Buyer's Guide
Best saunas with red light therapy: which one fits your routine?
Red light is this year's favorite sauna add-on. We compared six brands on how they build it in, and Sun Home's Eclipse 2 is our pick for a full cabin.
By Adam Bognar, Editor
If you want red light built into a proper sauna, buy Sun Home's Eclipse 2. It's a full-spectrum infrared cabin with two red light towers standing in front of the bench, and it costs $10,599. We set it against five other brands, from Heavenly Heat's two-person red light cabin down to a $399 steam tent, and worked from the makers' manuals and written warranties. Half the makers here say nothing about how strong their light is. Heavenly Heat says the most about its panel, and Sun Home publishes a strength for the Eclipse without saying how it measured it. The infrared research we cite is about the heat, so each pick had to earn its place as a sauna before we looked at the light.
Which sauna with red light should you buy?
Decide first how you want the light to reach you. The Eclipse and Heavenly Heat's cabin build full-size therapy panels into the front wall, where they face the bench. Health Mate's Enrich 2 puts a smaller LED array over your head, and the portable picks bring their light into a tent you can pack away.
Then judge each one as a sauna, because you'll be sitting in its heat whether the light is on or not. The first table sets each pick's heat and wiring beside its weak spot. The second lines up what each maker says about its light.
| Pick | Price | Heat | Power | Weak spot |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Best cabin: Sun Home Eclipse 2 | $10,599 | 6 far-infrared and 2 full-spectrum heaters, to 165°F | Dedicated 120V/30A circuit with GFCI; twist-lock outlet | The 30-amp twist-lock outlet |
| Best for four: Sun Home Eclipse 4 | $13,599 | 12 far-infrared and 4 full-spectrum heaters, to 165°F | Dedicated 240V/30A circuit; twist-lock outlet | 94 in wide and about 1,750 lb on the floor with four inside |
| Best far-infrared with red light: Heavenly Heat 2-Person Red Light & Infrared Sauna | $11,495 | Far-infrared heaters at 1,700W; overheat cutoff at 167°F | Two standard plugs; one dedicated 20A circuit recommended | Two power cords drawing 17.5A together |
| Best-priced cabin: Health Mate Enrich 2 | $5,300 | 8 dual-wave and far-infrared heaters, to 170°F | Standard 15A plug drawing about 15A | No wavelength or strength published for its LEDs |
| Best portable: Therasage Thera360 PLUS | $1,428 | 900W infrared panels, to 170°F | Standard 120V outlet | Chair rated for 180 lb; parts-only warranty |
| Best under $500: SaunaBox SmartSteam Pro With Red-Light Therapy | $399 | 1600W steam, to 130–140°F | Standard 120V outlet, plus a second plug for the wand | One small wand with a surface-only strength figure |
| Best incandescent: SaunaSpace FireLight | $4,995–$9,445 | 1000W of heat lamps, or 1750W as the SuperSauna | 120V; the SuperSauna draws 14.6A | Heat comes from one wall, so you turn every few minutes |
The heat and power figures come from each maker's own documents. Prices are the makers' list prices, checked Oct 7, 2026. SaunaBox shows $399 marked down from $500, and SaunaSpace's top price adds dyed canvas and its SilverLining shield.
How strong is each sauna's red light?
Only three of the six makers say, and each gives its figure at a different distance. Sun Home's figure comes from six inches out. Heavenly Heat starts a foot from its panel, and SaunaBox read its wand right at the surface. Light spreads out like a flashlight beam as it leaves a panel. Heavenly Heat's own figures drop by about a quarter between one foot and three, so a reading taken at six inches can't be ranked against one taken at a foot. None of them tells you what a session will do for you.
Wavelengths line up more easily. Four of the LED picks name theirs, all in the red and near-infrared bands, and Health Mate names none. We found no maker here that links a test of the light inside its own sauna.
| Model | Light source | Wavelengths | Irradiance the maker lists | How it was measured |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sun Home Eclipse 2 and 4 | Two LED towers inside the front glass; the manual says sit 6–24 in away | 650 and 850 nm | 219 mW/cm² average at 6 in | Not stated; the figure appears only on the product listing |
| Heavenly Heat 2-Person Red Light & Infrared Sauna | One removable LED panel on the front wall, 12.5 × 42.5 in | 630, 660, 810, 830, 850 nm | 38.20 mW/cm² at 12 in; 29.33 at 36 in | Matches LightLab's center-point readings for Heavenly Heat's standalone Max panel; that test averaged about 14 at 12 in across the panel |
| Health Mate Enrich 2 | Overhead 96-diode LED panel that also cycles through nine colors | Not published | Not published | Nothing published |
| Therasage Thera360 PLUS | Tri-Lite LED panels; Therasage's documents say one or two | 600, 840, 980 nm, per the user guide | Not published for the sauna | Nothing published |
| SaunaBox SmartSteam Pro With Red-Light Therapy | One clip-on LED wand about 16 in long | 660 and 850 nm | 80.43 mW/cm² at the wand's surface | Not stated; no light test report linked |
| SaunaSpace FireLight | Four incandescent heat lamps, or seven on the SuperSauna | About 550 to 3,000+ nm; SaunaSpace says it peaks in red and near-infrared | Not published | Nothing published |
Every figure is the maker's own, from the documents linked in each section, read Oct 7, 2026. Readings taken at different distances or with different instruments can't be ranked against each other.
