best barrel sauna — Best Barrel Saunas of 2024

The sauna movement has grown exponentially in the last couple of years, with hoards of people opting to set up a sauna in their own home to experience the benefits of sauna on the daily.

In the past, sauna therapy used to be something that many people did once or twice a week at a dedicated sauna space or wellness centre, but with the popularity of both sauna and ice baths as an exercise recovery tool and overall health and wellness tool game changer, not just athletes are accessing sauna for home in the form of an infrared sauna, sauna blanket or traditional sauna.

While the majority of sauna designs on the market are your typical square box, there is a refreshing boost in amazing barrel saunas hotting the sauna market. In this article, we have shortlisted some of the best barrel saunas we’ve seen to create the ultimate sauna setup at home or to add to your gym offering for clients.

From indoor to outdoor saunas, we compare barrel saunas offered by Plunge, Found Space, Redwood Outdoors, Sisu Lifestyle, Cedar Springs Recreation, Shym Saunas and Luxo Living, breaking them down on type, price, warranty, installation, design, quality and price.

Our Top Picks – Best Barrel Sauna of 2024

Best Overall: Redwood Outdoors Cedar Barrel Sauna With Porch

Use code GURU250 for $250 off at checkout

The Redwood Outdoors cedar barrel sauna is really barrel sauna heaven! It caters for multiple people or a super spacious, luxury Canadian red cedar experience for one person. This is the overall best barrel sauna and has all the trimmings including digital WIFI Harvia heater, porch with seating to relax on in between sauna rounds and option for panorama viewing window.

Best in Australia: Revel Eden Traditional Barrel Sauna

Revel Saunas have recently released the Eden range and have the best barrel sauna Australia. Designed for up to 4 people, we love the authentic Finnish sauna experience that Revel offers with their indoor and outdoor suitable barrel saunas. Featuring a waterproof shingle roof, Harvia heater and a number of installation options to suit the best for you.

Best Design: Sisu Lifestyle Edwin Barrel Sauna

Use code GURU for $250 discount at checkout

The Sisu Lifestyle Edwin Sauna is one of the best value and design barrel saunas out there. It features a minimalistic design with the option for roof kit or no roof kit, handcrafted western red cedar, WIFI enabled Huum heater and a huge 5 year warranty on sauna and heater. They also throw in wall mounted sand timer, matching water bucket and ladel and a thermometer.

Best Budget: Luxo Living Pine Barrel Sauna

The Luxo Living Barrel Sauna is the best budget barrel sauna, at a highly affordable price of $6571AUD. At thousands of dollars less than most competitors, this barrel sauna is a good entry level 2 person sauna option and has a 6kW harvia electric heater, is made from pine and still offers 5 years warranty.

Best Value: Sun Home Sauna Barrel Sauna

The Sun Home Sauna Barrel Sauna is one of the best value outdoor saunas on the market, with options for four, six or eight person sizes ranging from $8049 to $9799. Sun Home Saunas use a high-grade Western Canadian wood which has that amazing sauna smell, double pane tempered glass on the doors and 6kw to 9kw Saaku electric heaters for an amazing traditional Finnish sauna experience.

Best Outdoor: The Plunge Outdoor Sauna

The Plunge Sauna is the best outdoor sauna that money can buy right now. The Plunge have mastered the Cold Plunge market and have now moved on to offering a market leading outdoor sauna design with unique high slanted roof, multiple glass panels, Huum WIFI controlled heater and multiple cedar timber and sizing options.

What is a Barrel Sauna?

A barrel sauna is a Scandinavian style sauna, shaped in a barrel. A barrel sauna generally features a large amount of cedar timer panels tensioned together with multiple stainless straps and an internal rock or electric heater.

The best barrel saunas feature a number of cradles on the base that hold interlocking staves that form the walls of the barrel sauna, with a front and back wall that generally features a tempered glass hinged door or a panoramic viewing window.

Some barrel saunas are traditional saunas that are heated by means of a rock heater that you can pour water onto to produce heat and steam, while others feature an electric heater or an infrared carbon style heater.

The best barrel saunas are constructed using high quality or A-grade types of Western red, Japanese or Canadian cedar, while other cheaper options use lower grade timber like Pine. Barrel saunas are generally designed to be outdoor saunas and many are built with a shingled roofs to protect the sauna from the weather and elements.

How We Choose

When testing and reviewing barrel saunas we look at a number of key sauna specifications. The main considerations we take into account when picking the best barrel sauna come down to: timber quality, heater quality, price, warranty, ease of installation and design.

