Steam & Oak Saaren 400 Barrel Sauna — 4–6 Person, Changing Room & Terrace

Four metres of barrel, divided into three usable spaces: a 2 m hot room, a 1.27 m changing room behind a glass door, and a 570 mm covered terrace at the entrance. It is the largest barrel in the Saaren range, and the one that stops feeling like garden equipment and starts feeling like somewhere you go.

The hot room is the point of difference. At 12 m³ it takes a full bench run down each side with room to lie down on the upper level — not perch. Six people fit without anyone straddling the stove. And because the changing room sits between the heat and the door, the hot room stays hot when someone goes out to cool off.

Spruce or thermowood — your choice

Nordic spruce is the traditional barrel timber: pale, clean-grained, and the reason a new barrel sauna looks the way it does. It is the more affordable build, and it needs treating and re-treating to stay looking new outdoors.

Thermowood is timber kiln-treated at 180–220°C in a low-oxygen chamber. That is not a surface coating. It changes the wood itself, closing the cells so it absorbs far less moisture — which is what stops outdoor timber cupping, twisting and splitting through a British winter. No chemical preservatives are involved. It arrives a deep honey-brown and weathers to a stable silver.

On a barrel this size the thermowood upgrade is worth thinking about carefully: there is simply more timber exposed to the weather, so there is more to gain from it.

Choose your timber above. The benches follow the shell: alder with spruce, thermo-aspen with thermowood.

Specification

What is in the box

Everything structural, including both doors and the terrace. No hidden extras to buy before you can build it:

• Barrel staves and end walls in your chosen timber
• Wooden entrance door and internal glass door
• Terrace with its own benches and floor
• Sauna benches
• Four windows — two front, two back
• Floor
• Bitumen roof shingles and fascia boards
• Foundation cradles
• Heater guard
• Stainless steel barrel bands and complete fixing kit
• Ventilation grids
• Step-by-step assembly instructions

Run it on gas — no electrician, no cable across the garden

This is the option almost nobody else offers, and for a lot of gardens it is the one that makes a sauna possible at all.

A FinSteam gas heater runs on a standard propane bottle — the same sort you would use for a patio heater or a barbecue. No armoured cable, no trench across the lawn, no electrician quote you had not budgeted for. On a barrel this size, at the bottom of a garden, that saving is often substantial.

Pick a gas option above and we fit the flue and commission the heater on installation day. You do not need to arrange anything with anyone.

Which gas option?

And then: safety pack, or without?

Every gas option includes the heater, the Orbis stone cage, and our fitting and commissioning. See the full gas heater range →

Or go wood-fired — the traditional barrel

There is a reason barrel saunas have chimneys. A wood stove gives you the crackle, the smell and the slow build that no electric element reproduces, and it needs no power at all. In a two-room barrel it also keeps the changing room comfortable rather than cold, because the flue runs through it.

Our Harvia M series wood-burning set comes complete with the chimney and stones included — nothing else to source. Our fitters install it and check the flue on the day.

Or choose an electric heater

The simplest option if you already have power at the sauna. Our Harvia Wall is black steel with a full 20 kg stone capacity for softer, steadier löyly, integrated controls and a 2-year warranty.

At 12 m³ this is the barrel where heater choice matters most. If you plan on heavy use, an exposed garden, or getting up to temperature quickly in winter, talk to us before you order — there are larger outputs we can fit that are not listed here.

All electric heaters must be installed and connected by a qualified electrician. We confirm the exact supply requirement with you before installation.

Prefer a different heater — HUUM, a WiFi-controlled model, or a different wood stove? Choose cabin only and talk to us; we can supply and fit most makes.

2-year warranty

The Saaren 400 carries a 2-year warranty on the barrel structure, and the heaters carry their own manufacturer warranty.

Timber is stable and long-lasting outdoors, but like any outdoor structure it lasts longest if you treat the exterior and keep it treated — more so with spruce than thermowood. We will tell you exactly what to use and when. Look after it and this is a sauna that will outlast the warranty by a wide margin.

Lead time — please ask before you order

Lead time depends on stock and specification, and it moves. Depending on what is already built and how the factories are running, it can be anywhere from a couple of weeks to around four months.

Ask us and we will give you the real date for your build before you commit — we would rather tell you the honest timescale up front than quote a comfortable number and disappoint you later.

Getting it into your garden

• Base: level and well-drained — a slab, paving or compacted gravel all work. Allow 400 × 205 cm plus room to walk around it. At four metres, check the run before you commit.
• Access: delivered flat-packed on one pallet 4 m long. The parts go through a standard side gate, but the pallet itself needs a clear drop point — worth confirming with us.
• Assembly: typically a day for two people, or leave it to our installation team.
• Sequence: most customers build the barrel first, then have the heater connected once it is in position.

Options

• Shingle colour — black, red, green or brown
• Opening windows instead of fixed
• Exterior timber-protection finishes
• Sauna accessory sets