How we compare

SaunaGrid lines up home saunas from 42 brands using the brands' and stores' own published specs and prices. We don't rank saunas. We record what each one is, where every number came from, when it was last checked, and what each store charges.

Products: 1398
Recorded spec claims: 8,165
Claims rejected as wrong: 86
Store listings tracked: 2212 at 24 stores
Data as of: Oct 10, 2026

Where the specs come from

Every spec on a product page (model / sku, accessory type, made for, heat, infrared spectrum, setting, shape, seats, outside size, inside size, weight, power, voltage, circuit, plugs in, top temperature, heater, heater included in the price, water capacity, coldest water, chiller included, room size it heats, wood, thermally modified wood, wall / stave thickness, arrives, electrical safety listing, emf claim, warranty: cabin, warranty: heater) is a claim we recorded with its source: the page it was read from, how it was read, and the date. The product page shows the source next to each value, so you can check it in one click.

Sources rank in this order:

The brand's own material: its product page, spec sheet or product feed.
A store's listing of that exact part number, when the brand doesn't publish the figure.
Anything else, such as a search result or a figure worked out from the source's own numbers. These values are marked with an asterisk.

Within a rank, a page read directly beats an archived copy of it. When a store blocks automated reading, we read the copy the Internet Archive keeps instead, and the source says "archived".

Of the 8,060 spec values shown on the site right now, 65% come from the brand, 35% from a store. Another 0% are carried over from the original catalogue and haven't been re-checked yet. Those are labelled not re-verified wherever they appear.

When sources disagree

The highest-ranked source wins, and among equals the newest reading wins. A value carried over from before we kept sources ranks below everything, so any checked reading replaces it.

When two good sources disagree by more than measuring noise (half an inch or 3% on a dimension, 5% on a weight), we look at both and mark the wrong one rejected, with the reason. Rejected claims are kept rather than deleted, so the next check doesn't pick the same wrong number up again. 86 claims have been rejected so far.

A few conventions make products comparable:

Dimensions are length × width × height in inches. Length is the longer side of the footprint, because brands disagree about which side they call length. Height is measured with any handle folded down.
Load capacity is what the product is rated to carry. A lid's standing load is a different figure and isn't recorded.
Material uses a short shared vocabulary (polypropylene, ABS, steel and so on), so a brand's marketing name for its plastic doesn't hide that it's the same plastic.

Confirmed, inferred, unconfirmed

Every product carries a confidence label. It's computed from its sources, never typed in by hand:

confirmed (497 products): the part number and every shown spec were read from the brand's or a store's own page, spec sheet or feed, or an archived copy.
inferred (893): read the same way, but at least one value rests on a search result or a figure worked out from the source's numbers, or the product has no part number to pin it to.
unconfirmed (8): at least one value hasn't been re-checked since the catalogue began. The product page says which.

Prices

Prices are re-checked every week. Each price shows the date it was seen and the store it was seen at. The headline price is the cheapest store that has the product in stock. If no store has a price, we show the brand's list price, labelled as such. A price we haven't been able to re-check reads "recorded <date>, not re-checked since", never as current.

Some large stores refuse automated price checks. For those, we look the part number up by hand and record the price the store's own listing shows. When we can't do that, the store is listed without a price rather than with a guessed one.

Size tiers

Brands name sizes differently: one brand's "large" is another's "medium". The size filter (compact, medium, large, XL) places each product by its size within its own line. We use the brand's own size word when the name has one. Otherwise we rank the product by outside volume against its line-mates, or an editor places it. Tiers are for narrowing a list, not a claim that two saunas are the same size, so the outside size is always shown next to them.

Prices and "was" prices

Each sauna is priced in one configuration, its base: the cheapest one the store sells with the same heat type, size and wood. Heater upgrades, doors, windows and finishes are not separate saunas. Every store price is the store's own product data for that exact configuration, read weekly, with the date. Where a store shows a struck-through "was" price we record it as shown and keep the history, so a permanent "sale" is visible. Where a sauna is sold without its heater we say so: the cabin price is not the price of a working sauna.

Discontinued products

Products a brand no longer sells new stay in the catalogue, because people own them or buy them used. They're kept out of every comparison, listed under legacy & discontinued, and each one names what replaced it. 0 products are listed there now. 54 entries have been removed outright as duplicates or mistakes, each with a recorded reason.

How the site makes money

Some "buy" links are affiliate links: if you buy through one, the store pays SaunaGrid a commission at no cost to you. Those links say so right next to the button. Affiliate status never decides what we list, the order things appear in, or which store a price comes from. The headline price is the cheapest in-stock store, whether or not we earn from it. No brand or store pays for placement.

What we don't do

No scores or "best" picks. A single score hides whose priorities set the weights. We show the numbers and the sources, and you decide.
Claims are labelled as claims. Top temperature, heat-up time and EMF figures are what the brand says. When we publish our own measurements they appear separately, marked as ours, with how we took them.
"Was" prices are the store's. We record a struck-through price exactly as the store shows it and keep the weekly history, so you can see how long a "sale" has run. We don't call a price a deal.
US market only. Model numbers, prices and availability are for US stores.
No guessing. A value nobody has published is left blank, not estimated.

What the terms mean

Heat: Electric and wood are traditional saunas: a heater warms the air and stones, and you can throw water for steam. Infrared saunas have panels that warm your body directly at a lower air temperature (most top out around 140-150 °F). Hybrid saunas have both.
Infrared spectrum: Which infrared wavelengths the panels emit; "full spectrum" is all three.
Outside size (L×W×H): Outside length × width × height in inches as the brand states it; for a barrel, length × diameter × height.
Power: Rated electrical power: a traditional heater's kW, or an infrared sauna's total wattage. Blank for wood-fired.
Voltage, circuit and plug-in: 120 V saunas plug into an ordinary household outlet (often a dedicated 15 or 20 A one). 240 V saunas need a dedicated circuit, sized in amps by the brand, run by a licensed electrician: budget for it. Plugs in: yes only when the brand says it plugs into a standard outlet.
Top temperature (claimed): What the brand says the room reaches. Not measured by us; infrared saunas typically claim 140-150 °F, traditional 185-195 °F.
Heater included in the price: no = the price is for the cabin; the heater is bought separately (part of the true installed cost).
Water capacity: How much water the tub holds, as the brand states it (fill level, not the tub's brim).
Room size it heats: The room volume range the heater maker rates it for, in cubic feet (min-max).
Wood: Wood species as the brand names them. Thermally modified wood is marked separately.
Thermally modified wood: Wood baked to stabilise it: less warping and checking outdoors.
Wall / stave thickness: Barrel staves or wall boards as built. Staves under 1.5 in are prone to warping outdoors.
Arrives: assembled = delivered ready to place; panels = pre-built wall panels you bolt together; kit = boards and parts to build.
Electrical safety listing: The safety listing the brand states (ETL, UL or CSA are what US electrical inspectors look for; CE alone is not a US listing).
EMF claim: The brand's own low-EMF statement, quoted as published (distance and units vary). Not measured by us.
Size tier: Compact, medium, large or XL within the sauna's own line, so lineups can be lined up across brands. Two "large" saunas from different brands aren't the same size; the outside size says how they differ.
"Was" price: The struck-through price a store shows next to its price, recorded as the store's claim. A store that shows the same "was" price week after week is not running a sale; the price history on each sauna's page shows it.
Confirmed, inferred, unconfirmed: How a product's data was sourced; see above.

The full data rules, including the exact source ranking and the weekly checklist, are kept with the data and applied by the same scripts that check it for consistency on every update.