Timber Quality

There a many different timbers used in saunas, and with those difference come different price points, quality, look, longevity and overall experience. The type of timber used in the sauna can really impact the overall sauna experience, and there is nothing I love more about the smell of getting into a sauna that used a high quality cedar timber in the finish – there is something earthy and relaxing about it.

The common timbers used in saunas are: cedar, pine, hemlock, spruce and alder timber. There are a few others that you may find used in a sauna, however these types are probably the most common I have come across in all the saunas I’ve been in.

When choosing the best barrel sauna, we look for A-grade types of cedar including Western red cedar, Japanese Cedar and Canadian cedar. These are going to come with a higher price point than other variations of Pine and Hemlock, but just look, feel and smell so much nicer.

With any timer type, the grade of timber used will also impact the look and finish of the barrel sauna. We look for A-grade timber that will use timber with less blemishes, knots and variation.

Heater Quality

The heater type used in the barrel sauna is another key element that I notice as soon as I step foot in a sauna. There are many different types and styles of heaters. What you will most often see in a sauna is a rock heater, electric heater, gas heater, wood burning heaters or carbon heater used in infrared saunas.

Each type of heater has different energy consumption and each creates a different sauna experience. Many people enjoy the process of pouring water on the rocks, also a very traditional form of sauna heating. We look for high quality rock heaters with granite stones like the Huum sauna heaters.

An appropriate sized heater for the size of the sauna is also an important consideration. The last thing you want is to buy a big 6-8 person barrel sauna and it comes with a small heater that doesn’t produce enough heat for the sauna size. A 6kW – 10kW sauna heater usually does the job for most small to medium sized barrel saunas. We just can’t go past the look of the tower style rock heaters like those made by Harvia and Huum, they look amazing.

Price

When choosing a sauna, of course we consider the value that exists in the price of the sauna on offer. How much is a barrel sauna? This generally depends on the materials used, size, design features and the type of heater used.

A barrel sauna price can be anywhere from $4500USD - $12000USD. For a low range barrel sauna, you would expect a cheaper timber like Pine, and possibly a poorer quality electric heater. A barrel sauna of between $7000 - $9000 should get you most of the trimmings, a large 6-8 person size, A-grade cedar type timber and a WIFI controlled rock heater.

Warranty

Most barrel saunas are thousands of dollars. For barrel saunas in the lower end of the price spectrum, we expect a warranty of anywhere from 1 year to 3 years, but for the higher end saunas, the expectation is that they offer a minimum of 5 year warranty.

Many barrel sauna brands will offer a slightly different or separate warranty for the materials and the heater which is generally a third party brand. The Plunge Sauna, for example, offers a 5 year warranty on the build and a 5 year warranty on the Huum Heater.

Saunas on the high end of the price spectrum will sometimes offer a lifetime warranty on their product, which provides that purchase confidence to know that your slightly higher price is covering any technical and design flaws you may come across with the product. Saunas like Clearlight and Foundspace saunas offer a lifetime warranty on their products which is a huge tick when we assess overall sauna rating.

Ease of Installation

The build or installation process for a large barrel sauna can be quite a lengthy process. Some barrel sauna brands offer installation as part of the cost, while other provide instructions and leave you to your own devices.

While there aren’t many sauna brands that offer installation as part of the price, we think when you are buying a sauna on the higher end of the price spectrum with some technical wiring and heating installation elements, it is necessary.

When you are shopping for a barrel sauna, it is definitely worth scoping out how good the product customer service is, and the detail of the instructions manual. What you will find is that a few of the better brands will provide you the instruction manuals after you subscribe with your email. This gives you chance to see how difficult installation is and what sort of tools are required.

If you are ordering a barrel sauna and have little to no skills with tools, you may want to consider a brand that includes installation or consider paying for a tradesperson or AirTasker to help you build the sauna as there are generally some tools involved.

Traditional Sauna vs Infrared Sauna

Barrel saunas can come in both traditional or infrared type. Both types of sauna offer the benefits associated with heat exposure, however the manner in which they generate heat for the user and the overall sauna experience are different.

While a traditional sauna generates heat by way of heating the ambient air using rocks that produce heat and steam from water, infrared saunas heat the body more directly using infrared light energy.

There is evidence to support the benefits of using both infrared and traditional forms of sauna, so it mostly comes down to the sauna experience you prefer. An infrared sauna is a dry heat, whereas a traditional sauna creates steam from pouring water on rocks which is a far more wet and humid heat, sometimes over 50% humidity.

