Portable models take up less space and cost thousands of dollars less than installing or building a sauna room in your home or office.
Portable models admit one person at a time, requiring nothing but a wall outlet to power them. The user is able to program the desired time and temperature settings into a control panel somewhere on the unit. The inside of the sauna is outfitted with thin, flat carbon sheets. These sheets emit infrared radiation. In contrast to traditional steam saunas which heat up the air, infrared saunas remain simply warm and safe to the touch even during use. The heating element should ideally be close to the body for even and deep-penetrating heat, which makes portable saunas absolutely ideal.
There are several types of portable infrared saunas. Bags, blankets, or domes lie on the floor, a bed, or a massage table. They completely cover the user's body from the neck down, but leave their head exposed to the fresh air outside the sauna. Bags and blankets can fold or roll up like a sleeping bag or comforter, making them highly portable and convenient to store. Domes are rigid plastic and do not fold, but they can be stood up vertically and stored in a closet or corner between uses.
Cabinets are another type of portable infrared sauna model. The cabinets are a large plastic box with a hole at the top for the user's head, which is exposed to the open air outside the sauna. The user enters the sauna through a hinged door and sitting in a chair inside the box. Advantages of the cabinet model is that it usually has a fan inside for improved air circulation, the non-porous exterior wipes down quickly and is easy to sanitize, and it easily wheels from place to place. Disadvantages include the size of the sauna, because it is the largest of the portable models.
Foldable boxes are the last type of portable infrared sauna on the market. When in use it looks very similar to a cabinet model, except for that some models also have zippered openings to have the hands free during use. When you've finished using a foldable box model, it folds up to an incredibly small size. Most models look much like a handled briefcase when they are broken down. The chair inside this sauna is the collapsible kind, and the walls of the sauna are made of flexible, insulated materials that are easy to fold.
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Infrared Saunas Portable
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Readers planning to buy a sauna should beware of the so-called infrared saunas, most of which are made in the PRC (China) from inferior materials. These are not genuine saunas in the Scandinavian style.
In the traditional heater, the heating elements heat the air and a mass of stones. This allows for a consistent heat and the custom of sprinkling water on the stones, which changes the environment in the sauna dramatically from a dry sauna bath, to a wet bath, or "steam sauna". This is an option afforded to the sauna bather that chooses a traditional Scandinavian style sauna. It is not necessary to sprinkle water on the stones, and without that custom the humidity in the sauna is very, very low (around 2 or 3 percent).
The infrared heaters have exposed heating elements, so that the heat radiates directly onto the bather in sort of a one sided fashion. These infrared heaters have a much lower capacity, so the most common complaint is that they fail to attain the heat typical for a genuine sauna, especially on the part of the body turned away from the heater.
You also sacrifice the ability to sprinkle water on the heater, and one must question whether it’s actually healthy to expose one’s self to such direct radiation, or how enjoyable such an experience is, compared to the traditional sauna.
In contrast, the traditional Scandinavian style saunas are centuries old (they were heated with wood before electricity), and their safety and therapeutic efficacy is well established.
As with tainted toothpaste, poisonous pet food and lead painted children’s toys, some of these infrared saunas are downright hazardous at least according to the Electrical Safety Authority in Ontario, Canada. See…
http://www.ofm.gov.on.ca/english/Fire%20Safety%20&%20Public%20Education/Recalls/2006/Saunas.asp
Sauna by Airwall, Inc. even recalled their saunas due to a fire hazard caused by faulty heating units and fuses. See...
http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml08/08584.html