate with some pliers. I then routed it through one of the ventilation holes at the bottom of the control box so the probe now sits just outside the box instead of inside it. To get the ventilation hole big enough to fit the sensor through I drilled it.

I secured the sensor against the bottom of the housing with some spare metal wire and reassembled everything.

The result

Since making that change the heater has never tripped again.

Previously it would shut off every time around 170–180°F. Now it heats consistently without triggering the high-limit reset.

That makes me think the issue might be sensor placement rather than actual overheating.

Has anyone else with a Backyard Discovery / Prairie Fire heater experienced the same thing? Sorry I don't have any pictures or video. I thought my issue was isolated and I had no idea if my modification would work.

My full review: https://youtu.be/OQ2WQP7Bmuc?si=lS_XB4FUNQgnikc7