Sun Home's Eclipse puts two red light towers in front of the bench
Buy the Eclipse if you want red light inside a full-spectrum cabin. Two red light towers stand inside the front glass and face the bench, so you sit in their glow while the heaters do their work. It costs about $900 less than Heavenly Heat's red light cabin, and it adds two full-spectrum heaters at your back to the far-infrared panels on the walls and floor.
Sun Home lists the towers at 650 and 850 nm, and its manual suggests 20-minute sessions within two feet of them on at least three days a week. Those are directions for using the panels, and the same manual says they aren't FDA-approved to diagnose or treat anything.
The listing also gives the towers an average strength of 219 mW/cm² at six inches. That number appears on Sun Home's product page alone, with nothing about how it was measured. The optical report Sun Home links didn't measure the LEDs, because its instrument wasn't calibrated for them. Take it as Sun Home's claim, and keep it away from Heavenly Heat's figures, which were taken farther out.
The cabin is Japanese cedar, and Sun Home rates the room to 165°F (74°C). The manual allows up to half an hour to warm up from ordinary room temperature, and you can set a schedule in Sun Home's app so it's warm when you walk in.
Eclipse owners write about the red light, which owners of the portable units rarely do. About a quarter found the cabin easy to put together. When owners mention Sun Home's support, it's usually because something arrived broken or failed early, from a heater panel to a door handle, and most say Sun Home sent the part. Check every panel before you sign for the delivery.
Sort out the wiring before you order. The Eclipse 2 runs on 120 volts and still needs its own GFCI-protected 30-amp circuit and a twist-lock outlet of the sort you'd usually find on a portable generator, so call an electrician early. Ask about the light's coverage too. Sun Home's warranty covers the Eclipse's cabinetry and heaters for up to seven years without naming the red light panels, and a separate line gives red light devices one year.
The four-person Eclipse 4 costs $13,599 and needs a 30-amp circuit at 240 volts. It's 94 inches wide, and its benches lift out to clear the floor for a stretch after the heat.
Outside
The door in the middle hangs on glass hinges and shuts on a magnetic gasket. Sun Home says it closes securely without resistance.
Sun Home builds the cabin in Japanese cedar with a double wall. The Eclipse 2 measures 51.5 by 47.2 inches, stands 76.7 inches tall and weighs 600 pounds.
The control panel has its own key for the outside lights.
Its 9.5-foot cord leaves the top of the back panel and ends in a NEMA L5-30 twist-lock plug. It draws 2,820 watts, and the outlet needs GFCI protection.
Inside
Each one sits between the two boards of a contoured backrest. Sun Home says their output runs from near infrared to far.
Its two knobs set the strength of the full-spectrum heaters behind the backrests. Sun Home's app can switch the far-infrared and full-spectrum heaters on their own as well.
They shine at 650 and 850 nm and have their own controls on the side. Sun Home's manual suggests 20 minutes at 6 to 24 inches, at least three times a week.
Sun Home counts six far-infrared heaters in the Eclipse 2. Two sit on each side wall, one warms your calves from the front of the bench and one lies in the floor.
A far-infrared calf panel fills its front behind three slats. Inside, the Eclipse 2 measures 42.8 by 42.2 inches.
It sets the temperature up to 165°F and the session timer. Keys on it switch the colored ceiling light and the lights under the bench, and music plays over Bluetooth.
The RGB key on the panel or Sun Home's app picks the color, and the white setting cycles through all of them.
We built this model from Sun Home's 3D tour and spec sheet, so small details can differ from the sauna that arrives.
Where to buy
Sun Home Saunas Infrared Saunas
Sun Home Eclipse 2-Person Red Light & Full-Spectrum Infrared Sauna
Sun Home Saunas Infrared Saunas
Sun Home Eclipse 4-Person Red Light & Full-Spectrum Infrared Sauna
Sun Home Eclipse 2-Person Red Light & Full-Spectrum Infrared Sauna. Sun Home Saunas photography.
