Sauna

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podz

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Sauna, my storage place for all sorts of junk. Except when I want to go to Sauna - then I need to empty it!

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A basket full of birch and my brewing thermometer hanging on the wall.

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And the heart of the Sauna - the wood burning stove. In Finnish, the sauna's stove is called a "kiuas".

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These special rocks hold water and make an even longer lasting steam.

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Since we're kinda like rednecks and stuff, we just cook some sausages right above the kiuas and eat them when we feel like it.

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Getting ready to mix up some water to throw on top of the kiuas. We have choice of scenting it with either tar or eucalyptus. I prefer tar (terva).

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Almost 50 degrees, starting to get hot. We go in when it reaches about 80 celcius.

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Adjusting the door vents and the ash tray to get just the right pull for the maximum fire power!

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Hmm, time to put some more wood into the kiuas...

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Not many saunas in Florida (although, oddly, a local friend of mine has one on his house).

Is the heater electric or wood burning? Do you know if he has the type of rocks that you can throw water on (peridotite)? Most types of rocks will explode or are otherwise unhealthy, so we ship sauna rocks all around the world since there is an abundance of the stuff here in Finland.
 
Is the heater electric or wood burning? Do you know if he has the type of rocks that you can throw water on (peridotite)? Most types of rocks will explode or are otherwise unhealthy, so we ship sauna rocks all around the world since there is an abundance of the stuff here in Finland.

No idea. I've seen the wood door off his back patio that leads into it, but I don't remember the mechanics or materials. I think there was a pile of rocks in there.
 
Fantastic. I used to enjoy the sauna at a Hotel in a town nearby. You could rent the pool and sauna for a day.

Odd place. The sauna had a lock on the inside... o_O
 
All the saunas I have seen here have all been electric. And I believe all the rocks are purchased as sauna rocks. Of course all of the ones I have seen have been built as indoor rooms in places like Gyms, Pools, and resorts. I would love to have one, but thinking of how much use it would get (it gets in the 90s and at about 80% humidity here(where I live) during the summer so we practically live in a sauna.

With a wood burning heater, do you find troubles with smokiness, though I am guessing it is venting out the back that shouldnt be an issue unless you get a good gust of wind. I think you must get more heat out of a wood burning one than a electric too.
 
With a wood burning heater, do you find troubles with smokiness, though I am guessing it is venting out the back that shouldnt be an issue unless you get a good gust of wind. I think you must get more heat out of a wood burning one than a electric too.

My sauna stove is connected to my chimney which has about a 15 meters rise since the sauna is in the basement and this is a two-story house with a very steep roof, so it has a very good pull. And we get the chimney cleaned out and tested every autumn, so there isn't any problem with pull or smokiness even during windstorms (which we have had a few bad ones here last week).

The electric stoves heat the sauna just as well if they're appropriately sized. They are all three-phase and 11kW is not uncommon. They produce an angry steam, though, compared to the wood burning stoves and you don't get a good smell of burning birch. I hate electric sauna heaters, but that's all you get inside of apartment buildings.
 
This is what an electric sauna heater looks like, before putting in the rocks (just an example I found from google images):

uusi-kiuas-paikoillaan.jpg
 
Nice.
Haven't been in a sauna since I was in Norway... Probably before many of you were born, come to think of it... lol
 
Had one in the house when I was up in Houghton for school. Never actually used it because electricity was expensive to a broke college kid.
 
Had one in the house when I was up in Houghton for school. Never actually used it because electricity was expensive to a broke college kid.

That's another reason why I hate electric sauna heaters. One sauna evening will end up costing you between 10 and 15 euros / bucks / etc in electricity. Running an 11kW heating element at full power for 3-4 hours is not cheap (a sauna will take about 1.5 - 2 hours to heat up, then if you've got people taking turns it can easily be in use for 2-3 hours). Our daughters usually like to go first, then the wife and I go after them.

