Best full-spectrum infrared saunas

What "full spectrum" means at each brand

Three patterns show up. Clearlight and Sunlighten bolt separate 500 W full-spectrum heaters onto the wall: two on the Sanctuary 1, four on the Sanctuary 5. Golden Designs scales the count of near-infrared elements with size, from 2 in its one-person Reserve to 6 in the four-person. JNH and Health Mate build mid infrared into the carbon panels and add near-infrared emitters or an LED panel.

What almost no one publishes is wavelength. Only the 4 cabins with red light panels list one, and those are the LEDs, not the infrared heaters. Medical Saunas calls its heaters "Ultra Full Spectrum" without saying what's inside them.

Far infrared or full spectrum: which is better?

I couldn't find a study that compares the two on any health outcome. The infrared research that exists, mostly Japan's "Waon" protocol of 15 minutes at 140°F in heart-failure patients, didn't compare heater types (Källström, 2018). Brand claims that near infrared "penetrates deeper" don't come with trials behind them, so I don't repeat them.

What you can compare is heat, power and price. Near-infrared lamps add wattage: Clearlight lists 1,740 W for the Sanctuary 1 against 1,370 W for the far-infrared Premier IS-1. Even so, 9 of the 34 full-spectrum cabins still run on a standard 15 A outlet, but the larger Clearlight and Sunlighten models move to 240 V. For heat, the brands that publish a top temperature list 140°F to 170°F, about the same as far-infrared cabins.

EMF claims

10 cabins here give an EMF figure with a distance, all from Golden Designs and Health Mate. 6 give a number without saying where it was measured, and 17 say only "low" or "ultra-low". The near-infrared lamps themselves almost never get a figure. How to read these claims is on our infrared sauna guide; nothing here says EMF at these levels is harmful or safe, because I haven't found research on it.

Is a full spectrum sauna worth it?

Here is what the upgrade costs when the brand sells both versions in the same size:

That's +$1,900, +$1,500, +$2,000 for a handful of extra heaters. If you want the cabin for heat and sweat, far infrared does that for less. If you want near infrared for its own sake, the honest answer is that nobody has shown what it adds in a sauna. Sunlighten doesn't publish prices, so its pairs aren't here.

Near-infrared bulb saunas

A different design uses incandescent heat lamps instead of panels, usually in a tent: SaunaSpace sells them as "near infrared" saunas. They're portable rather than cabins, and they're on our portable saunas page.