the essential home sauna accessories checklist

June 1, 2026

the essential home sauna accessories checklist

In 2023, home installations made up 46% of global sauna and spa equipment sales – the largest single category in a market projected to grow from USD 4.16 billion in 2025 to USD 6.4 billion by 2035 (Global Growth Insights, Sauna and Spa Market Size, Trends & Outlook 2026-2035, 2026). More people than ever have a sauna at home. Fewer have worked out what else they actually need.

Key takeaways:

The genuine essentials are a thermometer, towels, drinking water, and a sauna hat – plus a bucket and ladle if you have a traditional sauna.
A 4mm Merino wool sauna hat lets most people extend sessions by 30-50%, often the difference between an 8-minute sit and the 15-20 minute range linked to the strongest cardiovascular outcomes (the benefits of a sauna hat).
Infrared saunas don't need a bucket and ladle – that's the biggest accessory difference between the two sauna types.
A few items marketed as “essential” – digital gadgets, novelty add-ons – are usually worth skipping.

This checklist works through three categories – the non-negotiables, the comfort and routine extras worth adding once the basics are sorted, and a short list of things you can leave on the shelf.

what accessories do you actually need for a home sauna?

The genuine essentials for a home sauna are a thermometer, towels, drinking water, and a sauna hat – and a bucket and ladle if you've got a traditional sauna.

It helps to think about accessories in four tiers: essential, comfort, considered, and skip. Essential items affect whether a session works at all. Comfort items make a working session more pleasant. Considered items turn a session into something you look forward to. Skip items are the ones that look useful in a product listing but rarely earn their place.

What counts as “essential” also shifts slightly depending on your sauna type – infrared sessions don't involve steam, so part of the traditional kit doesn't apply. We'll come back to that.

If you're still deciding between sauna types altogether, or haven't installed one yet, our complete guide to setting up a home sauna routine covers the bigger picture – choosing a sauna, where to put it, and building a routine around it.

what are the essential sauna accessories?

A thermometer and hygrometer are the foundation of a usable home sauna. Traditional saunas typically run at 70-90°C, while infrared units operate at a lower 50-65°C (Inner Light Sauna, Infrared Saunas vs Traditional Saunas – Which One is Better?, 2026) – and without a way to check it, you're guessing. An analogue, wood-framed dual-dial unit is the standard choice: nothing to charge, nothing that fails in the heat.

Bucket and ladle. If you've got a traditional sauna, this is how you create löyly – the steam produced by ladling water over heated rocks. It's not decorative. Without it, a traditional sauna is just a hot room.

Towels – at least two. One to sit on, one to dry off with. Sitting directly on a hot bench isn't pleasant, and sweat and skin oils build up on timber over repeated sessions if nothing's between you and the wood.

Water, kept near the sauna. Not in the kitchen, not down the hall – within arm's reach. You lose more fluid in a 15-minute session than feels obvious at the time, and a bottle that's actually there gets used.

A sauna hat. Your head is the most heat-sensitive part of your body, and it's usually the reason sessions get cut short before the real benefits kick in. It's the accessory most “essentials” lists get wrong, so it gets its own section next.

is a sauna hat actually worth it?

Heat rises, so the air around your head can run 10-15°C hotter than the air at chest level while you're seated (the benefits of a sauna hat, FELT). Your head reaches its thermal limit before the rest of your body does – which is exactly why people exit a session at 8 or 10 minutes, often before the cardiovascular and heat-shock-protein responses that drive sauna's health benefits even begin.

A 4mm Merino wool hat insulates your head from that hottest layer of air, and most people find it lets them extend sessions by 30-50% (the benefits of a sauna hat, FELT). That's often the difference between an 8-minute sit and the 15-20 minute range that a 20-year Finnish cohort study linked to a 52% lower risk of sudden cardiac death for sessions over 19 minutes (Laukkanen et al., JAMA Internal Medicine, 2015).

Merino wool matters for hair too. Sauna temperatures regularly exceed 75°C – hot enough to lift the hair cuticle and dry out strands over repeated sessions (the benefits of a sauna hat, FELT). Wool can absorb up to 30% of its weight in moisture without feeling damp, so a felted wool hat protects your hair while staying comfortable for the full session (Wool.ca, Characteristics of Wool Fact Sheet).

If you're shopping for one, both the Modern and the Classic are made from 4mm Australian Merino wool felt, and our full guide to the benefits of a sauna hat goes into the research in more depth.

comfort accessories worth adding

Once the essentials are sorted, comfort accessories are what make a 20-minute session feel like 10. None of these change whether your sauna works – they change whether you want to come back to it.

A backrest or headrest. Western Red Cedar and Thermo Spruce are common choices, and either makes a real difference on longer sessions. Your shoulders and lower back do more work than you'd expect sitting upright on a flat bench.

A floor mat or duckboard. Sauna floors get hot, and a timber or heat-resistant mat protects bare feet while keeping sweat off the floor itself.

Sauna slippers. Useful for the walk between the sauna and wherever you're cooling down, especially if that's outside or across tile.