While a traditional sauna operates at temperature of between 80-120 degrees C (176F – 248F), an infrared sauna operates at temperatures of between 50- 80 degrees C (122F – 176F). While there is much more research associated with traditional saunas, it is widely accepted that the heat stress is the key and the infrared and red light used in an infrared sauna provides additional benefits for skin, immune, gut and hair health.

What are the Benefits of Saunas?

Having a sauna is much more than just sitting in a hot box to sweat. A sauna offers far more benefits than just relaxation, and there is a massive increase in popularity of sauna use over recent years, not just for athletes.

We have discussed some of the various benefits of saunas in our other articles, from the heat shock proteins they produce, the athletic recovery benefits, mood related benefits and how they can improve sleep.

The main reasons and benefits to use sauna regularly are:

Increased vasodilation to aid in blood flow and repair of muscles and tissue
Increases in Brain Derived Neurotropic Factor (BDNF) which may improve learning, memory and cognitive function
Significant reduction in the chances of dying from all causes
Significant reduction in the chances of dying from cardiovascular illness
Increased heat shock proteins which cause cardiovascular adaptations
Improved mood and increased relaxation
Improved sleep
Detoxification and removal of heavy metals
Increased heat acclimation and threshold to exertion in exercise

Best Barrel Saunas of 2024

Whether for exercise recovery, improving sleep or just switching off, theres more and more reasons to invest in a sauna as research evolves. We’ve covered the standard boxy sauna, but more and more people are looking for a stylish barrel sauna for home or wellness area due to its traditional feel and aesthetic.

We break down the best barrel saunas right now and why, with various options for size, price, heating method and quality finish.

Best Overall: Redwood Outdoors Cedar Barrel Sauna With Porch

The Redwood Outdoor Cedar Barrel Sauna is the overall best barrel sauna on the market right now in terms of giving you a bit of everything. The Redwood Sauna is a spacious beast with room for 6 people, space to sit and cool down in between rounds on the porch and high grade Canadian Red Cedar.

Shop the Redwood Barrel Sauna Now

The Redwood Outdoors Cedar Barrel sauna is relatively simple design and quite easy to build with minimal tools. Starting at $7299, or just over $700 using our code GURU $250, the Redwood Outdoor barrel sauna can be purchased with a few different sauna heater options including the Harvia Kip, Cilindro or Wood Stove type heaters depending on your budget and what type of sauna experience you prefer and how much heating power you need.

The Redwood Outdoor Barrel sauna is really the ideal sauna for those with a large backyard area with a pool or cold plunge tub that is dedicated to recovery and wellness. The Redwood Barrel would also be a first pick candidate for a wellness retreat or health space looking to offer an outdoor suitable, high grade and quality sauna for high paying clients.

The Redwood Outdoor Barrel Sauna can be optioned with a few additional bits of sauna paraphernalia if you need them like, roof shingles for more weather protection, back rests, floating floor kit, outdoor shower or even pair it with a Redwood Outdoors plunge tub.

With a load of different design options on their website, if the Redwood Outdoors 6 person cedar Barrel sauna isn’t quite what you need, you can go for a wider more spacious option, panoramic viewing window styles or scale it back to a smaller 2-person sauna if that’s all you need.

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Best Design: Sisu Lifestyle Edwin Barrel Sauna

sisu edwin barrel sauna — Sisu Edwin Barrel Sauna

The Sisu Lifestyle Edwin Barrel Sauna has one of the most tidy, sleek and minimalistic outdoor barrel sauna designs I have seen. Perched up against a backdrop of a big tree or outdoor space, the Edwin Barrel looks quaint and inviting to say the least.

Order SISU Sauna with code GURU for $250 off

The Edwin Barrel Sauna is slightly more expensive than some of its other similar sized barrel sauna counterparts, but that could be explained by the Huum 6KW Wifi enabled rounded sauna heater and the included accessories like bucket, ladel, thermometer and timer. Not only that, the Edwin comes with a 5 year warranty on both the sauna and heater which is far better than many offering only 1 year assurance.

The Edwin Barrel sauna has dimension of 72" wide (diameter) x 84" Deep x 76" Tall, well big enough for 6-8 people, making it perfect for a space to either lay back yourself or invite friends for a group sweat.

If you like a more closed off and cosy type of sauna, the Edwin Barrel Sauna is your pick. It is handcrafted in the US from cedar sourced in the US and can be used both indoors our outdoors. The Edwin Barrel will give you temperatures of between 110F - 230F used as both a dry and wet traditional sauna. Overall a fantastic choice for a clean design for barrel sauna for home or gym space.