When I buy birch, already split and cut to 30cm long (standard inside length of the wood burning stove) I buy 2m3 (2 cubic meters). That costs me about 140 delivered to my driveway in 2 huge sacks by a truck with a long crane arm and will last me more than 2 years of sauna once a week.

Those delivery trucks are cool - they park on the street and put the wood damn near wherever you want it in your yard with their long crane arm.

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Ah, just came out from another nice sauna. 80 celcius / 175 fahrenheit.
 
was able to enjoy a sauna in Finland when my ship visited Kotka back 23 years ago

showers for the cool down, but regrettably, no sausages

and learned there was a difference between a sauna and a steam bath
 
back when I was an idiot (not long ago), I got really drunk in a sauna. never again.

It's only usually a problem if the heat is on ;-) Seriously, I don't know one person who doesn't drink alcohol while being in sauna.
 
It's only usually a problem if the heat is on ;-) Seriously, I don't know one person who doesn't drink alcohol while being in sauna.

drinking some alcohol isn't an issue.
Its the drinking of lots of alcohol while sitting in prolonged exposure to dehydration by heat.
 
mmm, sauna, the benefit of living in Finland.

As someone living in the lake-district of finland, our cottage has a lake right next to sauna and a good, old woodstove sauna.

At home i have to satisfy myself with a shower cooldown..
For me, wood is free, bar the work of chopping it down, as everyone i know basically has some forest themselves.

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All this talk of saunas has me thinking, summer is the perfect time to start building a sauna to prepare for -40 again next winter!!
 
All this talk of saunas has me thinking, summer is the perfect time to start building a sauna to prepare for -40 again next winter!!

Heh, we've got +40 fahrenheit here in Helsinki and just came from a 180f sauna!
 
Yah our summer is just starting up. We get about +25F overnight and +55 on a sunny day right now! You said your sauna is in the basement? How's that work out for keeping moisture out of the rest of the house? I have a perfect little spare room in my basement that isn't used for anything..
 
Ah, just came out from another nice sauna. 80 celcius / 175 fahrenheit.

Sounds like your stress must be completely converted or quite possibly denatured at these temps.

I love a good sauna but haven't had one since moving to TX

80c a Holy flocking ****. Don't know if I could handle that. I guess it's in the Finnish genes.

Saw a show on sauna in Finland. Said women used to birth babies in them as the soot renders it the cleanest place. In the house from a microbial standpoint. Also showed a couple of happy campers watching an ice hockey game from one. Would love that.

Gotta get to Helsinki one day. Closest I've been is Stockholm.
 
Yah our summer is just starting up. We get about +25F overnight and +55 on a sunny day right now! You said your sauna is in the basement? How's that work out for keeping moisture out of the rest of the house? I have a perfect little spare room in my basement that isn't used for anything..

Finnish sauna is not a steam room; that would be a Turkish sauna which is normally built with tile from top to bottom.

With a Finnish sauna, the room is heated up to between 80 and 100 celsius with either a wood burning or electric stove that has rocks on top of it. We prepare a bucket of hot water, optionally mixing in some scented fragrance like tar or eucalyptus, and then throw ladles full of that water on top of the rocks every few minutes. It turns into a really quick steam which completely evaporates within a minute or two.

If your room doesn't have a smoke pipe leading up to a chimmeny, then you are restricted to using an electric sauna heater.

Anyhow, sauna is built by first creating a vapor barrier with aluminium sheeting and aluminium tape. There are air vents installed which have round spinning lids (spin counterclockwise to close, clockwise to open). Close the air vents when you start to warm up the sauna, open the air vents when you are finished using the sauna. After the aluminium vapor barrier, frame the walls with 2x4s, install electricity for an under the bench lamp and optionally an electric stove, then lay panels for the walls. The floor usually has a drain and is laid with tile.

