Europe's new sauna standard lists four kinds of hot room, and infrared is not one of them.

It is a sunbed calling itself a beach. So the war never cools: is infrared a sauna? Team Yes: no stove, no steam, it warms you and not the air, a gentle sixty degrees. Team No: a sauna starts around eighty, with löyly.

So what do Finnish stove makers say? One sales director told a Finnish sauna magazine: "Of course it isn't a sauna." His company sells it anyway. In America, "Finnish sauna" now means the one where you throw water on the stones.

So infrared is not wrong. It just has no löyly. Some things Finns say. Some things Finns sell.

Is infrared a sauna?

Sources: EN 18164:2026 (room types: sauna, warm-air, steam, soft steam; infrared heaters not covered). Sauna-lehti (Suomen Saunaseura), 7 Aug 2023: a stove maker's sales director on infrared. Harvia: infrared panels reach about 60 °C, infrared cabins are "technically not saunas in the traditional sense". International Sauna Association (Aachen 1999) on the classic sauna's temperature. The catalogue pages in the film are drawings; no real product, price or company is shown.
Sounds: Freesound (CC0): Developer_Jake, frenkfurth, Ambiabstract, mohomran, mcmikai, rabban625, SukritSen, TRP, eddies2000, kyles, justjare; the löyly: TRP, tonalt.