See the specifications and priceHeavenly Heat's cabin pairs far-infrared heat with a five-wavelength panel
Heavenly Heat's 2-Person Red Light & Infrared Sauna suits someone who wants plain far-infrared heat and a tall panel of light. It keeps the heater layout of Heavenly Heat's far-infrared hemlock two-seater and sets an LED panel about a foot wide and three and a half feet tall into the front wall. The far-infrared version costs $7,400, so by our math the panel adds about $4,100 to the $11,495 price.
The panel runs red light and near-infrared one at a time or together, with the heaters on or off. It also lifts out, and a glass panel comes in the box to fill the gap.
Heavenly Heat says more about its light than anyone else here. Its product page lists five wavelengths from 630 to 850 nm and gives the panel's strength at three distances. At a foot it reads about 38 mW/cm². Those figures match the center-point readings in LightLab International's report on Heavenly Heat's standalone Max panel, which averaged nearer 14 across the panel's face at that distance. Heavenly Heat doesn't say LightLab tested the sauna's own panel, and the two are listed at different sizes and wattages.
The wiring takes some planning. The heaters and the panel have their own standard plugs and draw about 17.5 amps together, by Heavenly Heat's count, so its manual recommends one dedicated 20-amp circuit for both. Two separate 15-amp circuits near the cabin will also work. We'd take it over the Eclipse in a house where a 20-amp circuit is easy to find and a 30-amp twist-lock line isn't.
Heavenly Heat doesn't publish a top temperature, though its overheat protection trips at 167°F (75°C). The cabin's warranty runs ten years and the panel's five, with labor left out of both, and freight stops at the curb.
Where to buy
Heavenly Heat Saunas Infrared Saunas
Heavenly Heat 2-Person Red Light & Infrared Sauna
Health Mate's Enrich 2 puts a smaller LED array overhead
At $5,300, the Enrich 2 costs less than any other cabin here, and it runs off a standard 15-amp outlet. Health Mate builds it from Indonesian mahogany and spreads eight heaters around you, mixing dual-wave elements with far-infrared panels down low. Overhead sits a 96-diode LED panel that Health Mate calls near-infrared.
That array is a smaller, different kind of light from the Eclipse's towers or Heavenly Heat's front-wall panel. Health Mate doesn't publish a wavelength or strength for it, and the cabin's info sheet describes it as nine-color chromotherapy, which the remote cycles from white through to pink. We'd buy the Enrich 2 for its heat. If the light matters to you, ask Health Mate for measured figures from this exact array before you order.
By Health Mate's own product page, it draws close to everything that 15-amp plug can carry, so give it a circuit nothing else shares. The warranty runs for life on the heater core and ten years on most of the cabin, and free delivery stops at the curb.
Where to buy
Health Mate Infrared Saunas
Health Mate Enrich 2 Full-Spectrum Infrared Sauna
Therasage's Thera360 PLUS folds flat and slides under a bed
The Thera360 PLUS is a sauna you can keep under the bed. You sit on a bamboo chair inside a fold-flat tent with your head poking out the top, and infrared heating panels warm you to as much as 170°F, by Therasage's rating. It runs on an ordinary outlet and costs $1,428.
The red light comes from separate Tri-Lite LED panels mounted inside, and Therasage's documents can't agree whether you get one or two. Its user guide lists three wavelengths between 600 and 980 nm and doesn't give a strength. Therasage does publish a strength for its standalone Tri-Lite panel, but nothing says it's the same hardware, so leave that number on its own page.
Owners mostly praise how easily it folds away and moves from room to room, and hardly anyone mentions the light. Mind the chair, which Therasage rates for 180 lb. The two-year warranty covers parts and leaves the labor to you.
Where to buy
Therasage Sauna Blankets & Portables
Thera360 PLUS Personal Sauna (Black)
SaunaBox's $399 steam tent clips one red light wand inside
SaunaBox's SmartSteam Pro is the cheapest pick at $399, and it's a steam tent. A steamer outside the tent pipes in wet heat, which SaunaBox rates at 130 to 140°F, so a session sits closer to a steam room than an infrared cabin.
The red light is a single LED wand about 16 inches long that clips to the tent's frame and plugs into its own outlet. SaunaBox lists it at 660 and 850 nm. Its one strength figure comes from the wand's surface, with no test report behind it, and that says little about what reaches you on the chair. SaunaBox sells the kit without the wand for $100 less, so that's what the light costs you.
Judge it as a low-cost steam tent with a light attached, apart from the cabins above. Owners of the base kit say it heats up fast and earns its price. The weak spot is the folding chair. Owners call it flimsy and a few found theirs rusting, so bring a sturdier seat.
