Thinking about it?

Garden sauna pros and cons

The good bits, and honest answers to the worries that stop people buying.

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The good bits

No booking, no drive, no £10 a head

Your sauna is ready when you are: before work, after the school run or at 10pm on a Tuesday. Two people going to a community sauna twice a week would pay about £2,080 a year.

It can pay its own way

If two of you would otherwise pay for community sauna sessions twice a week, a £6,000 ready-to-use sauna costs about the same as those sessions after 3.5 years, by our sums. Use it more and it gets quicker.

Cheaper to run than most people expect

About £1.97 of electricity a session for a 6 heater, or about £0.53 for a small infrared cabin.

Winter becomes the best bit of the year

The garden earns its keep from October to March, when it would otherwise sit dark and wet.

Time together, phones left indoors

Heat and electronics don't mix, so it is the one room in the house nobody scrolls in. Families, couples and friends make it a weekly habit.

Hot, then cold

Add a cold plunge by the door for the Nordic routine of heat, cold water and a sit-down. Plunge tubs start at £89.

The worries, answered

"It's too expensive."

Garden saunas you can buy today start at £3,900 ready to use, with the heater, electrics and base included. Infrared cabins that plug in start at £1,595. Used twice a week by two people for five years, a typical sauna costs a few pounds a person each time. A community sauna charges about £10. Work out your own payback →

"We'll use it twice and it'll become a garden ornament."

The best guard is a sauna that is easy to start. Many heaters can run on a timer or from an app, so it is hot when you walk out. And the sums reward use: the cost of each session falls every time you go. Will you really use it? →

"The electrics sound like a nightmare."

It is one visit from a registered electrician. Every sauna page says what power it needs, and we add a typical cost to the price (£450 for a new circuit). 8 saunas we list plug into a normal socket, and 46 garden saunas take a wood stove with no electrics at all. Sauna electrics, explained →

"Won't I need planning permission?"

GOV.UK's guidance says usually not in England, if it is behind the front of the house, single storey, and no taller than 2.5 m within 2 m of a boundary. Most garden saunas we list are well under that, and every sauna page shows its height. The finder can filter for it. The planning rules →

"My garden's too small."

The smallest garden saunas we list take 1.20 × 1.20 m, about the size of a garden shed. No garden at all? Infrared cabins fit in a spare room, and a cold plunge needs less than a metre square. Saunas for small spaces →

"With energy prices what they are?"

About £1.97 a session for a 6 heater at 26.32p per , or about £0.53 for an infrared cabin. Twice a week, that is about £205 a year. A wood-fired stove uses £80 to £180 of logs a year instead. Your own running cost →

"Won't it rot in the British weather?"

Choose or , keep it off the ground on a level base and treat the outside once a year. We allow £150 a year for that. Warranties on the saunas we list run up to 10 years on the cabin. How long a garden sauna lasts →

"I'm not a DIY person."

kits take two people one to two days. 3 saunas we list come with a published installation price, shown on each page, and some arrive built. Base, delivery and building →

"What will the neighbours say?"

An electric sauna is quiet and makes no smoke. A wood stove does smoke, and in a you may only burn wood in an exempt stove. Put the door and chimney away from the fence and most neighbours never notice. Wood stoves and the smoke rules →

"Is it safe for the family?"

Supervise children, keep a timer on the wall, and follow the heater maker's advice on age and how long to stay in. If anyone has a heart or blood-pressure condition, or is pregnant, ask your GP first. We don't give health advice. Garden sauna safety →

We describe what you get for your money. We don't make health claims: if you have a medical condition, ask your GP.