R Blog: Sauna

Oregon is a much better place than Hawaii to take a sauna. After all, when you are in Hawaii most of the time you are in a kind of a sauna. Balmy, high humidity air, made pleasant by trade winds. Meanwhile, back in Ashland we get to enjoy the sauna again. A couple years ago our son Shawn built one for us in the backyard. Carlos Delgado, a local architect, drew us a plan. We used a kit for the interior from Cedarbrook Saunas. Cedarbrook shipped us everything we needed on a pallet and dropped it in front of the house. Shawn had to build everything else from scratch. Excavation, foundation, framing, and finish work. We painted it red cuz it’s hot in there.
We investigated the infra red sauna and everyone we talked to liked it. But we decided on a more traditional approach. Then we learned about the combi heating unit which turns your sauna into a steam bath. It’s the best of both worlds. Sauna and steam. Drip water on hot rocks. Or have constant steam. Of course, the best part about saunas are the ice cold showers you take intermittently during your sauna bath. Sunday we were swimming in the ocean. Monday we were scraping Hawaii off our bodies.
Wood saunas are great. Probably preferable. But the fact is that we use an electric powered sauna way more often than we would if we had to gather firewood, build a fire and wait until the place heated up. We use it several times a week. Ours is ready to go in fifteen minutes. As far as electrical appliances go, our combi heating unit is right up there with TiVo.