Only limitation is the amount of water you can pour on it. 1/4 cup or less to keep it from boiling over.

Steam soup is ready!  ahhhhhh

Investing in a Kuuma sauna stove is one of those rare treats.  It enhances the sauna experience for many reasons:

• The sauna stove performs perfectly every time.
• The quality is unmatched anywhere in the world.
• Daryl’s pride and workmanship is felt with every sauna.
• The stove is built like a tank.  It will outlive you.
• Three generations of sauna building have helped perfect it’s design.

In a world of outsourcing, mass production, cutting costs, consider for a moment how rare is it today to buy find a quality product and actually talk to the man who not only had a hand in it’s construction but who actually designed it!?

Like hand made kitchen cabinets, or your favorite microbrew, or a Silega canoe, it’s one of those rare purchases where you smile every time you look at it and thank whoever or however you found out about it.  Whatever the freight is to get one delivered to your sauna build, just do it.  You’ll be thanking us by the end of your first sauna round.

• “I’m building a sauna and can’t decide whether….”
• “Glenn, you mention an outdoor wood burning sauna but we have an ideal place in our basement for….”
• “My husband wants a wood burning sauna, but i’m worried about…”
• “I grew up with an old school wood burning sauna, and now it’s my turn to build my own….”
• “Glenn, I have plenty of access to wood, and enjoy the wood cutting experience, yet I’m concerned that my wife won’t want…”
• “What about the smoke, will my neighbors…”
• “I’ve heard that a wood stove can take hours….”
• “I can hook up 220v heater because we finally pulled out our hot tub bacteria petri dish…”

In defense of electric heated sauna stoves:

1. Easy to use: Flip a switch, or use the programming device.
2. Easier to install, no chimney stack.
3. No red tape with insurance company or fidgety building inspector.
4. Sauna stoves heat rocks, who cares how they’re heated?
5. Cleaner, easier to maintain.

In defense of wood heated sauna stoves:

1. Authentic, natural way to heat.
2. Brings forward the ‘up north’ cabin vibe.
3. Promotes and outdoor experience and the concept of escape.
4. Negative ions are realized through wood burning.
5. Wood burning saunas vent better, more naturally.
6. More radiant heat for better “ahhhh” loyly production.

I didn’t list that electric sauna stoves heat quicker, as I can personally attest that my wood burning saunas (all three) heat up about the same time as electric sauna stoves.  Nate’s Firestarters help, custom made by a Barton School student.  They are so easy, an 11 year old can do it.

Wood, electric, let’s not debate forever:

NOW IS THE TIME FOR YOUR OWN SAUNA.

It’s been really cold here in Minnesota.  Just like with car batteries, this is the kind of weather to really get to know your wood burning sauna stove in your outdoor sauna.  In normal weather, any old stove with any old type of wood can get any old sauna up to 140 f (60c).   With time and determination, a combination of decaying pine branches smoking along in some home made metal box stove in shoddy insulated sauna room will eventually provide enough BTU’s to offer a sweat and some form of sauna.

A more serious sauna environment

Here in Minnesota, we don’t mess around with heat.   We can’t afford to.  It’s been below zero (-20c).  It’s great sauna weather.  And no matter where you live, you shouldn’t mess around with a lame sauna stove, or bad wood, or a poorly designed sauna.  Doing it right doesn’t mean you have to spend a lot of money, either.  This is the type of weather where you can tell how good your sauna stove is working, or where there’s a crack in your sauna door and the difference between burning pine and oak.

First things first, your outdoor sauna

I’m a big fan of good basic insulation, and a bigger fan of foil vapor wrap. Batting is cheap.  You can frame with 2×4.  Keep your ceiling at 7′ and if you go with 8′ ceiling, that’s fine, go with 3 benches but keep you cube small.  It is a lot easier to heat a small room than a big room.  This isn’t a suburban game of sheet rock palace, square foot fever.  This is an example of less being more.

