Purchasing A New Sauna Can Be Challenging

Saunas have been apart of Finland’s society for many years. The Finns see taking a sauna as a necessity rather than a form of luxury. This culture combines families and friends as they share in the cleansing of the body and mind in the sauna. The Finn's in this culture take a far infrared sauna weekly usually on Saturday because Sunday is to be a spiritual purification day. There are about 2 million personal saunas in Finland where most are in private residents. The rest are in gyms, health clubs, or hotels. There are approximately 5 million people that live in Finland today.

The traditionsof taking a sauna began in Finland as a way to clean the body of impurities and relax the mind. This practice began before taking a bath was common practice to keep good hygiene. It was common for the sauna to be built prior the house was built on new property. This was done because you could live in the sauna before the house completed. A sauna is essentially a sterile environment. The traditional saunas were designed with a fire pit. The fire pit would heat the room along with the rocks the smoke would fill the room until it got up to temperature than fresh air was let in.

What differentiates a sauna a Finnish sauna is the heater that is used, though many people believe that there are many different kinds of saunas the only real saunas are the ones that only use wood fired heaters unlike wording to describe the differences between the other saunas in use today. The average heat range is around 150 degrees to 200 degrees.

Wood is burned to heat rocks that sit on top. Once the rocks are thought to be hot enough the fire is extinguished and the sauna is cleared of smoke and water is dripped over the rocks to release the steam. The steam is considered the spiritual part of the sauna. A basic home sauna is a Cedar lined room with benches for the user to sit on. During the process of taking a sauna birch branches are struck gently against the skin to help with circulation. The sauna process has many steps to completion. To start with one must take a shower then enter the sauna room where one will stay for 15 to 20 minutes then repeat the shower and re enter the sauna. This procedure can be several different times. The process can take about an hour over all.