Best Budget: Luxo Living Pine Barrel Sauna

The truth is, you don’t have to spend close to $10000 to get a functioning barrel sauna with reasonable quality. Of course, we definitely see the merit is spending larger amounts on better quality barrel saunas that come with higher quality timber, finish and heaters as wev’e already mentioned.

The Luxo Living Pine Barrel Sauna is a good example of a cheaper Barrel sauna that does the job on a bit more of a budget. The Luxo Living Barrel Sauna is priced at $6570 last time I checked which is roughly $4000 cheaper than some competitors like Foundspace.

For the price, you still get a sauna big enough for 4 people, an 8KW Harvia stove heater which is plenty powerful enough for a super hot sauna experience, and a 5 year warranty. This sauna is a bit of a no-brainer if you are trying to buy a sauna online for a bit less and not so worried about the look of the timber. The Pine material used in the Luxo living barrel sauna wont last as long and smell as good as the cedar variety timbers used in some of the other more expensive barrel saunas but that is the sacrifice for a lower price point.

Best in Australia: Revel Eden Traditional Barrel Sauna

The best barrel sauna Australia is the Revel Eden Barrel Sauna. Revel offers a number of different sauna options including infrared and traditional saunas in both barrel and standard box design.

Unlike comparative Australian sauna brans like Foundspace which price their barrel at $13,990, the price of the Revel Eden Barrel Sauna is completely reasonable at $7999 for the 4 person option. The Revel Barrel sauna can be purchased in 4, 6, or 8 person sizing, with the most largest barrel sauna priced at $9999.

Buy the Revel Eden online at Gym and Fitness

The Revel Eden Barrel sauna is big enough for 4 people, with dimensions of 150cm x 180cm x 195cm. Another plus for buying the Revel barrel sauna is that they offer options for delivery and installation Australia wide, so no need to break out the home tool box or hire a handy man if you don’t want to. Or, if you are a handy person, you can save a little bit of cost on the installation and do it yourself.

These saunas are pretty kitted out to be honest, and they look sleek if you are looking for a well designed, aesthetic product for you luxury home or to add to a gym or wellness space. Because the Revel Eden Barrel sauna is a traditional sauna it works by a using a Harvia electric rock heater, which heats the ambient air temperature to heat your body, slightly different to the infrared sauna heating style.

The Revel barrel sauna is made using Spruce wood, which has a really durable finish making it suitable for saunas. These saunas come with a Hygro Thermometer, Bucket, Ladle and Backrest. Unlike infrared barrel saunas which only get up to around 65 to 70 degrees celsius, these saunas can reach up to 90C and are more of a moist humid heat, which some people like. If you like a more dry heat, opt for an infrared sauna.

Shop Revel Barrel

Best Value: Sun Home Sauna Barrel Sauna

The Sun Home Sauna Barrel Sauna has a really good combination of quality and offering, making it seriously one of the best value options for barrel saunas I have come across in my extensive research. The Sun Home Sauna brand has an epic range of wellness gear including ice baths, saunas, red light panels and infrared sauna blankets, with the barrel saunas being one of the newest products added.

Buy the Sun Home Sauna Outdoor Barrel online

All of the Sun Home Sauna barrel saunas use a high grade western canadian wood which is highly suited and extensively used in the making of saunas due to its hard waring and durability with heat and moisture.

What I love about the Sun Home Sauna barrel sauna range is that the price comes with everything needed for your sauna setup and there is no need to buy extra gear. The saunas include a bench seat for the size of the sauna, electric heater (with stones) which requires installation by an electrician, explosion proof light, water bucket with ladel, analog thermostat, sand glass timer, and a towel rack.

The 4 person Sun Home Sauna barrel is priced at $8049 which is quite a bit cheaper comparable to some of the other options like the Plunge Sauna which is a little over $2000 more for a similar overall internal square metre sizing. They also have a 6 person sauna which $8699 and an 8 person variant which is $9799, still cheaper than many other 3 to 4 person saunas I’ve seen.

These saunas are also super easy to build, and all that you need for construction is a rubber mallet, tape measure, cordless drill, level and 3/4” wrench. You could build this in a half day with 2 people or hire a handyman for a few hundred dollars to construct. These come with a 5 year warranty on the workmanship and a 1 year warranty on the electric heaters which is pretty standard, but some other brands come with a superior lifetime warranty.

Buy Sun Home Barrel

Best Outdoor: The Plunge Outdoor Sauna

The Plunge has mastered the ice bath market with their Cold Plunge tub and have now expanded into making equally as impressive Saunas.