Second, know your wood

If you’re heating with an electric sauna stove, you can move on.  However, us wood burning purists like to know where our BTU’s come from.  We are like microbrewers and gardeners.  Some of us have beards.  We stutter when we say ‘sustainable’, and some of us mumble words like ‘renewable’ in our sleep.  Up north, I burn birch almost exclusively in my cabin sauna but here in Minneapolis, it’s all across the board.  When I hear a chainsaw, i’m like a dog who hears another dark barking.  I chase after the sound and newly felled wood.  Many are more than happy to part with their tree cuttings.  Stay well clear of Elm (ash bore) but here are my favorites:

• Maple: dense hardwood.   Harder to light, but burns long and hot and slow.   Great to add to a hot fire.
• Pine: Burns fast, produces more ash.  Great starting wood.
• Oak:  My favorite all around burn.  Megga BTU’s, especially well aged red oak.
• Birch:  Fantastic for saunas, burns hot and bright.  BONUS: birch bark is nature’s gasoline.

Third, get a real sauna stove

I’m biased.  I own three Kuuma wood burning sauna stoves. They are the best sauna stove made.  I can bring my backyard or cabin or mobile sauna from 0 degrees f. (-18c) to 130f (54c) in about half an hour with 3-4 good pieces of wood.  Then, after pulling the hot coals forward, I’ll add another stick or two, and bring the sauna to 150 degrees f. (65c) a few minutes after that.  I can manage the fire, manage the burn rate, and take a 2-3 hour three round sauna at around 170 degress f. (77c).  All that with an armful of well season firewood.  sussusstainable.

How do you road test your sauna?

1. Load wood from the outside
2. Load wood from the changing room
3. Load wood from inside the hot room

Options #1 and #2 involve using a ”throat” add on to a wood burning sauna stove.  Also, one needs to brick around the throat and sauna, usually a three foot border, for fire retardant.   In the old days, most saunas were built #1, loading wood from the outside.  The main reason for this is that old saunas were inefficient, basically home made iron boxes that burned hot and fast, requiring a pretty much constant supply of firewood.  Finnish ingenuity gave way to the idea that the door to the sauna stove could be steps away from an outdoor wood pile.

As stoves became a bit smaller and somewhat more efficient, people began building wood burning saunas to feed from the changing room.  The theory here is that a small amount of firewood could  be kept dry in the changing room and added to the stove from there.  The main advantage to #2 is that the sauna stove can provide some heat to the changing room.  It is estimated that between 10-15% of a sauna stove’s heat comes from the front of stove.

#3 is my choice.  Today’s sauna stoves are very efficient.  The Kuuma Stove is so efficient that I can take a sauna with 4 pieces of firewood.  By feeding from inside the hot room, I capture 100% of the heat in the hot room, and don’t have to mess around with extensive brick framing.  Also, I can monitor the fire from the sauna bench.

Considering whether to build a wood burning sauna or an electric sauna?  You may want to read below.. I’ll post all comments.

It was that cold.  5 guests showed up for this sauna party.  Dan waltzed in at 10:30 pm “somebody has to be on the late shift” as three of us were deep into our 2nd full round of this sauna party.

Let me try to sum up what a 20 below sauna party is like: I started the Kuuma Stove around 8 pm, then watched some of the Minnesota Wild hockey game back in the house, while riding the stationary bike.  Around 8:30 my 9 year old appears in his bathrobe, wanting to take a sauna party with Dad.  So, we hit it.  Sauna party temp: already 140 degrees f. inside, about 10 degrees f. in the changing room, and -20 degrees f. outside.

Around 9 pm, Chuck and Matt arrive the sauna party.

Let me describe what dumping cold water over one’s head standing outside in -20 degrees f. feels like.  Well, you need sandles on or your feet want to start sticking to the ice/snow outside.  No damper to the sauna party!  You step outside and steam billows off your body like a clothes dryer vent.  You splash water over your head, and as cold as the water is, it feels warm because the air temp. at this sauna party is so brrrrrrrrrr..  Now most folks would run back inside to the sauna party, but if you stand outside for a moment, something wonderful happens.

