The Sauna Stove

While you may want to skimp on some things for a sauna, a well built sauna stove is really the heart of the sauna and sauna experience. With a well built and properly designed wood fired sauna stove you will have a safe and durable unit that will provide you years of service.

We reviewed a variety of sauna stove manufacturers, both locally fabricated and imported from Finland. In the end we chose the Cadillac of US built sauna stoves, the Kuuma sauna stove, fabricated by Lamppa manufacturing in Tower, Minnesota. Although a Kuuma sauna stove may be more expensive than other sauna stoves.... you get what you pay for.

Their stoves are built like a tank with minimum 1/4" thick steel (two 1/4" thick steel plates on the back of the stove) and a 1/2" thick stainless steel fire baffle in the stove. The cast iron grate in our stove is over 1/2" thick! Try to find this type of construction on any other sauna stove? You won't.

The adjustable air carburetor allows you to precisely adjust the air flow for efficient burning. The draft on this stove is amazing, and with the glass viewing window you can easily see how well the fire is burning.

The 12 gallon stainless steel tank which hangs on the side of the stove heats up water to be used for bathing.

Kuuma Sauna Stove Features

• Approved to UL #1482 by PFS Corporation

• Unique front to back burn

• Air-Tight

• Optional glass viewing window on loading door

• Adjustable hinges and latch

• Cool coil handles

• Air inlet carburetor to allow precise air control for burning

• Stainless steel baffled fire chamber

• Firebrick stove interior included

• Optional heat shields to allow stove to be placed closer to combustible materials

• Built like a tank!

• American steel, manufactured in the USA for generations!

A big thank you to my brother Steve Leppälä who made a contribution towards the purchase of this great sauna stove. Kiitos veli!

Curing and Operating a Kuuma Wood-Burning Sauna Stove

Lamppa manufacturing recommends that their Kuuma wood-burning sauna stoves be given three successively hotter curing burns before installing the stove in your sauna. This curing process will help burn off any residual oils and paints which may give off a bad odor in your sauna if your stove has not been properly cured. The video below explains this curing process and also gives some insight on the proper operation of this stove. The Kuuma wood burning stoves are unique in their design by providing an air carburetor to help provide the precise air control for maximum efficiency and to provide a unique front to back burn. You will see very little smoke emitting from the chimney of a Kuuma sauna stove once the fire is burning well because they burn the wood so efficiently.