Where to buy
SaunaBox Sauna Blankets & Portables
SaunaBox SmartSteam Pro With Red-Light Therapy
SaunaSpace's FireLight makes its light with incandescent bulbs
Before he got famous for cornflakes, John Harvey Kellogg built what he called the first electric light bath. It was a wooden cabinet lined with light bulbs, and he prescribed it for everything from insomnia to writer's cramp. SaunaSpace's FireLight is the modern take, with four incandescent heat lamps in a basswood panel inside a cotton tent. SaunaSpace sold it as the Luminati before renaming it.
Those bulbs are broad-spectrum lamps, which makes them a different kind of source from the narrow-band LEDs in the cabins. They make the heat and the light at once. SaunaSpace says they emit from about 550 nm to past 3,000 nm with a peak in red and near-infrared, and it doesn't publish a strength figure.
The heat comes from one wall. SaunaSpace's use guide tells you to turn a quarter turn every few minutes, and a few owners say their lower legs and feet stay cooler than the rest of them. The bulbs can reach 300°F at the glass, so the guide keeps the tent's cover three feet clear of them. Owners describe calm sessions, and several say the heat reaches them almost at once.
The Classic costs $4,995 in natural canvas and the seven-bulb SuperSauna $6,445, which draws nearly all a 15-amp circuit can give. Dyed canvas and the SilverLining shield take it as high as $9,445. SaunaSpace's warranty runs five years and includes the bulbs. You also get 100 days at home to send it back.
Where to buy
SaunaSpace Sauna Blankets & Portables
FireLight Full-Spectrum Red & Infrared Sauna
FireLight Full-Spectrum Red & Infrared Sauna. SaunaSpace photography.
See the specifications and priceHow did we choose these saunas?
We compared seven models from six brands. Four of the brands were already in our catalogue with red light built in, and we added Heavenly Heat's red light cabin and Health Mate's Enrich 2 for this update. We read each maker's product pages and manuals on Oct 7, 2026, along with its user guide or written warranty where it had one. The figures in both tables are theirs. We know of no independent test that measured these saunas' light side by side, so where a maker publishes a strength we say where it was taken and whether the maker says how.
We read owner reviews on the makers' own stores on Sep 28 and Oct 6, 2026. That covered 42 reviews of the Eclipse 2 going back to February 2025, 32 of them from verified buyers, along with 80 of the Thera360 PLUS, 1,882 of the SaunaBox base kit the red light version builds on and 546 of SaunaSpace's tents. We didn't sum up owner reviews for the Heavenly Heat or Health Mate cabins, so our read of those two comes from the makers' paperwork alone.
We compared the hardware and left red light's health claims with the makers. In the Waon trials, clinicians gave far-infrared heat to patients with heart failure, and none of these products was tested.
Common questions
- Is chromotherapy the same as red light therapy?
- No. Chromotherapy is colored mood lighting, and a red light therapy panel should come with named wavelengths and a strength measured at a stated distance. A red glow alone doesn't make two saunas comparable. Health Mate's Enrich 2 shows how the line blurs, with an overhead LED panel sold as near-infrared that its info sheet also calls nine-color chromotherapy.
- Can I add a red light panel to any sauna?
- Only when both the panel's maker and the sauna's maker approve it for that cabin. A panel built for a bedroom may not be rated for a sauna's heat and sweat, and its plug adds to what the circuit has to carry. Sun Home's warranty, for one, doesn't cover a sauna that's been modified. Without that approval, keep a standalone red light panel outside the sauna.
- Is a higher irradiance number always better?
- No. A red light irradiance figure depends on how far from the panel it was taken and what measured it, so two makers' numbers only compare when they were taken the same way. Among our picks, Sun Home quotes six inches, Heavenly Heat starts at a foot and SaunaBox reads its wand at the surface. A bigger number from a maker doesn't show that one sauna will do more for you than another.
- How much does a sauna with red light therapy cost?
- Our red light picks run from $399 to $13,599. SaunaBox's steam tent sits at the bottom and Sun Home's four-person Eclipse 4 at the top. The two-person cabins with full-size red light panels cost $10,599 for Sun Home's Eclipse 2 and $11,495 for Heavenly Heat's, before any circuit work they need.
- Does the Sun Home Eclipse need a special outlet?
- Yes. The Sun Home Eclipse 2 runs on 120V and needs a NEMA L5-30 twist-lock outlet on its own GFCI-protected 30-amp circuit. The four-person Eclipse 4 needs a twist-lock outlet on a dedicated 30-amp circuit at 240V. Sun Home's manual asks for a licensed electrician to install either one.
Sources
- 1.Waon Therapy for Managing Chronic Heart Failure: Results From a Multicenter Prospective Randomized WAON-CHF Study. Circulation Journal, 2016.
- 2.Dr. John Kellogg Invented Cereal. Some of His Other Wellness Ideas Were Much Weirder. History.com, 2019.
We review from makers’ documentation, owner reports and published research. How we choose products and write reviews.
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