No matter which your preference, both infrared saunas and steam rooms are a dream to have in your home. If you aren’t aware of the differences, benefits and drawbacks of each, it’s tough to make a decision before installing one of the two in your house. If you’ve only experienced one of the two or neither, use the facilities of a public infrared sauna and steam bath to help you decide. Each type of heat helps remove toxins from your system and helps you relax. However, personal preference is always the final deciding factor.
How They Work
Infrared Sauna
Infrared heat warms the body and not the air around it. Because of this, you don’t have to have an airtight area for an infrared sauna. It heats the body with a process known as direct light conversion. It is a narrow band of energy and isn’t visible to the human eye but when you feel it, the body automatically perceives it not as light but heat. While the person using the infrared sauna absorbs the heat, the air temperature surrounding the sauna user is lower because it does not absorb it.
Just like UV rays, infrared rays are present in sunrays. However, unlike the UV, ultraviolet rays, there is no potential for skin damage from the infrared rays, just many of the benefits provided by sunlight. In fact, you can set the temperature higher on an infrared sauna than you can in a steam room because of the way it works. Since the air isn’t heated and there is no humidity, the body can tolerate more heat. It’s like the mantra of populations in hot desert areas, “It’s not hot. It’s a dry heat.” This is true to some extent. Besides feeling hotter, the moisture in the steam room would scald your skin if you set the temperature as high as that of an infrared sauna, a dry form of heat.
Steam Bath
The steam bath or steam sauna is one of the oldest known forms. Most people credit the Finnish with this form of sauna. Early in their history, they often built shelters in the sides of slopes in the form of a pit. Each of these had a fireplace where they built a fire and topped it with stones. Once the stones heated, they increased the warmth of the area and provided a source of continuous heat. To make it warm enough to remove the heavy winter clothing, the inhabitants then threw water onto the stones to make them steam. The addition of steam to the air made it warmer. Later when living in a hole dug in the side of a hill was no longer as popular as a house, the Finns and populations of other Baltic countries built special houses for the sauna or incorporated them into their own homes. The family sauna was an important part of their lifestyle.
Today, while some places still use heated rocks and a flow of water, the steam bath mechanics is very different from the early days. While you can have portable steam saunas, the larger version is better known. They both work by heating a tank of water and releasing the steam. The tank is airtight and strong enough to withstand the pressure of the built up steam. The water feeds to the tank and much like a hot water heater the elements in the tank heat the water. A valve allows the steam to escape through a tube connected to the steam bath. Once the valve releases enough steam the steam bath is ready for use.
Another method of producing the steam in a steam bath type of sauna goes back to the earlier days. Rocks are often heated and a delivery system of water onto the hot rocks forms the steam. Regardless of the technique, they both give off a heated, moist environment perfect for those who love bathing in the warmth.
The ceiling of the steam bath is normally at a slant so the water runs down the walls and doesn’t drip on the occupants when it condenses. Most of the time, materials impervious to problems with mildew and mold are used for the walls and ceilings of the steam baths, such as ceramic. There also is a need for drain in the floors to eliminate the water once the area cools and it condenses.
The Benefits
Regardless of whether you like the moist air or simply sweating in the dry air, they both have similar benefits. The heat from both induces perspiration and increased heart rates. Some people believe this makes your metabolic system run more rampantly so you lose weight. Others believe the weight loss is nothing more than the effects of water loss through perspiration.
Both types of facilities increase your body heat and create an “artificial fever.” The body uses fever as a healing response to diseases. It signals the immune system to boost its functioning as it slows the growth of bacteria and viruses that thrive in a specific body temperature. Creating an artificial fever can stop some ailments in their tracks before they even begin to invade the body. However, there are also additional benefits such as treating arthritis and lowering the cholesterol that come from both.
Steam Baths
The moist heat of the steam bath is particularly good for those with bronchitis, sinus problems or other respiratory problems. An old home cure for many of these ailments was to fill the bathroom with steam from the tub water or shower and sit with the sick child in the steamy area. Vaporizers then found their way into the home and eliminated that need. The steam bath works like a giant vaporizer that helps other parts of your body besides your respiratory area. Unlike the infrared sauna that dries the lining of the respiratory tract and sinuses, it moistens it.
The Infrared Sauna
Since you don’t have the moisture in the air and the heat is dry, the temperature of the sauna can be higher than that of the steam bath and yet not feel as warm. The heat goes into the body rather than heating just the outer surface of the body as the steam sauna or steam bath does. This allows for more perspiration that actually cools the surface of the skin and lets you eliminate more waste because you can stay in the infrared longer. It also provides heat directly to the sore muscles and arthritic joints. While there is no proof, some people believe it helps more for muscle pain and arthritis. The belief comes from the thermal effects, which penetrate deeply and cause the blood capillaries and vessels to dilate, which increases circulation.
Building Costs
There is no doubt that unless you already have plumbing to the area, the infrared sauna is cheaper to install. The materials used in the infrared system are often wood compared to the ceramic material necessary for the steam system. The steam room needs to be airtight. This isn’t necessary with the infrared sauna. Plumbing, both to bring in water to make steam and to eliminate it through a drainage are necessary for the steam bath but not for the infrared sauna. Newer kits offer a more inexpensive method of steam delivery.
You can increase the cost of each or decrease the cost. If you use techniques to create steam in the room by heating rocks with an electric or wood burning heater and then douse the rocks with water to produce the steam, the effect is shorter lasting but cheaper in construction costs. You can increase the cost of the infrared sauna room by using expensive wood or making the room design more elaborate. However, per square foot, the base price is normally more inexpensive for an infrared sauna room.
Maintenance
Any time you have water, you have mold. You need to keep steam baths unscrupulously clean because of this or they become a breeding ground for mold and bacteria. Use tile cleaner on the walls, ceiling and flooring to prevent mold and mildew. With the right building materials and design, the job is much easier.
Since there’s plumbing involved, the maintenance of the plumbing is important in the steam bath. A faulty valve on the pressure tank can cause an explosion that might injure the occupants. Of course, those steam baths that simply use water on heated rocks don’t carry this threat.
Even though the infrared sauna doesn’t require as much cleaning, you can’t ignore it either. You need to keep the flooring clean as well as the benches. Many people find that oxidizing cleaners such as Oxyclean are helpful in the maintenance of their infrared sauna.
Conclusion
What you prefer is the deciding factor. Even though you might note that maintenance and cost is more in the steam bath, you can produce one at a lower cost if you use alternative methods such as kits. There is more maintenance to prevent mold but over a year’s time, that amount of time is still minimal.
For those that love the moist heat or suffer from chronic upper respiratory problems, the steam bath is the most beneficial. Others cannot stand the claustrophobic feeling of being enveloped in steam and opt for the infrared sauna with no hesitation.
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