This thing was a pleasure to build. The included plans and videos were some of the most well-thought-out and thoroughly explained plans I have ever seen. It truly is something anybody can do with some time and a little patience. It was most certainly not a difficult build but parts of it can be pretty intricate. Make sure you have the right tools to make the job easier. The most challenging part of the build is dealing with the terrible dimensional lumber you get from the big box retailers. It makes squaring up the framing challenging. But that is certainly nothing to do with the plans and more about the quality of lumber at the big box retailers. Last night was the first time I fired it up and everything worked great. I emailed the owner one evening and had to reply back within a couple of hours. He is truly very helpful and responsive to any questions. I would have to go back and truly add up the receipts, but the XL version was right around $1500 total build.
Had a great time building this! Plans were easy to follow just like the DIY Cild Plunge. Couldn’t recommend enough if you are looking for a solid sauna plan without the hefty price tag.
The downloads are a fantastic. I would never pay for a setup. 7k sounds absolutely crazy to me. I randomly saw Joe's post and convinced me that I can make my own. Without randomly seeing his post I wouldn't have a sauna now. The videos and plans break it down to easily comprehend.
First time doing a wood project and using many of the tools needed. I had a lot of questions throughout the course of the build. Joe answered all of them within 24 hours, most within a few hours.
If you are looking for a Sauna that gets over 200 in a timely fashion, provide red light, all under 2k, this is it. I also want to note, I built the XL, and Joe advertised roughly 170 degrees in an hour. Mine is getting to about 190-195 in that time. And thats with 4x250 watt rubylux bulbs. So its overdelivering on temp, which is awesome.
Thank you Joe for the support!
This has been quite the experience for me. I don’t come from a background of tools and building experience so with borrowed tools, many hours across several days and weekends I little by little pieced this together. Because I was learning a lot of this as I went my build has several little flaws but that’s what makes it mine and memorable.