Here is a construction project example:

http://kotilahelaan.talopaketti.fi/2013/01/22/saunan-rakennus-alkaa-panelointi/

So, probably the most difficult thing if your room is fully underground is making a route for an air ventilation duct to the outside. Reciprocating saw and hammer drill are your friends ;-)

Also, very important that there are no electrical outlets inside the sauna, no electrical cable transiting the sauna and that both the lamp as well as electric stove, if you choose that over wood, are hardwired and the lamp plus all termination fittings are IP44 rated.
 
Sounds like your stress must be completely converted or quite possibly denatured at these temps.

I love a good sauna but haven't had one since moving to TX

80c a Holy flocking ****. Don't know if I could handle that. I guess it's in the Finnish genes.

Saw a show on sauna in Finland. Said women used to birth babies in them as the soot renders it the cleanest place. In the house from a microbial standpoint. Also showed a couple of happy campers watching an ice hockey game from one. Would love that.

Gotta get to Helsinki one day. Closest I've been is Stockholm.

80c is the low end of Finnish sauna heating range, 100c is the upper end.

We don't stay in there forever; normally 10-15 minutes at a time, 4 or 5 times in one sauna evening.

Sauna is used for all sorts of things when it's not in use for it's intended purpose. I do most of my fermenting of beer and cider in my sauna. Other times, I use it as temporary storage while cleaning out the garage, for example.
 
I tend to have sauna at 80-90 degrees celcius as well, it's very nice and if you don't go overboard with the water it doesn't feel as warm as a 60 degree turkish bath.

On a beer related front, sauna is great for keeping your mash at the right temperature ;D
 
We had a sauna last evening that just did not want to stop warming up. By the time the temperature finally stopped rising, it had reached 97c.

Listless is the only word to describe the feeling afterwards. Went to bed with a beer in my hand and could barely finish it.
 
@podz In Chicago (where I live) and New York, there are outstanding Russian and Turkish saunas and baths. The one I go to in Chicago is the Chicago Sweatlodge. Great, giant stone ovens, one sauna is dry, the other wet, and a cold pool right inbetween them. A great way to spend a few hours.
 
We have a ton of Finnish immigrants here, and I really thought that 'everyone' had a sauna! :D

Many are set up at the edge of a lake, and they just cut a hole in the ice for water and for access to the lake. Almost all of those are wood fired.

For the people who live in town, there is an electric sauna and it's sometimes generally in the basement. I didn't even think to wonder how those are ventilated. The rest are in outbuildings, and those are occasionally wood fired.
 
Lot of mistakes on that site, pappers.

Turkish bath has nothing to do with sauna, it's a completely different thing.
Russian bania is similar to sauna, though usually drier.

And using oak instead of birchleaves is just wrong on so many levels.
 
Lot of mistakes on that site, pappers.

Turkish bath has nothing to do with sauna, it's a completely different thing.
Russian bania is similar to sauna, though usually drier.

And using oak instead of birchleaves is just wrong on so many levels.

In the US, all four Russian-run baths I've been to make the same distinction - dry sauna is "Russian" and wet sauna is "Turkish".
 
I know that in the english language, sauna has been reused to mean any kind of steam bath/hot room.

In original finnish it is only meant for the specific finnish version of steam-rooms.

Sauna and Banya are similar, except in sauna the stones are on top of a smaller stove, where as in banya the stones are inside the stove and the stove is only opened for löyly(adding water to stones).

Turkish hammam or japanese sento are similar, much lower heat, but much more water.
 
Yep, sauna is a finnish word and it only means finnish-style sauna.

There are plenty of people who have built saunas outside of Finland. Probably most of them in yooper land are real saunas. The so-called "saunas" that are found in US golf courses, hotels, gyms, or other such are not real saunas. They are some adaptation of the concept.

Not one person in Finland would ever be caught be dead wearing any sort of clothes, swimming suits, or even a towel inside of a sauna. That is like a very serious blasphemy.
 
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