The Plunge Sauna has been extremely well considered, and offers a unique design to many other saunas that we have seen. Although not a Barrel design per se, the Plunge Sauna features a slanted, high roof as well as front and side glass panels, giving it a real open feel.

See Plunge Sauna price online at Plunge

The Plunge Sauna is currently on pre-order at the time of writing this article, however it won’t be too long before this uber stylish design becomes one of the most popular saunas on the market, as did their market leading plunge tub design.

The Plunge Sauna is a carefully considered sauna design, which we love, and has options for either standard or XL sizing as well as Knotted Cedar or Clear Cedar timber options, giving a few different variations in price, size and quality.

Probably the thing that stands most to me is the Huum Heater used in the sauna. The Huum 6kW drop style sauna heaters are probably some of the best sauna heaters on the market and are filled with about 60kg of granite stones and stainless steel basket.

The Plunge Sauna can be used both indoors and outdoors and have a handy tongue and groove design that make them ultra simple to install with 2 people. The Plunge Saunas are made in the USA from sustainably sourced wood and are pine and hemlock on the interior and cedar exterior. On top of all that, the Plunge sauna can be controlled remotely using their WIFI app and are backed by a hefty 5-year warranty.

Buy Plunge Sauna

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better saunas and ice baths?

Although sauna and ice are both very beneficial for both recovery from exercise and many other health metrics, many people wonder which is better in the sauna vs ice bath debate.

Using sauna over ice bath largely depends on your goals and type of exercise you are recovering from. In short, using ice baths in the morning, before exercise or to recover from endurance based training or when repeated performance is the goal. Use sauna in the evening to promote sleep or directly after exercise to promote healing and blood flow when adaptation from exercise is the goal.

How often should you use a sauna?

Using a sauna every day is widely accepted to be the optimal usage for sauna. Research indicates that taking a sauna 4-7 times per week is associated with a huge reduction in the chances of cardiovascular-related death and a significant reduction in the dying from all causes. In short, one day a week is far better than no days per week, and four to seven days per week is superior to one day per week.

In terms of sauna session length, the research indicates that there is a point of diminishing return with sauna use that lays at the 30 minute mark. An accumulation of 20-30 minutes of sauna per day appears to be the sweet spot for optimal heat stress without over doing it.

When is the best time to sauna?

In terms of athletic recovery, taking a sauna soon after the exercise event, workout, race or game is the ideal time for sauna, as it significantly increases growth hormone and testosterone levels, as well as increasing vasodilation which is responsible for improved blood flow to the muscles and damaged tissues.

Taking a sauna close the bed time at night is also a good time to sauna as it promotes sleep through lowering the core body temperature (post sauna).

Does a sauna help improve sleep?

Yes, research has shown that taking a sauna can in fact help to improve sleep metrics. One of the main reasons taking a sauna can benefit sleep is that by heating the body in a sauna in the evening relatively close to bed time, as the body attempts to cool back down it causes a drop in core body temperature which is key to a fast transition into sleep.

Sauna use also has positive impacts of reducing stress and cortisol levels which are associated with lower sleep quality. By taking a sauna, you are promoting relaxation and sleep promoting neurochemistry that helps encourage restfulness and a parasympathetic nervous state which in turn creates the optimal state for sleep.

Is sauna good for the skin?

Sauna therapy has proven benefits for skin, including promoting healing and reducing scaring and acne. The detoxification benefits that are provided by regular sauna use, are driven by the increased blood flow created by vasodilation of the blood vessels and the sweating induced by heat stress.

Conclusion on Best Barrel Saunas of 2024

Whether you are opting for an infrared or traditional style barrel sauna, the benefits of sauna will still be achieved. There are so many barrel saunas out there, and this article offers just a few options for the ideal barrel sauna for your needs, whether indoor or outdoor.

Barrel saunas are a stylish and hard wearing sauna option for home that gives you the opportunity to take advantage of the benefits of saunas daily, without needing to travel to a gym or wellness space, and save money in the long run.

To date, the best barrel sauna we have come across is the Redwood Outdoors Cedar Barrel Sauna, although if you are not hell bent on the Barrel shape, the Plunge Sauna is probably the nicest sauna I have seen in terms of design and quality.

When choosing your barrel sauna, it is all about weighing up your budget against the price, warranty, design, quality and features of the sauna options. Always check out the customer sauna reviews which will give you a good idea of any common product faults and complaints and give you the best chance of getting the optimal sauna experience.

Happy sweating and sauna safe!

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