Excellent plans, thorough, easy to follow! And the best part of DIY, changing it up a bit to make it your own. Fantastic! Thanks Joe!
I just installed & running it. ...SORRY TO SAY ITS LOUD & CIRCULATION IS WEAK, DOESN'T PUMP WATER VERY WELL. WOULD LIKE O RETURN.
Appreciate you taking the time to leave a review here Colin - I did just respond to your email. Noise & weak flow are due incorrect configuration or a priming issue. Send me some photos of how you've got it set up & we can troubleshoot. If your pump happens to be defective I'll get a replacement sent your way
No issues pushing water through Joe’s recommended whole house filter and ozone sanitation configuration.
Easy install thanks to Joe’s many useful tutorials. No issues so far!
This flexible hose is the jam. I first went into my DIY Cold Plunge adventure with some knowledge from Joe's videos. HOWEVER, I should have paid more attention and followed more of his advice. I redid my plumbing setup with this flexible hose and it made it so much more efficient and clean looking! I also used the Venturi injector he sells (as opposed to the cheap amazon find). It's a proper setup now. If you're on the fence between rigid PVC (or PEX in my case.....) or this flexible spa hose. Get this and follow his instructions to avoid upsets and headaches!
Built V1 a couple years ago, prior to finding this site. 100 Gal stock tank, filter, pump, ozone gen all from Amazon. re purposed an old chiller. Found DIY Cold plunge and ordered the 150 gal plans, lid and filter kit. Major upgrade.
Great to bridge that mental gap and start your project. Great plan.
Thanks David! Really appreciate the review. I appreciate the 4-Star (sometimes I worry that folks think I'm spamming these when they're all 5-Star... But I'm curious what I could have added to make it a 5. Appreciate your feedback
Really easy to install. Highly recommend for long sessions in the sauna. Just remember to close them when you’re heating it up. They came ready to go out of the box. Love the look and finish on them!
Couldn't say enough to describe how awesome this thing is. The plans were so well put together and easy to use. Had a really good time building it. Everything is very well organized and easy to follow. And Joe was amazing. He answered all my questions very quick. And I had a lot of questions. Probably too many. I even ran into some issues with my local Home Depot not having what I needed and Joe found me some alternate options. He was so helpful. He put in way more work than what I paid for. Super grateful for this setup and everything that it came with. I also used the DIY Heater and the 2 vents and they were super easy to install. I went with the XL build and I’m glad I did. I’m 5’11” 200 pounds and it’s comfortable. I will say having the 375W bulbs might be better in terms of heating it up quicker. I haven’t tried that but I will next. Highly recommend to anybody who’s on the fence about it. Couldn’t say a negative thing about it, and Joe was awesome. Super grateful!
Hands down, it’s awesome. I had minimal tools and no space and was still able to get it done in about 4 days. Works perfects. I have been in it about 5 days a week now and it is fantastic.
I love it is so ez build thanks you
My order arrived just as promised. I was not seeing the ozonator produce bubbles in my cold plunge so I reached out to Joe. His timely emailed responses to my questions and photos helped me resolve the issue by recommending a few changes to my plumbing set up. Grateful for the products and the excellent support!
With 3 cats that love to sharpen their claws on anything with a little bit of give, I couldn't do the standard blow-up cold plunge. The other pre-fab options were too expensive, so I went on a search for DIY. As soon as I saw this thing, I knew it was what I had to build. I do a lot of woodwork, so I could have built this without the plans, but life is busy, and I knew it would save more money in time than the plans cost... and boy, were the plans ever worth it. The plans and videos saved countless hours of trial and error, and at least a few dollars only having to do the build once. It turned out so well that most people can't believe I didn't buy it pre-made. It's so well insulated that my chiller hardly ever runs. Do yourself a favor, though, and have an extra set of the mixing foam ready. One set only filled mine a little over half way. I built a platform with a lot of casters so I can move it around to get to the filter components and keep the whole thing off the ground that can get quite wet sometimes where I have it located. I also enclosed both sides of the mechanical section because I thought having the filter showing looked kind of ugly. Overall, though, fantastic plans that will easily save you more in time and extra parts than they cost.
Been eyeing up the plans for a while wanting to build a sauna for the garage gym. Finally decided to pull the trigger with my HSA funds, yes, it’s deductible. Got the plans and they were very well thought out and clear. The biggest challenge I had was running back to Lowe’s to replace the twisted lumber they shipped me. Super easy and straight forward build using the tools I already had. Insulating and sheathing today as I wait for my heater to arrive.
