For a few years, infrared sauna blankets have entered the market. In this blog post I will talk about the best infrared sauna blanket UK option, but also compare it with alternatives. Examples are a portable infrared sauna or an outdoor sauna, or a regular far infrared sauna, which all have different benefits and downsides.
What Is An Infrared Sauna Blanket?
Several companies have put out infrared sauna blankets nowadays. Most of these companies are located in the USA, so if you want the best infrared sauna blanket UK option, you’ll probably have to import a product.
But let’s first consider what an infrared sauna blanket is.
Simply put, an infrared sauna blanket is a low-cost option to replace an infrared sauna. The blanket wraps around your body and usually (hopefully) leaves your head unexposed. Heater elements are located inside the blanket, moreover. These heater elements are usually heated through a control panel.
That control panel is attached to the infrared sauna blanket. And with that control panel you can activate the sauna blanket for instance and decrease or increase the temperature. That control panel is similar to what’s normally attached to an infrared sauna, whereby you can increase or decrease the temperature.
Many reviews can be found online for infrared sauna blankets. But, whether the sauna blanket is a great replacement for a regular sauna or far infrared sauna still needs to be determined. Generally, people prefer a traditional wooden sauna - whether that’s a Finnish sauna or an infrared sauna - because it gets hotter.
But, there are a few more issues with an infrared sauna blanket - I’ll explore these issues in the next section:
Infrared Sauna Versus Infrared Sauna Blanket
So let’s assume you’re located in the UK. In that case, you might want to compare the best sauna UK option with an infrared sauna blanket that’s imported to the UK. Below I’ll consider the benefits and downsides of both option:
- An infrared sauna blanket is less expensive than an infrared sauna. Infrared saunas cost up to thousands of pounds, while an infrared sauna blanket costs around 600 pounds (GBP). So, initially, you’ll have to invest far less into a sauna blanket. Nevertheless, as the best sauna blankets are offered internationally, you’ll have to pay for shipping costs too.
- An infrared sauna blanket takes up less space than an infrared sauna. The benefit of a sauna blanket is that you can easily fold it and store it. For that reason, if you’ve got a very small apartment and no room for an infrared sauna, the sauna blanket might be the better option for you (more on this later).
- An infrared sauna can be made from better materials than a sauna blanket. Unfortunately, some of the materials used in a sauna blanket might be made from plastics or oil-derived materials that can be toxic. While some of the materials like polyurethane, aramide, and PVC might not be the most toxic, they might not be entirely safe either. The benefit of a high-quality infrared sauna is that different non-toxic woods can be used that have decades worth of track record in being safe. Also, food-grade non-toxic glues can be added to that infrared sauna, lowering your overall toxic dose. And, while many sauna blanket companies go out of their way to make a product that’s as safe as possible, I want to see more research of the materials that are heated close to your body.
- An infrared sauna can expose you to full-spectrum infrared light. Modern full-spectrum infrared saunas expose you to a balanced mix of near, middle, and far infrared. Sauna blankets that are on the market right now - to the best of my knowledge - don’t offer this experience yet.
- A regular infrared sauna is more comfortable for most people than a sauna blanket. This one is simple: in a regular infrared sauna, you can read a book, do yoga, and sit upright. Sure, some people may prefer laying down and therefore prefer a sauna blanket, but for most people that’s simply not the case. People also go to a sauna to socialise, and spending half an hour or an hour together with another person who is wrapped up in a sauna blanket might not be the best vision of what socialisation entails.
- A sauna blanket doesn’t allow you to use addons, like infrared saunas do. Examples of such addons are red light therapy with our Clearlight® Light Therapy Tower and salt therapy with the HALOONE™. Our infrared saunas are built in such a way that you can combine several therapies in one, which is harder to do with current infrared sauna blanket setups.
Overall, I’m not negative about the development of infrared sauna blankets at all. However, for the best experience and health benefits, a normal infrared sauna is still the best option by far.
Nevertheless, there’s another option that might be interesting to you that I haven’t discussed before. Here’s I’m talking about comparing a portable sauna to the other two options I just discussed: