Bon Charge Sauna Blanket Review - How It Ranks Against Other Infrared Devices
Bon Charge Sauna Blanket Review
Welcome to our Bon Charge Sauna Blanket Review. For infrared sauna on a budget, an infrared sauna blanket is a go-to recovery tool for so many people looking for the benefits of infrared sauna at home.
Infrared sauna blankets are everywhere now and we have tested most them, so the Bon Charge Sauna blanket is no exception. Having the Bon Charge sauna blanket at the ready for daily home use has been a factor in improving sleep, reducing body weight, reducing recovery time for training sessions and boosting mental health.
There is no doubt that the benefits of a sauna are far reaching and effective for a broad range of ailments and the heat stress that you can achieve from a sauna blanket is positive for overall health, according to strong research. Sauna blankets are a much cheaper alternative to full sized saunas and still allow users the all of the sauna effects on the body and mind.
The compact nature of the Bon Charge sauna blanket makes it ideal to take away from travel recovery sessions and pack it away for storage in small living spaces. Although this is a feature that most infrared sauna blankets share, we should pull apart the Bon Charge sauna blanket to see how it compares to other blankets like the HigherDose, Mihigh, Heat Healer and others sauna blankets for sale.
Who are Bon Charge?
Bon Charge, orginially, BluBlox, is a biohacking and wellness company founded by Andy and Katie Mant. These two wellness gurus have a passion for seeking new and improved ways to hack physical and mental wellbeing and boost athletic performance from a science based perspective.
Bon Charge is a combination of “Bon” meaning good in French, and “Charge” referring to energy. The foundations of Good Energy that Bon Charge represents, is supported by their unqiue offering of wellness gear like Infrared Sauna Blankets, Blue Light Blocking Glasses, Red Light Panels, Red Light Gobes and EMF blocking technology, massage guns and more, all aimed at driving optimal health and recovery for humans.
What is an Infrared Sauna Blanket?
How an infrared sauna blanket works
The technology that is emitted from an infrared sauna might be familiar to you, and the technology inside a Bon Charge sauna blanket works much the same. You may have stepped inside a traditional sauna which heats the ambient air by pouring water onto hot rocks to create steam. This is also known as a Finnish Sauna and has a massive amount of research indicating improving cardiovascular health and longevity.
The infrared sauna works a little different to a traditional sauna and instead heats the body directly through a specific wavelength of light being red and infrared light, penetrating the cells and heating the body. To pump out infrared light waves, a sauna blanket uses coils of panels curved throughout the infrared blanket, to heat up the body while it is encased in the blanket like a sleeping bag with the head poking out the top.
Infrared light is a wavelength of light that is naturally produced by the sun and is an extremely safe form of light treatment and sits in the spectrum of light that makes it invisible to the naked eye. Although, there are still some risks associated with using an infrared sauna blanket which we will touch on later.
The infrared energy has a thermal effect on your body and can penetrate deep into the body beyond the layers of the skin and affect health at the cellular level. The infrared sauna blanket simply wraps around the body like a large sleeping bag and the infrared panels inside the layers of the sauna blanket covers the body and provides 360 degree heating and treatment, much like a full sized infrared sauna.
You can simply plug a sauna blanket like the Bon Charge sauna blanket directly into a standard wall socket and can be operated using a control module that allows you to adjust the temperature and session time of the sauna blanket to your individual preference.
Pretty much every sauna blanket I have seen has a maximum temperature range 70-80 degrees C and allow you to set session times up to 60 minutes long. Some sauna blankets give you settings based on numbers 1 through 10 while others allows you to set your sauna blanket temperature to the degree.
All of the physiological benefits that occur in a sauna, are achieved using an infrared sauna blanket. The heat from the infrared waves produces sweat which allows faster removal of toxins from the body, increased heart rate and vasodilation allows for more blood flow to repair muscles and release of chemical like norepinephrine and adrenaline from heat stress provide an adaptive response to the body, reduce recovery time, improve heat acclimation, and contribute to a positive mood.
