Sauna Heater - The heart of your sauna

The Sauna heater as you might have guessed is the integral part of not only your sauna experience but the sauna room in general. Heaters have come a long way since the Finns first invented them over 2000 years ago. They started heating rocks in a wood fire and using them in their underground carved out sauna rooms. They later moved to working with a wood fire to heat their above ground sauna rooms, but discovered that not only did it take a long time for a wood fire to heat a room but the smoke was to much to deal with. So technology slowly took over and the progression of the sauna heater began.

In the 1950's when the electric sauna heater was finally invented the world of saunas really began to catch on around the globe. It was really the first time that a sauna room could be heated up in a reasonable amount of time, and without any down falls of smoke or soot on the walls. Using an electric sauna heater people were able to either enjoy steam in their sauna or just a dry heat.

Now of course there was a variety of electric heaters available as well. The ceramic sauna heater has become popular, mainly due to it's ability to conduct and hold heat very well. Since there are two pieces of criteria that determine the warmth of a sauna room one being how hot the heater can be, secondly how often do people leave and enter the room. Knowing that the sauna heater holds heat well ensures it can stay at temperature easier.

AS technology continued to progress in the world of saunas infrared sauna heaters became more popular. One because of their ability to heat a person without heating the air in between them, and two because of the health benefits an infrared sauna heater offered beyond the relief of aches and pains with heat therapy.

Of course the days of a wood sauna heater aren't gone. While there are cleaner and more efficient steam heaters, and units that can heat a room some people still prefer the type of heat they produce. Of course as technology continues to progress we will see newer types of sauna heaters arise such as the propane sauna heater.

Like fire places in homes are becoming replaced by pellet and propane stoves it makes sense that the sauna heater would go the same way. Seeing that the main purpose of the heater is to generate enough heat to warm the sauna room does it really matter how you do it? Different heaters produce different types of heat, some lend themselves more easily to a wet steam sauna or dry heat application. What ever sauna heater you decide to use, be sure it's the right one for the application you prefer when enjoying time in the sauna.