A traditional sauna heats a room with a stove and a pile of rocks, and you can pour water over those rocks for steam. The stove can be electric or wood-burning. The short version: electric is the easy, everyday choice, and wood-burning is for people who want the fire and are off the grid or after the ritual.
A traditional sauna, sometimes called a Finnish sauna, heats the air and a bed of rocks to a high temperature. You sit in the dry heat, and when you want humidity you ladle water over the hot rocks to make a quick burst of steam, called loyly. Both electric and wood-burning heaters do this. The difference is only in how the rocks get hot. This is a different thing from an infrared sauna, which warms your body directly with panels and does not use rocks or steam.
An electric heater is the most common choice for a home sauna, and it is what we build our saunas around. You set a temperature, set the timer, and the room is ready when you are. There is no fire to tend and no wood to split or store. It needs a dedicated electrical circuit put in by a licensed electrician, and once that is done it is about as simple as sauna heat gets. All four Procraft heaters are electric, CSA approved, and come with rocks so you can run dry or add water for steam.
A wood-burning heater brings a real fire into the sauna. Many people love the sound, the smell, and the ritual of building and tending it. It does not need electricity, which makes it a strong option for a cottage or a remote spot with no power. In return it asks for more work. You feed and tend the fire, it takes time to come up to temperature, and it needs a proper chimney, clearances from anything that can burn, and a safe supply of dry firewood.
If you want a sauna that is ready at the push of a button and you have power at the site, go electric. If you are off the grid, or the fire itself is a big part of why you want a sauna, wood-burning is worth the extra effort. Some people even keep both. There is a fuller comparison in our guide on electric sauna vs wood-burning sauna.
Ready to look at heaters? See our four electric models on the sauna heaters page.
Every Procraft electric sauna heater is CSA approved, designed in Canada, and covered by a 5-year limited warranty. Always follow the heater manual and use a licensed electrician for the wiring.
Procraft sells the electric heaters here and the complete cedar saunas at procraftsauna.ca. Whichever way you go, the sizing and electrical advice on this site still applies.