Guide

Is a garden sauna worth it? The payback against a public sauna

Compare a garden sauna with community sauna sessions over five years, using your own numbers.

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If two of you would otherwise go to a community sauna twice a week at £10 each, a £6,000 ready-to-use garden sauna costs about the same as those sessions after three and a half years. Go once a week on your own and it takes much longer, and if you wouldn't go to a public sauna at all, there is no saving. Put in your own numbers below.

The British Sauna Society says community saunas charge £5 to £10 a session, and up to £30 in central London. We use £10 a person. Source: British Sauna Society.

Your payback

Ready-to-use cost (£) People each session Sessions a week Public sauna price a person (£) Running cost a session (£) Upkeep a year (£)

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What the sums leave out

The travel to a public sauna, and what the sauna adds or takes from your home's value. We don't put a figure on either.

Every sauna page works this out for that sauna, with its own heater, electrics and base costs.

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Common worries

"It's too expensive."

Garden saunas you can buy today start at £3,900 ready to use, with the heater, electrics and base included. Infrared cabins that plug in start at £1,595. Used twice a week by two people for five years, a typical sauna costs a few pounds a person each time. A community sauna charges about £10. Work out your own payback →

"We'll use it twice and it'll become a garden ornament."

The best guard is a sauna that is easy to start. Many heaters can run on a timer or from an app, so it is hot when you walk out. And the sums reward use: the cost of each session falls every time you go. Will you really use it? →

All ten sauna worries

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