Hi there, I like your two videos on sauna history and user guide. I would like to hear your opinion on wood fired saunas compared to electric heated saunas. One word that often comes up is "lämpömassa" and that you can't achieve this with electric heating. And I don't understand it. Doing sauna the way i want (temperature, music, talking) and enjoy is the biggest reason I'm looking to build my own sauna at home. Greetings from Germany.
Hi, interesting question! While "lämpömassa" definitely is a Finnish word, it also is not a word used in Finland (at least not widely). So it seems to be a termed coined more for its interesting pronunciation and looks :-). However, acknowledging that there is quite a wide scope in terms of sauna preferences (and that is perfectly OK, there is no "right way" to enjoy sauna), most Finns would agree that a "soft and long" löyly is one of the keys to a great experience and this seems to be what lämpömassa refers to? Soft here meaning "not too hot" and "long" meaning that the volume of steam produced is quite high. As for the choice between electric and wood heated, it is not very straight forward. A good sauna consists of many components, like a good sauna room design (big enough but not too big for the stove), ventilation, placement of the stove and benches etc. Also how you heat it, will effect how it feels. And things also come down to taste; for instance personally I like a cooler sauna than some people (and would definitely not join any sauna "competition" - where the winner stays the longest in the hottest sauna). So now talking about personal preference, perhaps the best possible sauna experience in my view comes from a "single heated" (kertalämmitteinen), wood heated sauna with a large mass of stones These will produce (at least after a little use) lots but perhaps a bit cooler steam which I find perfect. Also performance will not vary very quickly. However, the downside of this is that heating takes time and you kind of overdo it if only a few people will take the sauna (the sauna stays hot for quite a while). So the second best would then be a wood heated, continuous heating sauna (like the one in the videos), which with good design produces almost the same experience. This requires that there is a reasonably good volume of stones so that you don't need to "overheat" in order to get a löyly. The good point here is that the pre-work is quite short (30 - 60 min) and you don't overspend on wood/effort even if only a few people will take the sauna. The downsides are mainly that you need to keep the fire going and the experience will most likely wary somewhat depending on how intesely you monitor the fire. Having said this, electric saunas can be reasonably good, the main problem here is that the electric sauna design is often just horrible: a very small löyly room (in apartments), bad (or no) ventilation and often overheated stones that give a "sharp and short" löyly (the opposite of "lämpömassa"). Not to mention the infrared stuff which in my view should never be called a sauna. Ever! The one difference often mentioned between wood heated and electric saunas is the different ionization of the air (don't ask me for details). So in the end, a well design electric sauna in my view gets' quite close to a wood heated one. And in the marinas, they often are well-design and I can definitely recommend that you use saunas always when having access to one in the marinas (mostly the sauna in this case is included in the harbor fee and can be found together with the showers!
Hi Tim, in my Opinion (not Finnish) I'd say that an electric oven is simpler to operate and you can control the temperature better. Also you don't have the smell of the fire, which sometimes can interfere with the smell of some essential oils, when you steam up. On the other Hand the woodfire oven has this unique smell and feeling of a real fire. I handle it that way, if I'm back from work and more or less exhausted, I use the electric oven. On the other Hand, if there is time, my wife an I do the full round with the wood fired one.
@@vonrheinland4924 Thanks for your reply. I will go with an electric oven (I like the IKI 15kW Mesh heaters) and for the wood fire crackling I will build an wood fired brick oven for cooking outside.
Awesome video thanks!
Glad you liked it!
Great.
Hi there, I like your two videos on sauna history and user guide. I would like to hear your opinion on wood fired saunas compared to electric heated saunas. One word that often comes up is "lämpömassa" and that you can't achieve this with electric heating. And I don't understand it.
Doing sauna the way i want (temperature, music, talking) and enjoy is the biggest reason I'm looking to build my own sauna at home.
Greetings from Germany.
Hi, interesting question! While "lämpömassa" definitely is a Finnish word, it also is not a word used in Finland (at least not widely). So it seems to be a termed coined more for its interesting pronunciation and looks :-). However, acknowledging that there is quite a wide scope in terms of sauna preferences (and that is perfectly OK, there is no "right way" to enjoy sauna), most Finns would agree that a "soft and long" löyly is one of the keys to a great experience and this seems to be what lämpömassa refers to? Soft here meaning "not too hot" and "long" meaning that the volume of steam produced is quite high.
As for the choice between electric and wood heated, it is not very straight forward. A good sauna consists of many components, like a good sauna room design (big enough but not too big for the stove), ventilation, placement of the stove and benches etc. Also how you heat it, will effect how it feels. And things also come down to taste; for instance personally I like a cooler sauna than some people (and would definitely not join any sauna "competition" - where the winner stays the longest in the hottest sauna).
So now talking about personal preference, perhaps the best possible sauna experience in my view comes from a "single heated" (kertalämmitteinen), wood heated sauna with a large mass of stones These will produce (at least after a little use) lots but perhaps a bit cooler steam which I find perfect. Also performance will not vary very quickly. However, the downside of this is that heating takes time and you kind of overdo it if only a few people will take the sauna (the sauna stays hot for quite a while).
So the second best would then be a wood heated, continuous heating sauna (like the one in the videos), which with good design produces almost the same experience. This requires that there is a reasonably good volume of stones so that you don't need to "overheat" in order to get a löyly. The good point here is that the pre-work is quite short (30 - 60 min) and you don't overspend on wood/effort even if only a few people will take the sauna. The downsides are mainly that you need to keep the fire going and the experience will most likely wary somewhat depending on how intesely you monitor the fire.
Having said this, electric saunas can be reasonably good, the main problem here is that the electric sauna design is often just horrible: a very small löyly room (in apartments), bad (or no) ventilation and often overheated stones that give a "sharp and short" löyly (the opposite of "lämpömassa"). Not to mention the infrared stuff which in my view should never be called a sauna. Ever! The one difference often mentioned between wood heated and electric saunas is the different ionization of the air (don't ask me for details). So in the end, a well design electric sauna in my view gets' quite close to a wood heated one. And in the marinas, they often are well-design and I can definitely recommend that you use saunas always when having access to one in the marinas (mostly the sauna in this case is included in the harbor fee and can be found together with the showers!
Hi Tim, in my Opinion (not Finnish) I'd say that an electric oven is simpler to operate and you can control the temperature better. Also you don't have the smell of the fire, which sometimes can interfere with the smell of some essential oils, when you steam up.
On the other Hand the woodfire oven has this unique smell and feeling of a real fire.
I handle it that way, if I'm back from work and more or less exhausted, I use the electric oven.
On the other Hand, if there is time, my wife an I do the full round with the wood fired one.
@@vonrheinland4924 Thanks for your reply. I will go with an electric oven (I like the IKI 15kW Mesh heaters) and for the wood fire crackling I will build an wood fired brick oven for cooking outside.
@@Tim_E88
also watch out, that you get good quality stones for the oven