The water on your skin starts evaporating, blood flows freely around your body, and the heat mass from your body gives you a warm tingly feeling as it hits the cold air.  What a sauna party!  A friend likens it to dipping an ice cream cone in hot chocolate.  Your outer skin has a nice crisp layer feeling to it.  When ice starts forming on your hair, well, it’s time to get back to the sauna party and hang out in the changing room and grab a beer.

The changing room of the sauna party has its own compelling climate.  The steam in the chilly room gives a tropical feeling, a rainforest but fresh and cool.  No rush to go back into the sauna.  The sauna party is now in the changing room.  King Tubby, Radiohead, and Theivery Corporation shuffle mix on Rhapsody music player.  A quick flip of the bottle opener and the sauna party is in full force.  Lots of ice cold water to help keep the hydration happening.  Nate’s gone to bed and 2 more arrive for the sauna party.  Nice thing about a sauna party:  you can casually socialize with whomever you wish.  Good one on one time either in the sauna, hanging in the changing room, or outside sharing a cold beer after a water plunge.  175 degrees f. back in the sauna.  Let’s go back in the sauna!

The Kuuma Stove fought back vigorously with each door opening.  Take a moment to consider this:  if the changing room is, say, 20 degrees and your sauna is, say, 170 degrees, you don’t have to be a thermal mass scientist to figure that there’s quite a blast of cold air and heat loss going on each time someone opens the sauna door at a sauna party.  5-6 people at a sauna party can create quite a test to maintaining an adequate temperature in a sauna.  I started the Kuuma Stove with 4 pieces of firewood, and added 2 more throughout the night.  That’s pretty efficient for a long sauna party!

I was told that after an especially grueling negotiation with Nokia executives, vendors are invited to take a sauna with the top brass.  Now, talk about building vendor relationships!  sauna party!  Brush up on sauna etiquette, close the door!!

TIP: If you sell to Nokia, get a sauna and start enjoying your own sauna party!

Not every day am I productive.  And I don’t claim to be the most productive guy on the block.  Having said this, there are days when I feel like everything is unraveled: loose ends with my job, errands to run, projects with the kids, etc.

When I get this feeling of the screws coming off, I take a sauna.  In the sauna I bring only one thing.  Wait, no 4 things:

1. a big jug of water
2. an ice cold beer
3. a pencil
4. a used envelope

I don’t try to solve all the world’s problems, but the first round, I just try to chill, and get in a relaxed mood.  This allows my brain to start to relax, and if a thought hits me, “oh, I have to get new bindings for my cross country skis” I write that down  then just clear that thought out of my brain.  Often, first round, I may not write anything down.  After 10-15 minutes like this, you’ll be amazed at how much more clear you can begin to think, and prioritize all the crap in your life!  As the first round is almost complete, I’ll toss some water on the rocks to get the sweat flowing, and invariably, my mind starts flowing with it.  Not a bad time to start writing.. just a couple words for each “to do” task, then move on.  Then, i’ll grab some ice cold water from the water bucket, step outside and douse it over me, simulating the jump in the lake experience.  Now that beer will come in handy.  Stay out there longer than you think!  the yin and yang of the sauna experience is such that your heat up time, should approximate your cool down time.  Don’t go into a sauna for your second round while your body is still hot from the first round.  Spread out, stretch out!

Next round in the sauna, ill start with some water on the rocks (loli) and revisit my envelope and pencil.

Wash, rinse, repeat.  Those guys who write on the back of shampoo bottles really have the system down!  try it!! this free sauna information will help you enjoy the health benefits of saunas.

1. Wood heat penetrates deeper, electric heat can feel like sitting in a toaster oven. (my opinion, supported by others).
2. Wood heat offers a fresher sauna.  A fire needs oxygen to burn.  As a wood fired sauna burns, it cycles fresh air into the sauna room.
3. Wood fired sauna stove accepts water on the rocks (Loli) much better than an electric stove.  Wood heats with thermal mass, where electric coils in an electric stove burn hot and thin (see toaster oven, above).
4. Wood heat contains negatve ions.  this is mumbo jumbo for some future post/discussion.
5. Wood heat is free and off the grid.  Plus, with an efficient wood burning sauna stove like a Kuuma Stove, you can burn efficient and clean.