The Most Common Mistakes When Buying a Garden Sauna

Every one of these mistakes can be spotted before you buy, and none can be fixed cheaply afterwards. That is why it is worth a quarter of an hour of reading.

Comparing prices on different bases

A common and expensive mistake. Some sellers quote prices before tax, others after, and in adverts it is rarely stated clearly. For buyers outside the EU, such as in the UK, there is the added question of who pays import VAT and any other charges, and when.

The difference can easily come to several hundred pounds or euros on a barrel sauna, often exactly the saving that was promised. You choose the “cheaper” offer and after the phone call it turns out to be identical.

How to protect yourself: one sentence with every enquiry. “Please give me the total price including delivery to my address and all taxes and charges.” Then the answers are directly comparable. Our own price note for the United Kingdom: Prices exclude UK VAT; import VAT and any customs charges are paid by the buyer on delivery.

Buying one that is too big

Bought “for guests” who come three times a year, then used by two people on the other three hundred and sixty days.

You feel the consequences every time: heating takes 40–45 minutes instead of 30, you burn more wood or run the stove longer, and the purchase price is higher.

The rule: plan for the number of people who will use it most often. Guests can take the sauna in two sittings.

Not looking at the benches

The bench is the surface your skin touches at 90 °C. Alder or aspen are the most pleasant: these woods conduct heat poorly and do not burn your skin.

Spruce is also fine but should be knot-free and sanded smooth, since knots get much hotter than the rest of the board.

This is exactly where the cheapest offers cut corners, because the customer looks at the wall, not the bench. If the species of the benches is not in the description, ask.

Ignoring the base

A sauna on grass or uneven ground settles crooked in its first season. The door stops closing and heat escapes through the gap.

The only fix is to lift the whole structure and redo the base. That is work for several people and real cost.

A base of paving slabs costs little and a day’s work. It is incomparably cheaper than the repair.

No ventilation

A sauna without an air inlet near the stove and an outlet on the opposite side is stuffy: after twenty minutes your head aches, not from the heat but from the lack of air exchange.

The moisture also cannot escape and stays in the wood: dark patches, smell and eventually rot.

On cheap constructions the ventilation is sometimes missing entirely. Check the interior photo or ask directly.

A stove that is too weak

In summer it is enough; in winter the sauna never reaches temperature. It fails in precisely the season you bought it for.

Rule of thumb: about 1 kW per cubic metre of interior volume, plus a reserve for lots of glass and hard winters.

The saving on the stove is small. The loss is a whole season.

Overlooking the delivery cost

A barrel sauna is bulky freight. Delivery across the country can cost more than the price difference between two offers.

Some sellers quote an “ex-works” price and only add transport once the order is confirmed.

Ask for the final price including delivery to your address, not the price of the sauna. For our kits, delivery is already included in the price.

Not checking access

The most common reason a delivery goes wrong: a garden gate that is too narrow, steps on the way, a tight passage between house and fence, low-hanging branches.

The pieces have to be carried to the spot. A kit arrives on a pallet of about 240 × 120 × 120 cm and roughly 800 kg, which is unloaded at the kerb or driveway, and from there the elements are carried by hand.

Measure the width of the access before you order. At least one metre.

An electric stove without checking the installation

A stove of 8–12 kW needs its own circuit with the right protection, and many models require a three-phase supply.

If there is no such supply in the garden, running a cable of the right size in a trench can cost more than the stove itself.

Have an electrician check whether your supply and fuse board can carry the extra load. Otherwise the breaker trips when the stove and the oven run at the same time.

Not asking about the warranty on the roof

The structure usually has the longest warranty and the roof covering often the shortest, even though it is the part most exposed to the weather.

Ask separately about three things: the warranty on the structure, on the stove (a separate document from the stove maker) and on the roof covering.

Then ask who pays for the call-out if a warranty repair is needed. For a sauna hundreds of miles from the factory, that is a considerable sum.