Bench cushions. Entirely optional, genuinely comfortable, and easy to add later.

None of these are essential on day one. But if your sauna's already part of your routine and you're after the next thing to add, this is the list.

considered extras and aromatherapy

The accessories in this section won't change whether your sauna functions – they're what turn a sweat session into something closer to a routine. In a global survey of sauna users, 83.5% reported improved sleep after sauna bathing (Hussain et al., A hot topic for health: Results of the Global Sauna Survey, Complementary Therapies in Medicine, 2019), and an evening session with the right wind-down extras is part of why.

Scents and essential oils. Eucalyptus and pine are the classic choices for löyly, and there's something fitting about an Australian sauna using Australian eucalyptus.

A vihta or venik. A bundle of birch or eucalyptus branches, traditionally used to gently strike the skin and stimulate circulation. It's more cultural than functional for most home users, but it's part of what makes a sauna feel like a sauna rather than a heated cupboard.

A sand timer. Genuinely nice to have, but not essential. If you've already got a phone timer, that works just as well.

Lighting and sound. Warm, dim lighting and a waterproof speaker are small touches that add up. Neither is necessary, but both help turn the sauna into a space you actually look forward to.

do infrared and traditional saunas need different accessories?

Yes – and the difference comes down to steam. Traditional saunas use a bucket and ladle to create löyly by pouring water over heated rocks. Infrared saunas heat your body directly and don't produce steam at all, so that part of the kit simply doesn't apply (Inner Light Sauna, Infrared Saunas vs Traditional Saunas – Which One is Better?, 2026).

If you've got a traditional sauna, the bucket, ladle, and hygrometer matter more – humidity is part of the experience, and it's worth monitoring alongside temperature.

If you've got an infrared sauna, skip the bucket and ladle entirely. Everything else – thermometer, towels, water, and a sauna hat – still applies. Infrared units run cooler (50-65°C versus 70-90°C for traditional), but your head still sits in the hottest layer of air, so a sauna hat is just as relevant.

If you're still weighing up which type suits your space, budget, and the experience you're after, keep an eye out for our upcoming side-by-side comparison of infrared and traditional saunas for home use – or start with our complete guide to setting up a home sauna routine, which covers the broader trade-offs.

what sauna accessories can you skip?

Not everything marketed as a “must-have sauna accessory” earns a place in your sauna. A few categories are worth skipping, or at least deprioritising, no matter how good they look in a product photo.

Over-engineered digital gadgets. Digital thermometers, app-connected sensors, anything with a battery or a screen – heat and humidity are exactly the conditions electronics handle worst. An analogue dial does the same job and won't fail mid-session.

Novelty items. “Sauna cookware” is the obvious one – you can reheat something pre-cooked, but you're not actually cooking in a sauna. Magazine racks and similar add-ons fall into the same bucket: fun in theory, rarely used in practice.

The sauna hat isn't on this list. Given how often it gets lumped in with novelty items online, it's worth saying plainly: a sauna hat is the one “extra” that consistently earns its place, for the reasons covered earlier. If you're choosing where to spend after the basics, this is it.

building the right kit, in the right order

The essentials – thermometer, towels, water, a sauna hat, and a bucket and ladle if you're running a traditional sauna – are what make a session work. Comfort and considered extras are what make you want to do it again tomorrow.

If you're still working through the rest of your setup, our complete guide to setting up a home sauna routine covers choosing a sauna, where to put it, and building a routine around it. And if a sauna hat is the one thing on this list you don't have yet, the benefits of a sauna hat is the place to start.

home sauna accessories: frequently asked questions

What accessories do you need for a home sauna?

The essentials are a thermometer, towels, drinking water, and a sauna hat – plus a bucket and ladle if you have a traditional sauna, since that's how you create steam (löyly). Everything else is comfort or considered, worth adding once those basics are covered.

Are sauna hats actually worth it?

Yes. The air around your head can run 10-15°C hotter than at chest level, and a 4mm Merino wool hat insulates against that, letting most people extend sessions by 30-50% – often the difference between an 8-minute sit and the 15-20 minute range linked to the strongest health benefits.

What temperature should a home sauna be?

Traditional saunas typically run at 70-90°C, while infrared saunas operate at a lower 50-65°C (Inner Light Sauna, 2026). Temperature aside, frequency matters most for health outcomes: in a 20-year Finnish cohort study, people who used the sauna 4-7 times a week had a 63% lower risk of sudden cardiac death than those who went once a week (Laukkanen et al., Mayo Clinic Proceedings, 2018).

Do you need a bucket and ladle for an infrared sauna?

No. Infrared saunas heat your body directly rather than the air around you, so they don't produce löyly (steam), and a bucket and ladle has nothing to do. Everything else on the essentials list – thermometer, towels, water, and a sauna hat – still applies.

How do you clean and care for sauna accessories?

Timber accessories need an occasional wipe-down and the odd oil treatment, while a Merino wool sauna hat barely needs washing at all, since wool is naturally antibacterial and odour-resistant. Our care guide covers how to keep a felt sauna hat in good shape for years.