The best home sauna kits

Oceanic's Domestic Sauna Kit is the set of parts you can't easily make yourself: a wall heater with built-in digital controls, a full-height safety glass door 615mm by 1,895mm in its frame, a three-sided heater guard, a vent kit, two spotlights with a transformer, obeche headrests and floor mats, and a bucket, ladle, sand timer and thermometer-hygrometer. It's £1,035, with Oceanic's 5% kit discount already taken off.

You supply the room: framing, insulation, vapour barrier, cladding and benches, most of which Oceanic also sells, from cladding packs to vapour barrier. The listing doesn't name the heater's output, so give Oceanic your room size when you order; its own table rates 4.5kW for rooms of 4 to 6m³ and 6kW for 6 to 8m³. Door and kit orders ship in about 2 weeks, against 6 to 7 weeks for Oceanic's cabins.

If you want to build it yourself but not to insulate it, Oceanic's panel cabins are the middle way. The wall and ceiling panels come from the Wolverhampton factory 50mm thick, insulated and clad, with a standard panel 615mm wide and 1,895mm tall, and you assemble the benches, backrest and floor mats; Oceanic reckons a day for a 2-person cabin.

The 1520 is the smallest at £2,141 with a 3kW heater and bench kit, £1,106 more than the DIY kit. That buys insulated, clad wall and ceiling panels and a bench kit. The trade is fixed sizes: Oceanic sells set footprints from 1,368mm by 1,060mm up to 8-person cabins, not whatever your alcove measures. Cabins are built to order in 6 to 7 weeks, with a 5-year warranty on the timber.

The Apollo kit has the same glass door, guard, vent kit, spotlights and accessories as Oceanic's standard kit, but swaps the wall heater for the floor-standing Apollo, which Oceanic says holds more rocks and needs less maintenance. Oceanic also sells a steam unit for the Apollo, run through its saunarium controls, if you want softer, more humid heat later.

It costs £1,565, £530 more than the standard kit. A floor-standing heater takes floor space a wall heater doesn't, so plan the bench layout around it before you frame the room. Like the standard kit, it ships in about 2 weeks and leaves the timber, insulation and benches to you.

Harvia's Variant comes as pre-made wall elements that screw together, with tubes for the heater and control cables already built into the wall, and Harvia's manual lists the tools: a drill, screwdrivers, a fine-toothed saw, a spirit level and steps. Pool and Spa Centre's £4,205.33 for the 1,150mm size includes a 3.6kW Delta heater, stones, a glass door, abachi benches and an equipment pack.

Spruce panelling is standard; pine, aspen or alder cost 15% to 47% more. Per square metre it's the most expensive kit here, and the small size was on back order on 21 October, but the cabin and heater come from one maker in one order. Sizes run up to 2,820mm by 1,945mm, and Harvia asks for a room at least 2,150mm high to assemble any of them.

CenturaHeat's 4-person hemlock cabin arrives in panel sections: you join the walls, then fit the floor, benches, backrests, glazed front, ceiling and heater, and Pro-Line's instructions call for at least two people to lift and secure the glass. £4,417.82 includes a 6kW Harvia BC60E, stones, an external control panel and LED lighting.

At 1,900mm tall it suits rooms the taller kits can't, and a glazed double-door front is unusual at this price. Against that, the listing gives no wall thickness or insulation detail, and Oceanic's 4-person 2525 is £1,290 less with a 6kW heater of its own. The BC60E needs a 32A circuit, wired by an electrician.