Alright, so someone asked me about this, or maybe I was just thinking about it myself, how I even got to figuring out sauna brands. It wasn’t like I woke up one day and said, “Today, I become a sauna expert!” Nah, it’s never that simple, is it?

It started, like most of my projects, with a vague idea. I think I was reading something about health benefits, or maybe a buddy of mine mentioned he was looking into one. And you know how it is, one thought leads to another, and suddenly I’m thinking, “Huh, a sauna. Maybe that’s not a crazy idea.” So, like any normal person, I decided to just, you know, casually look into it.

First thing I did was hit the web. Typed in “best saunas” or “top sauna brands” or something equally generic. And boy, oh boy. That was like opening a fire hydrant. Suddenly, my screen is just a wall of names. Every single one of them claiming to be the “number one,” the “most advanced,” the “traditional choice.” It’s a jungle out there. You get these slick websites, all shiny pictures, people looking incredibly relaxed.

My Brilliant System (Not Really)

So, I thought, okay, I need a system. I started trying to make a list. My first attempt was just jotting down names that popped up a lot. Then I figured, I should probably look at reviews, right? That’s where it gets really messy. You read five glowing reviews, then you find one that says it’s the worst piece of junk ever made. Who do you believe? Some of these reviews, you can just tell, they’re either written by the company’s marketing intern or their angriest customer ever. No in-between.

I tried to dig a bit deeper. Started looking for things like:

• How long has the company been around? Are they some fly-by-night operation?
• What kind of wood do they use? Does that even matter? (Spoiler: apparently, it does).
• Where are they made? Does that make a difference in quality or just price?
• What about customer service? That’s a big one for me. If something goes wrong, are you gonna be stuck talking to a robot?

It was a grind. I’m talking hours, days, just sifting through information. Some sites were just trying to sell you their brand, obviously. Others were these affiliate review sites where you’re not sure if they’ve even seen the saunas they’re talking about. They just want you to click their link.

The “Aha!” Moment, Or More Like “Ugh, This is Complicated”

After a while, I realized this whole “top 10” idea is kind of a myth. It’s not like ranking movies or something. What’s “top” for a millionaire with a giant mansion is totally different from what’s “top” for someone like me, with a regular house and a regular budget. And then you’ve got the whole infrared versus traditional steam thing. That’s another rabbit hole entirely. Each side says theirs is better, healthier, more authentic.

I started to just focus on what I thought was important. Build quality seemed key. I didn’t want something that would fall apart in a year. Warranty was another. And honestly, just the general vibe I got from a company. Did they seem straightforward, or were they all marketing fluff and buzzwords?

So, yeah, my “practice” for finding the supposed “top 10” was less about finding a definitive list and more about figuring out what questions to even ask. It was messy. It involved a lot of dead ends. I probably spent way too much time looking at fancy features I’d never use. But hey, that’s how you learn, right? You dive in, get confused, get frustrated, and eventually, you start to see some patterns. There isn’t really a magic list. You just gotta do the homework, or at least, my version of it, which is a lot of poking around and sighing.

In the end, I didn’t come up with a neat top 10 chart. What I did was narrow down the types of things to look for, and maybe a handful of brands that seemed to pop up consistently in a good way, not just in their own ads. It’s more about finding what’s right for you, your space, your budget. And that, my friends, takes a bit of digging. A lot of digging, actually.