Bon Charge Sauna Blanket Review 2022
Bottom Line
The Bon Charge Sauna Blanket is ideal for people who can not afford a full sized infrared sauna and want to get the benefits of daily heat therapy at home. The Bon Charge sauna blanket is $999AUD which is roughly 1/8 the cost of a normal infrared sauna and still reaches the same temperatures.
Bon Charge Sauna Blanket Price
The Bon Charge Sauna Blanket price is slightly higher than most of the other sauna blanket competitors if we look at a bon charge vs higherdose vs mihigh vs heat healer comparison.
At roughly $200 more expensive than the main competitor, Mihigh, we are left wondering what the Bon Charge sauna blanket offers to make it worth the extra money.
Use code GURU15 for 15% off sitewide
What does the price include? When you buy the Bon Charge Sauna Blanket for $999AUD the sauna blanket will be shipped within 2 weeks inside the US. This is another sauna blanket that is specifically designed for US sauna blanket customers although if you are looking for a sauna blanket Australia, this sauna blanket can easily be used with a US to AUS power adapter.
In that sauna blanket price, you also get the Bon Charge sauna blanket carry bag and instructions. Noting that some other sauna blanket brands like Heat Healer include a head pillow and a layer of stones in the sauna blanket design, we are unsure if the Bon Charge is worth the extra money.
Sauna Blanket Temperature
The Bon Charge Sauna blanket operates between 35C-80C and allows a session time of between 30 – 60 minutes long. As mentioned earlier, this is the same operating specifications we have come across in most of our sauna blanket reviews and trust me when I say 80 degress Celsius is enough to make you covered in sweat after a 45 – 60 minute session.
The Bon Charge sauna blanket usually takes about 10 minutes to heat up and reach the maximum temperature if you are using it at 80 degrees C. The temperature can easily be changed on the controller module using the up and down arrows to increase or decrease the temperature.
If you are new to saunas and heat therapy, I would highly recommend starting your first sauna blanket session at 50 degrees for 15-20 minutes to figure out your baseline tolerance of infrared saunas and then adjust your heat levels as desired.
To be honest, doing a 60 minute sauna blanket session at full temperature can be very intense, so I’d recommend starting at 50-60 degrees C and working your way up if you are new to it.
You can scale back the temperature if you need or you can also place your arms outside the blanket to make it more bearable, keeping in mind that we have some crucial thermostats located on the palms of our hands that will mean you will definitely sweat less with arms out.
The Bon Charge Sauna Blanket seems to hold the heat generated by the infrared coils quite well inside the blanket, due to its well designed and strong Velcro securing seams.
Bon Charge Sauna Blanket Specifications
· Power – 1.2W
· Temperature – 25-80 degrees centigrade
· Timer settings – 5-60 minutes
· Voltage – 100-240V
· Size – 180cm (71 inches) long x 90cm wide (35.4 inches)
· Light – Far Infrared
Bon Charge Sauna Blanket Warranty
The Bon Charge sauna blanket only offers a 1 year limited warranty for their sauna blanket which is a disadvantage when comparing to other sauna blanket reviews. Some sauna blanket brands are offering a 3 year warranty on purchases and that is for a smaller price.
For a medical type device that is plugged into the wall and potentially gets used daily, we would expect a warranty of 2 years minimum, but 1 year is what Bon Charge offers.
Bon Charge does, however, offer a 30 day money back guarantee on their sauna blankets that starts from the day you receive your product. Returns are process withing 3-5 days of receiving the return but keep in mind a 15% return fee is charged for sending back your sauna blanket so it is not a 100% refund guarantee.
Commonly, people return the sauna blankets because of reasons of feeling claustrophobic or anxious inside the sauna blanket, having excessive heat in the feet area and for technical issues with the sauna blanket. This is something that is not specific to Bon Charge sauna blanket returns but is a common reason for returns in many sauna blanket reviews. Although slight anxious feelings is actually a completely natural response of heat stress, and leads to a beneficial adaptation of sensitising the body to feel good hormones as a flow on effect, using a sauna blanket is one of those things you need to try for yourself to find out if it works for you.
