The best large outdoor saunas for 6 to 8 people

The Hekla Cube 250 is a glass-fronted cabin in 40mm thermo-spruce with two tiers of thermo-aspen benches set out in an L, in a room about 2.17m by 2.2m wall to wall. Two tiers matter for a group: the upper bench is where the heat is and the lower one is cooler, so six people can sit at the temperature each of them wants. Hekla rates it for 6, and it's the large cabin we'd buy for a group that uses it every week.

Outdoor Living sells the shell from £7,299 and charges £8,298 with a 9kW Harvia Cilindro with dials. The Wi-Fi version of the same heater makes it £8,548, and a Harvia Linear 18 wood burner £9,799. Kerbside delivery is £149, or £899 to have it built on your base with the heater connected, and the electric heater needs its own 40A supply.

What tips it to first place is the setup: one seller builds it on your base and connects the heater, and it runs on a 40A circuit rather than 50A. Glass is the trade. A double-glazed front loses more heat than timber, which is why Hekla pairs this cabin with 9kW or more, and on a 2.25m by 2.5m footprint it takes a little more ground than the Sauna Cube. The warranty is 2 years from Hekla.

The 6 to 8 person Sauna Cube is the 3 to 5 person Cube stretched to 2.4m deep: the same 45mm thermowood walls and black Katepal roof, with L-shaped alder benches in a room 2m tall, 1.96m wide and 2.185m deep. That's about 8.6m³ of air, and it ships with a 9kW Harvia Cilindro, which Harvia rates for rooms of 8 to 14m³. The heater is matched to the room rather than stretched across it.

It's £8,499.99 with a wooden front, £9,499.99 with a glass front, and £1,500 more with a Harvia M3 wood-burning stove in place of the electric heater. Delivery is free, it's made to order in 3 to 4 weeks, and the bucket, ladle and thermometer are in the box. Nothing else here seats eight with the heater included for less, and if eight people will use it at once, it's the one to buy.

The catch is power. Polar asks for a dedicated 50A supply for the 9kW heater, a bigger circuit than most garden saunas need, so have an electrician look at your consumer unit before you order. The 800kg kit takes two people a day or two to build, Polar's fitters quote £1,200 to £2,000 to do it for you, and the warranty is 2 years fitted or 1 year self-built.

Finnmark's Large Barrel is the biggest room on this page: a 2.25m-diameter barrel in 40mm thermo-spruce from Thermory, with two facing benches 2.7m long and 788mm of floor between them. The room is 11m³ and Finnmark rates it for 6 to 8, which gives each of eight people about 68cm of bench.

We'd buy it with the wood-burning kit at £8,859.99, which bundles a Narvi Kuru 20 stove, heat shielding, the flue kit and stones. Finnmark lists the Kuru 20 for rooms of 10 to 20m³, so it covers this one, and it needs no circuit at all. The electric option is a 15kW Narvi Ultra at £8,625.99, but Finnmark sells that heater only for a three-phase 400V supply, which most UK houses don't have.

Finnmark's own advice is that a wood stove takes bench space, so plan on six rather than eight with the fire in. Delivery to mainland UK is free by Moffett forklift, the kit is a self-build in a wooden crate, and the timber carries a 2-year warranty.

The Hekla Barrel 250 seats six on two facing thermo-aspen benches, each about 1.94m long, inside a thermo-spruce barrel held by three stainless steel bands. The door is set back under a 35cm porch, so you step out of the heat under cover, and the whole thing is 2.23m wide, 2.5m long and 2.34m tall.

It's £6,900 for the barrel and £7,899 with a 9kW Harvia Cilindro, which makes it the cheapest six-seater here with a heater sized for a group. A Linear 18 wood burner with its chimney kit takes it to £9,400. Outdoor Living charges £149 for kerbside delivery or £899 to build it on your base and connect the heater, which needs a 40A supply.

Facing benches 47.5cm deep are for sitting and talking, not lying down, and six people on 3.88m of bench is about 65cm each. Outdoor Living also says a little rain can seep into the staves in heavy weather and dries out when the sauna is heated, which is normal for a barrel but worth knowing.

The Cove is the big Sauna Cube room, 200 × 196 × 218.5cm inside and 8.5m³ by Polar's figure, with a covered outdoor cold shower built onto one side under an aluminium roof. Polar makes it with the shower on the left or the right and rates it for 4 to 8 people. The 9kW Harvia Cilindro is included, or a 13kW Cozy wood-burning stove for £1,000 more.

At £17,995.95 it costs more than twice the 6 to 8 person Cube for the same bench room, so the shower is what you're paying for. It's in stock on a 1 to 2 week delivery, the fastest here, and Polar's fitters quote £1,500 to £2,000 to build it.

Plan the services as one job: a 50A supply for the 9kW heater, a water feed and a drain for the shower, and a level base 3.2m wide that Polar says must carry 1,500kg in total. Without water near the spot, the 6 to 8 person Cube does the sauna part for £9,495.96 less.

Layzee's Timber Cube XL has almost exactly the 6 to 8 person Sauna Cube's footprint, 2.05m by 2.4m and 2.1m tall, with alder benches, a glass door and a Katepal shingle roof. It's £6,645 with a 6kW Harvia Vega and £6,895 with a Harvia M3 wood stove, flat-pack delivery is included to most of the UK, and Layzee rates it for up to 6.

The saving comes from the walls and the heater. The thermowood is 28mm against the Polar's 45mm, so it gives heat back to a cold night faster. The room is 1.96 × 1.96 × 2.2m, about 8.45m³, and Harvia rates the 6kW Vega for rooms of 5 to 8m³, so the heater is past the top of its range before the thinner walls are counted.

Layzee calls the build fairly technical and offers fitting at extra cost, so price that in if you're not confident with a kit. If you'll use it most weeks through winter, the wood-stove version is the better buy at £250 more.