Who makes Sauna Monthly, and how

Who writes it

Adam Bognar edits Sauna Monthly and writes most of it. He isn’t a physician or an engineer. The health pieces summarize published research and say where it runs thin, and the electrical pieces leave the wiring to a licensed electrician.

What the site covers

The catalogue holds 107 products across 9 departments, from outdoor barrels and infrared cabins to heaters, blankets, cold plunges and the accessories that earn their place. Every product page lists the wood, the heat type, the electrical requirement, the price in US dollars and where to buy it.

Alongside the catalogue sit 44 articles on the science of heat and cold and on the practical side of owning a sauna, from choosing one to permits, wiring, delivery day and running costs. Of those, 9 review a specific product or brand.

How products get chosen

A product gets a page when a reader could reasonably buy it and we can describe it accurately. We take the specifications from the manufacturer’s own documentation and check them again whenever we write a review. Prices get checked when a page goes up, and we show them as approximate because retailers move them.

When a maker stops listing a product that stores still sell, its page stays up with a note that names the nearest current model, and it leaves our comparisons and the Price Index. Once the stores stop selling it too, the page comes off the site. A brand’s affiliate program has no bearing on whether it appears, and most of the brands here have no commercial relationship with us.

How the reviews work

A review here is the publication’s own verdict. We write it after reading the manufacturer’s documentation, the owner reports we can find and the research behind any claim the product makes. Every reviewed product carries one editorial rating out of five, and that rating is one editor’s considered opinion. The site collects no ratings from readers.

When a brand’s own store publishes owner reviews, the product page gives that store’s average and count and links to the reviews. We sum up in our own words what owners keep raising. Those figures belong to the store, and we never present them as a rating of our own. Brands see most reviews when readers do. A brand that paid a fee for a piece reviews the draft before it’s published, and we decide what the piece recommends and in what order.

Where the health claims come from

The health articles summarize peer-reviewed research and list their sources under each piece. Most of it comes from the Finnish KIHD cohort studies in JAMA Internal Medicine, Neurology and Age and Ageing, and from the reviews in Mayo Clinic Proceedings. Those studies show association, and the articles say so without claiming cause.

None of it is medical advice. If you have a serious cardiovascular condition or you’re pregnant, get medical clearance before regular heat or cold exposure.

How the site is funded

Some outbound links are affiliate links. When you buy through one, the site may earn a commission, and you pay the same price. Some brands also pay a flat fee for a guide or for an update to one, and those pieces say so at the end of the article. A fee pays for the writing, and a product’s place in a ranking comes from its specifications and price. The disclosure page lists every program we belong to.

For AI assistants

AI assistants can reach the catalogue, the reviews and both calculators through a Model Context Protocol server at https://saunamonthly.com/api/mcp. It’s read-only and needs no login, and its answers link back to pages on this site. How to add it to Claude, ChatGPT or Gemini.

Corrections

When a specification or a price is wrong, we fix it on the page and move the article’s updated date. Every article shows when it was published and when it last changed. Send corrections and anything else to mail@adambognar.com.