Bon Charge Sauna Blanket Alternatives
The Bon Charge infrared sauna blanket definitely has some solid competitors. There are quite a few sauna blankets on the market that offer a similar product to the Bon Charge Sauna blanket but are cheaper and offer the same performance and better warranty.
Mihigh, Heat Healer and HigherDOSE as well as some other Sauna Blanket on Amazon are also worth taking a look at.
We generally compare sauna blankets based on price, max temperature range, heating speed, comfort and material quality, control module design and warranty.
Bon Charge Sauna blankets offers a pretty standardised performance metric on their sauna blankets with a max operating temperature of 80C, session time of 60 minutes, low emf rating (although not much available information or proof on this), heating time of 10 minutes and one heating zone.
Below we have summarised how the Sun Home Sauna blanket directly compares to the other major sauna blanket players.
Bon Charge vs Heat Healer
Heat Healer vs Bon Charge Sauna Blanket
A side by side comparison of the Bon Charge vs Heat Healer shows quite a similar product product performance wise. The Heat Healer sauna blanket is a winner in most other areas though, and Heat Healer also offers better supply to Australia as well as a cheaper price and better warranty.
Heat Healer sauna blankets are relatively new to the market, launching in 2021 in Bondi, Australia, while Bon Charge launched in the USA with a number of other wellness products on their repertoire like red light panels, blue blocking glasses and other EMF blocking products.
Heat Healer would definitely be our pick over the Bon Charge Sauna blanket, based on a superior price by about $300 and a superior warranty and design.sauna blanket that allow your shoulders to be covered up and traps more heat in the blanket.
Both sauna blankets have a very similar power unit and allow you to change the temperature via an up down arrow or a plus minus button on the controller module.
The Heat Healer Blanket is obviously made from a thicker, more quality non-toxic and water-proof fabric which makes for a much nicer feel during your sweat.
The main differences between these two sauna blankets can be summarised below:
Bon Charge Sauna Price: $999AUD
Heat Healer Price: $687AUD with code GURU
Bon Charge Sauna Max Temp: 80 degrees C
Heat Healer Max Temp: 80 degrees C (although does not hold this well)
Bon Charge Sauna Warranty: 1 year limited warranty 30 day returns
Heat Healer Warranty: 3 year warranty and 30 day returns
Bon Charge Sauna EMF Rating: no information
Heat Healer EMF Rating: Zero EMF
Sauna Blanket FAQ’s
Can you lose weight using a sauna blanket?
Heat stress causes similar physiological responses to exercise by increasing heart rate, breathing rate, causing vasodilation and increased blood flow to allow for more oxygen supply to the muscles. By causing the body to heat up, saunas and sauna blankets are forcing the body to thermoregulate which produces sweat and burns calories in the process. This temperature regulation means that sauna blankets can indeed help with weight loss and have been shown to burn up to 600 calories per 60 minute sauna blanket session. This is the equivalent calorie burning potential of running approximately 3-4km depending on your cardiovascular strain and output or the same calorie output used to walk 5-6km.
What is the best time of day for sauna blankets?
The best time to use an infrared sauna blanket is within 24 hours of a hard training session, race, competition or exercise stress although it is still beneficial to use sauna blankets outside of your recovery window. Science shows us that taking a sauna or sauna blanket session close to bed time can also help to create a rebound effect with our core body temperature and reduce it enough to encourage a faster transition into sleep.
Taking a sauna blanket session early in the morning within 30 minutes of waking can also be beneficial to produce cortisol which can help to establish a better sleep-wake cycle and trigger important timers for the later release of sleep hormones to benefit sleep even further.
Conclusion on Bon Charge Sauna Blanket Review
Overall, the Bon Charge Sauna Blanket is good, but there are multiple better options on the market that offer a cheaper price, better warranty and better design.
Although the Bon Charge sauna blanket can be purchased internationally, it will require an adapter when used outside of the US or Canada which is disadvantage if you are buying your sauna blanket to use in Australia, UK, NZ or Europe.
The Bon Charge sauna blanket is a solid product and comes from a brand that has a quality brand ethos for improving human recovery and wellness, but the price a bit too much of a drawback to encourage us to buy one.
