Comments on: Ceramic vs Incoloy vs Carbon: Far infrared heater types

By: Rich

Rich — Tue, 06 May 2008 03:43:18 +0000

This carbon vs. ceramic thing is confusing. Most of the older saunas have used ceramic and we know it works. Now comes along carbon and claims to be better. A lot of people are adamant that ceramic is better and carbon does not even come close. And if this picture is true

http://www.cedarbarrelsaunas.com/infrared-heater-comparison.html

then carbon elements are really lousy. You are way better getting a ceramic heater sauna which are much cheaper.

Any thoughts?

By: Shelly galde

Shelly galde — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 14:33:13 +0000

Where can I find a far infrared heater for a 10×10 room? I do not need a sauna kit. I need to heat a 10×10 room to 100 to 115 degres to do hot yoga. This is the only thing that has ever improved my health. I have tried many heaters from Menard’s and Home Depot. I can only get the room to 90 degress and the information about whether or not these heaters are infrared is sketchy at best. I have tried contacting the suana manufactureres about buying their heaters without the kit and they are not helpful.

Thank you

By: Paul Mernon

Paul Mernon — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 15:38:03 +0000

Paul,

Looks like you are thinking about sauna warm-up time where I talk about heaters warm-up time. They are completely different things. Let me recite the part of the post above (important points are made bold):

Heater warm-up time should not be confused with sauna warm-up time. Sauna warm-up time depends heavily on the overall power of heaters installed, on the volume of the sauna and on speed of air circulation. Slow warm-up and cool-down can be a plus in sauna models which use turning heaters on and off to maintain constant temperature in a sauna. In such models, slow warm-up and slow cool-down lead to more gradual change in intensity of heat when heaters turn on and off.

I think that carbon heaters, because they are thin and thus have little volume, will reach their working temperature (which is lower than for other heater types) relatively fast. It doesn’t mean that a sauna will reach preset temperature quickly.

Also I don’t agree that a sauna with carbon heaters takes a lot longer to get warm. Can you give the reasons why a sauna of certain wattage, size and construction with carbon heaters will take longer to warm-up than exactly the same sauna, installed in a same room, but with ceramic or any other type of heaters? Doesn’t amount of heat emitted from heater depend on its power, not from material of which the heater is made of?

I do not advocate any specific heater type, I just want to disprove the statement I believe is wrong. Please provide your arguments; don’t say that I don’t know what I’m talking about; show that you know what you’re talking about.

By: Paul

Paul — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 08:26:02 +0000

Your comment “Flat thin carbon heaters have fast warm-up,” is completely false. Have you actually tried out a sauna with carbon fiberglass heaters? It takes a lot longer than other types of heaters to get warm and heat the cabin.

It does not sound like you know what you are talking about.