How an Additional Clearlight Sauna Full-Spectrum Heater Improved my Sauna Experience & Benefits

I love my Clearlight Sanctuary Y sauna (read/watch my full review here)! It’s one of the things I look forward to each day.

But as I mentioned in a previous article about hacking your sauna experience, I’m constantly looking for ways to maximize the time I spend doing something, including my sauna time. 

The Science of Sauna

According the Rhonda Patrick, PhD, “Historically, saunas were heated by wood fires – a practice still observed today in rural parts of Finland. Most modern saunas, however, are heated by conventional electric heaters or infrared heaters. Conventional heaters warm the air to a high temperature, ranging from 70°C to 100°C (158°F to 212°F), optimally [according to the scientific research] at 80°C to 90°C (176°F to 194°F)“.

Infrared heaters emit thermal radiation, which heats the body directly while also warming the surrounding air. They operate at lower temperatures than traditional saunas, at 45°C to 60°C (113°F to 140°F).

Why Add an Additional Heater to Your Sauna

Since the majority of sauna studies have been conducted on traditional Finnish sauna which get much hotter than an infrared sauna and since the majority of the benefits of sauna documented in the scientific literature are related to to the activation of something called “heat-shock proteins”, I wanted to do everything I could to make my infrared sauna hotter, or at least as close to a traditional sauna as possible.

That way I would get the benefits exclusive to infrared saunas and the heat benefits of a traditional sauna.

So I decided to add a third heater to my Jacuzzi® Clearlight Sanctuary Y sauna. This would:

1. Make my sauna hotter (for the benefits mentioned above)
2. Heat it up quicker to save on energy and be able to use it sooner
3. Reduce the amount of time I would have to stay in the sauna

What I Measured

To determine if a third heater was worth the money, I measured several metrics using two heaters and then three heaters. The n=1 “study” I conducted involved measure baseline measurements of the metrics below, then allowed 30 minutes to heat up the sauna, then I sat in the sauna 25-30 minutes. I measured the metrics below 20 minutes into the sauna session and 30 minutes in. I measured

• Body Temperature
• Heart Rate
• Max. Heart Rate while in the sauna
• Average Heart Rate while in the sauna
• Sauna Temperature

You can view my raw data here.

Why These Measurements Matter

Exposure to high temperature stresses the body, eliciting a rapid, robust response, increasing skin and core body temperature and elicits sweating. The more you sweat, the more toxins you release.

Cardiac output, a measure of the amount of work the heart performs in response to the body’s need for oxygen, increases by 60 to 70 percent, while the heart rate (the number of beats per minute) increases and the stroke volume (the amount of blood pumped) remains unchanged.

The physiological responses to sauna use are remarkably similar to those experienced during moderate- to vigorous-intensity exercise. So if a third heater raises my heart rate more than two heaters, we could conclude that the additional heater is eliciting more exercise-like benefits.

What I Discovered

These are the results of my n=1 experiment:

• My body temperature was higher with three panels which means I sweat more (and probably released more toxins). My body temperature was 1.8 degrees higher after 20 min and 1.2 degrees higher after 30 minutes with three panels. It reach 105 at one point!

• My heart rate was higher with three panels. My heart rate was almost 13 beats higher after 20 minutes and 21.5 beats higher after 30 minutes (WOW!). My max heart rate was 14.5 beats higher and my average heart rate was almost 20 beats higher, maxing out at 165 bpm at one point!

• The sauna got hotter, quicker. Three panels made it 1.1 degrees hotter after 30 minutes and another degree hotter after 50 minutes.
• I couldn’t even stay in the sauna for 30 minutes with three heaters. I had to get out at 25 minutes.
• I started to sweat 5 minutes faster with three panels.

So, would I recommend adding an additional heater?

YES!

Here are a few other things to keep in mind if you decide to add an extra heater:

• Make sure you receive the longer doormount bolts (they’re longer than the ones that come with the sauna).
• Here’s how to turn on the additional power source in the sauna

Related Articles

• Exercising in the Heat
• How an Additional Clearlight Sauna Full-Spectrum Heater Improved my Sauna Experience & Benefits
• How I Built My Chest Freezer Ice Bath
• How to Enhance the Benefits of Cold Thermogenesis
• How to Hack Your Sauna Experience for Increased Benefits
• My Review of the Jacuzzi Clearlight Sanctuary Y Infrared Sauna

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For those of you looking to purchase a great infrared sauna or an extra heater for your Clearlight, talk with Bret Bouer at 360.285.3488 email him at brett2726@gmail.com.

Bret is highly knowledgeable on saunas and will get you the best deal when you mention my name!