About Stove & Snow
An independent publisher covering home saunas and cold plunges, run on published specifications and arithmetic rather than on a test lab we do not have.
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What this site is for
Stove & Snow exists for one specific reader: someone who already owns something in this category — an entry-level blanket, a stock barrel, a tub-and-ice setup — and is trying to fix one particular weakness. You know what full spectrum means. You know what 1HP means. You do not need an explanation of what a sauna is, and this site does not give you one.
What that reader actually needs is comparable numbers, and this category is remarkably bad at providing them. Chillers do not publish wattage. Red light panels do not publish irradiance. Sauna cabins do not publish EMF measurement distances. Nobody publishes running costs. So we compile what is published, compute what is not, and say plainly where the data simply does not exist.
Who writes it
Sawyer V. — an enthusiast who reads the manuals, compiles the published specs and does the arithmetic. No lab coat, no credentials, no test bench. That framing is deliberate and it is accurate.
The position we take, and why it is defensible
When we surveyed the publishers ranking for the main terms in this category, we found something worth stating plainly. Four of ten ranking guides are published by companies that sell the products they rank — one is written by its own founder and CEO, ranking their own product first — and none disclose that conflict prominently. Two more claim to have physically evaluated the products, with no methodology, duration or verification given. Two make physiological claims citing no research whatsoever.
We sell nothing. We test nothing and say so. And every claim links to a source. That is not just an ethical position — it is the uncontested competitive gap in this niche, and it is why the site is built the way it is.
What we publish that nobody else does
- A cross-brand EMF table for infrared saunas — every published figure in one place, with the missing measurement distances flagged. Zero of the ten competitors we reviewed had one. See low-EMF comparison.
- Running-cost arithmetic with named assumptions, so you can substitute your own electricity rate and check us. Zero of ten competitors publish it. See sauna running costs.
- Chiller sizing from first principles, because no manufacturer publishes a volume rating. See chiller sizing.
- An honest account of what is not published — the irradiance figures, the pull-down times, the insulation R-values that the whole category quietly omits.
The site, in numbers
| Count | |
|---|---|
| Pages published | 97 |
| Roundups | 26 |
| Comparisons | 16 |
| Guides | 30 |
| Sources cited | 173 |
| Brands compared | 34 |
| Spec rows compiled | 348 |
| Products we have tested | 0 |
| Sponsored placements | 0 |
| Free products accepted | 0 |
The last three are categories where zero is the good number, and they are the ones we would ask you to weigh most heavily.
How it is funded
Affiliate commission, disclosed on every commercial page and in full on the affiliate disclosure. We earn if you buy through a link, at no extra cost to you. Commission never affects a ranking, and a meaningful number of pages here carry no buy links at all — every health-evidence page, every protocol page, and every page where attaching a product would have been tenuous. Where a page earns nothing, it says so on the page.
What we are not
- Not a retailer. We sell nothing and hold no stock.
- Not a testing operation. No lab, no bench, no owned units.
- Not medical or electrical advisers. We hold no credentials in either, and nothing here is advice in either sense.
- Not a local business. No premises, no service area, no installers. We are a publisher.
Getting in touch
Corrections get read first. If a spec has changed, a link has died or a source does not say what we say it says, tell us — we fix it, date the change and describe it, per our editorial policy.