Brand ReviewAugust 20267 min read
Almost Heaven Saunas review: the indoor rooms and the barrels, compared
Five American-made models inside a $1,000 price band, every one of them running a Harvia hot-rock heater. Which room fits which house, and what the sticker leaves out.
Almost Heaven has been building saunas in West Virginia long enough that its rooms turn up in other companies' catalogues. Five models cover most of what a home buyer needs, split between traditional indoor rooms and outdoor barrels, and every one ships with a Harvia hot-rock heater. The whole range sits between $4,716 and $5,715, which is a narrow band for something spanning two people in a basement to six in a corner room. That makes the choice unusually clean: pick the footprint, and the price mostly follows.
Prefer not to build it yourself? Nootka delivers and installs its barrels — our full Nootka guide
What you are buying from Almost Heaven
Tongue-and-groove Nordic lumber at an inch and three-eighths across the line, American-made, with a Harvia sized to the room. The wall thickness is the specification worth noting, because it is exactly where budget kits economise, and it governs how evenly a room holds temperature through a long session. Everything here is a traditional sauna: hot rocks, water on the stones, real löyly. No infrared anywhere in the range, which makes the brand easy to place. If what you want is a hot room rather than a heat panel, this is a catalogue worth reading, and our comparison of the two formats is the place to start if you are still deciding.
The indoor rooms: Madison, Auburn, Patterson
Three indoor models, and footprint decides between them before anything else does. The Madison is the small one at $4,716, seating two or three in Western Red Cedar or rustic fir, with a 4.5 kW Harvia that upgrades to 6 kW. Two bench levels and a tempered glass door inside a footprint a large bathroom will absorb. The Auburn covers the same two-to-three occupancy at $5,049, in knotty hemfir or rustic cedar, and it carries the 6 kW Harvia KIP as standard rather than as an upgrade, reaching bathing temperature in under an hour. Its interior measures 65 inches wide by 42 deep by 77 high. If the Madison's proportions fight your wall, price the Auburn before assuming you need a larger kit, because most of the extra $333 is the heater you would have upgraded to anyway. The Patterson is the six-person corner room at $5,699, in Nordic spruce, with an 8 kW Harvia KIP80B that takes it past 170°F. It is made to order with a limited lifetime warranty on the room. Corner-fit is the useful trick there, since six-person rooms usually demand a full wall and this one takes a corner most basements already have.
Almost Heaven Madison 2-3 Person Indoor Sauna
Almost Heaven Auburn 2-3 Person Indoor Sauna
Almost Heaven Patterson 6-Person Indoor Sauna
The barrels: Salem and Pinnacle
Two outdoor models, both American-made, both shipping with a 6 kW Harvia KIP60B. The Salem is six feet by four for two people at $4,770. The Pinnacle is six by six for four at $5,715, with 64-inch benches down each side. Both use the same inch-and-three-eighths ball-and-socket lumber as the indoor rooms, and both list far above what they sell for: the Salem was $6,814 and the Pinnacle $8,165, so read the sale price as the price. Assembly is the part neither includes. These arrive as freight on a pallet and you build them over a weekend, which is true of nearly every barrel sold online.
The Harvia question
Every model in the range ships with a Harvia, which is a good sign and also something to check rather than assume. Harvia is the Finnish default and the heaters are sound. What matters is the match to the room, at roughly 1 kW per 45 cubic feet. The Madison's standard 4.5 kW is sized for its small footprint, and the 6 kW upgrade buys faster heat-up rather than a higher ceiling. The Patterson's 8 kW is doing considerably more work across a six-person room, which is why it wants 40A at the panel where the others want 30A. If you are adapting an existing room rather than buying a kit whole, our heater sizing guide has the arithmetic.
What the sticker leaves out
The price covers the room and the heater. The electrician is extra, and that is the cost people forget: every model here hardwires at 240V, 30A on the two-to-three person rooms and both barrels, 40A on the Patterson, priced against whatever spare capacity your panel happens to have. Freight is the other line, on a pallet weighing several hundred pounds, which also means somewhere to put it on delivery day. And the Patterson is made to order, so three to four weeks passes before it ships at all. None of that changes whether these are good rooms. It changes which week you first sit in one, and our delivery and assembly guide covers what turning up on a pallet involves.
Common questions
- What is the difference between the Almost Heaven Madison and the Auburn?
- Both seat two to three people. The Madison is $4,716 in Western Red Cedar or rustic fir with a 4.5 kW Harvia that upgrades to 6 kW. The Auburn is $5,049 in knotty hemfir or rustic cedar with the 6 kW Harvia KIP fitted as standard, an interior of 65 by 42 by 77 inches, and heat-up to bathing temperature in under an hour. Most of the price gap is the heater.
- Are Almost Heaven saunas made in the USA?
- Yes. The rooms are built in West Virginia from Nordic lumber, and the Patterson carries a limited lifetime warranty on the room itself. The heaters are Harvia, made in Finland.
- What electrical work does an Almost Heaven sauna need?
- A hardwired 240V circuit installed by an electrician. The Madison, the Auburn and both barrels want 30A; the six-person Patterson wants 40A for its 8 kW heater. Interior LED lighting on the Madison runs on standard 110V. Price the electrical against your panel's spare capacity, since that varies more than the sauna does.
- Which Almost Heaven sauna is best for two people?
- Indoors, the Madison if the footprint is tight and the budget is firm, the Auburn if you want the 6 kW heater without paying for an upgrade or if the Auburn's proportions suit your wall better. Outdoors, the Salem barrel at six by four. All three seat two comfortably.
- Do Almost Heaven saunas arrive assembled?
- No. They ship as freight on a pallet, in pre-cut wall sections for the indoor rooms and ball-and-socket staves for the barrels, and you assemble them on site. The Patterson is made to order with a three to four week build before it ships.
Sources
- Association Between Sauna Bathing and Fatal Cardiovascular and All-Cause Mortality Events · JAMA Internal Medicine (2015)
- Sauna Bathing and Incident Hypertension: A Prospective Cohort Study · American Journal of Hypertension (2017)
- NFPA 70: National Electrical Code (NEC) · National Fire Protection Association (2023)
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