Who we are
About Sauna & Slate
Home saunas, with the numbers attached. A home-sauna buying guide that leads with the numbers other roundups skip.
Why this site exists
Home saunas are a confusing, high-ticket purchase wrapped in marketing: "full spectrum", "ultra-low EMF", unreachable heat-up claims, and prices that are out of date the moment they're typed. When we went shopping ourselves, the thing we most wanted — what a sauna actually costs to run, whether it needs an electrician, and how one model really compares to another — was nowhere to be found. So we built the site we wanted to read.
Sauna & Slate ranks home saunas across every type — infrared, barrel, indoor traditional, portable — with live, date-stamped Amazon prices and the running-cost, EMF and wiring figures the competition leaves out. Where the cheaper sauna is the better buy, we say so, even though the pricier one pays us more.
Who writes it
Sauna & Slate is written and edited by Stephen V.— an enthusiast who's genuinely into this. Not a certified installer, not a wellness clinician, not someone with a test chamber in the garage. What that means in practice: I read the manuals, compile the published specifications, do the arithmetic, and cite my sources. No lab coat, no test lab, and I'm not going to pretend otherwise.
Saunas we claim to have hands-on tested: 0 — and we'd rather tell you that than pretend. Every "best sauna" list online implies it lab-tested twenty units. We haven't tested any. What we do instead is on our methodology page: compile the specs, compute the running cost, and cite every source.
How we compete without a lab
The publishers that rank in this niche lead with in-house testing and stacked credentials. We can't honestly imitate that, and we won't try. Instead we compete on methodology and transparency — publishing the reproducible numbers the incumbents omit:
- Running cost, computed from each sauna's kW draw and the U.S. average electricity rate, with the math shown — see what a home sauna costs to run.
- Heater sizing, from published standards, as a usable sizing guide.
- Electrical reality — which saunas plug into a standard outlet and which need a 240V circuit and an electrician.
- Standardized EMF, compiled from manufacturer disclosures into one place — EMF, explained.
How this is funded
Sauna & Slate is funded by the Amazon Associates program: when you buy through our links we earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Commissions never influence our rankings — read the affiliate disclosure and our editorial policy for exactly how that line is held. The site is published by Type 5 Marketing LLC.
Get in touch
Found a factual error, or a price that's drifted? We want to know and we'll fix it. Contact us or email info@saunaandslate.com.