Just installed the pump and it is working very well. Although the manual lacked some very basic info ie identifying the intake and discharge.
Everything is going together perfectly. I appreciate the planning you put together to make it easy to build.
I’ve been following Joe from his first DiY Cold Plunge. Because he is trustworthy, through, helpful and knowledgeable I decided to purchase the DiY Sauna and Heater Kit. It is 100% as advertised! It checks all of the boxes on what I (and so many others) was looking for. Easy to build, 200+ degrees, small footprint, red light therapy, etc. This plan checks all of those boxes.
If you are on the fence… Do it! You will not be disappointed. Side note… Joe is super helpful and quick to answer questions as needed. Cold Plunge Next!
I know where my skills lie and its not in wood working. I opted to trade some car detailing with my contractor for him to help me with the build and it turned out great!
I opted for the larger 48" length tank since I'm 6'4". Gives me plenty of room over the 100 gallon rubbermaid stock tank I was using before. One heads up I would give anyone looking to order the rectangle tanks of either size is that the shipping of the tank will be a couple hundred bucks depending on where in the U.S. you live so keep that in mind while.pricing your build out.
Also, one initial mistake I made thinking I was going to filter more stuff was buy a non-pleated 5 micron filter. This was essentially choking the flow of my system down making my pump pulse instead of flowing freely. Joe made me aware of this so once I changed the filter to a pleated 30 micron one, everything flowed smoothly.
I'd also like to thank Jow for being so responsive throughout my build. Not sure how many emails he gets on a regular basis but of the 3 or so emails I sent, I dont think a response took longer than a day, so thanks Joe!
I have wanted to add a sauna to my home gym for years, but price of entry and space were limiting factors for me. After finding Joe's design I finally pulled the trigger and am so glad I did. After sourcing materials, I was able to complete the build in a weekend. I had a lot of left over cedar tongue and grove left after lining the inside and was able to cover the exterior in cedar with an additional 4-5 packs of T&G (which was less then plywood at my HD). It requires more time and cuts but I really love the look. Joe's plans are worth it, very detailed, easy to follow and the videos are great when more detail is needed. Someone with no carpentry experience should be able to easily complete this build, the plans are that good.
The performance of the sauna has been just as described; my XL heats up to around 180 in 1 hour. I have used it daily since completing it, my wife enjoys it as well. Totally worth it!
Just a quick review with video of my mostly completed XL build. I wont go into the pros and cons of the building process itself because at this point I'm over it. This will just focus on the product itself.
Im just under 6' tall and figured I would need the XL to accommodate for comfortable seating where I could stretch my legs. For the most part this has proved to be true, I can stretch my legs but, as my sauna is set up in my laundry room, its much to wide to fit through the door way. Though it required a lot of extra work, I put my sides and top together using cap bolts with threaded inserts so I can take it apart and put it back together again without the worry of wearing out screw holes. Probably overkill as I don't expect to be moving the sauna anytime soon. i went with the DIY light box set up and originally had it mounted to the front wall using Ruby Lux bulbs from Amazon. Having read that 12"-24" distance from the bulbs is the sweet spot for therapeutic use, for a month or so I would just scrunch myself up close to the light for my 15 -20 minutes sauna sessions. I installed some closet pole fittings and cut a round wooden closet pole so after scrunching into position I could slide my back rest in and somewhat lean back and relax. After burning my knees several times while getting into position, I built and installed a wood frame around the metal box. Now climbing in and scrunching forward and sitting in a lotus position worked well for the most part, I eventually smartened up and just installed a long arm tv mount and put the light/heater box on it. Now i can sit back, stretch my legs comfortably and move the box closer or further depending how close I care to have it. I started this review stating that my build is semi completed and the reason for that is that there have been some several tweaks along the way. I bought the exhaust fan kit but never installed it as I wanted to keep the heat in. As it is now I can barely stay in for 20 minutes before i tap out. I have two thermometers installed but since eye glasses don't work out well inside, I pretty much have to speculate as to what the correct temperature is. My routine is to start it up in the morning while I'm having my coffee, by the time I'm done procrastinating and finish my workout, it'll have been running for at least 1-2 hrs with a temp of 175º-180º(I think, might be higher). Thats more then enough heat for me. I'm still on the fence about the fan as I don't feel that I need it. P.S. the bare wood gets hot and theres a lot of sweat so i put a moisture absorbing pad down as well as a gel butt cushion, that too gets hot so I have another piece of foam and a small towel that I put down when I get in. I also made a video but for some reason when I try click to install, it's not lit up to install(it's in mp4).
