Costco Infrared Sauna EMF Reviews (way higher than advertised!)

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I bought a Dynamic Barcelona infrared sauna from Costco, thinking it was a safe low emf sauna like they advertise, but it turned out to having shockingly HIGH EMF levels, that would make anyone cringe that knows anything about magnetic fields, or the harmful effects of EMF. This post isn’t to bash Costco… I doubt they know about it, nor would they sell them if they did. However, it wouldn’t even be possible for Costco to test each and every sauna that comes through the door like I have, and the meters I use to do this review, cost more than the Dyanamic Barcelona sauna itself. That said, I want to put up these review videos and make this blog post, so that people with cancer, or fighting a life threatening illness, don’t hop in this thing everyday and potentially make their condition worse. If you look on Amazon, this company Dynamic Saunas, is an importer from China under the Golden Designs Inc. umbrella.

Update – These are the 3 best sauna brands that tested the best


What Is The EMF Levels Of Costco’s Cheapest Infrared Sauna?

So the Dynamic Barcelona I bought from Costco, which is advertised as being low emf, has levels as high as 119 millguass in the corners near the power supply wiring, and multiple emitters. In the seated position, the fall off rate is pretty good, but it’s still over 20 milliguass for a wider person like myself.

Dynamic Barcelona Infrared Sauna EMF Rating Levels (12 – 100 + milliguass)

Being generous, the lowest possible magnetic field level, which is right on top of the foot heater, is 12 milliguass. This is using an Alpha Labs UHS2, triple axis guassmeter. EMF levels of 18 – 22mg are often found in the lower portions of the infrared emitters where the wiring is located in the walls. There is no shielding on the cabling, and there is commonly a field generated from the manufacturing process or leaving long tails on the cabling terminations, and simply zip tying the excess wiring into a coil, instead of trimming it.

There is zero presence of mucord, or any shielded cabling for that matter, which would help immensely lower the EMF levels found in this model.  Twisted wiring or the use of flex conduit in the walls is nonexistent in these saunas, which would also provide shielding for occupants.

Why Don’t The People In The Sauna Review Videos On Forums And Sauna Detox Facebook Groups Get As High Of EMF Levels As You Do?

A lot of people are running around with nothing more than a Trifield meter to test saunas with, and then posting “sauna reviews” with emf levels as if they’re set in stone.

While a Trifield meter is great for detecting the presence of EMF, it’s a horrible meter for reviewing accurate EMF levels in an infrared sauna. Reason being, Trifield meters are influenced by dirty electricity, which means a high level may or may not be coming from the sauna itself… and there is a lot of bleed over from DE in a room itself.

Not to mention, most people don’t even know which Trifield meter they bought, since they sell both weighted and unweighted models that look identical. So you see them with their cell phone in a sauna, and you think you’re confident in the readout because you’re seeing it live. Trouble being, they can’t even tell which type of meter they have, what setting it’s on, if there was an ambient level in the room before they installed the sauna, etc…

The way I test saunas now, I use several meters, so you can see all of them, and then take an average calculation from the group. You can easily tell when there is dirty electricity present, since one meter will detect it, and the other will reflect the digital readout without it.

I also still run an RF meter on the meter array, just for good measure. The only saunas that emit RF radiation, are the ones with Bluetooth and WiFi in them. Everything else comes from electro-magnetic fields, which is what you really want to be concerned with.


Dynamic Infrared Saunas Are Primarily Sold At Costco

The infrared saunas sold at Costco, are primarily only “Dynamic Infrared Saunas”, which is a brand that is imported or commonly white labeled under many many brands.

You can see this clearly when you check Alibaba to see the real manufacturers of these sauna “companies.”


Golden Designs Inc Is The Parent Company That Imports From China

Tons of companies are selling this exact same model of infrared sauna, just listed under a different name. Places like Celebration Saunas, try to rename the same cabinet and call it something else… When in reality, it’s nothing more than a Dynamic Barcelona, for $500 dollars more.

But this seems to be the name of the game in the sauna industry. So many shenanigans it’s not even funny. So much dishonesty and false marketing, it’s a wonder these companies haven’t been busted by the FTC yet.


I Bought The Dynamic Barcelona 1 – 2 Person After Reading The Great Reviews (are they fake??)

The reviews on the Barcelona were good, and some even said it was low emf with some pictures to prove it. The Amazon listing says several times, that it uses low emf carbon heaters, so I thought I was good to go.

However, after buying the sauna, assembling it, and using it, it became abundantly clear that this thing is the farthest from low emf that I’ve ever seen in my life. How they get away with marketing it this way, is baffling to me.

Now I have to wonder, if the 90 + reviews on Costco.com and Amazon are fake? Or are they just taking advantage of that many naive people, who really don’t know any better?

I’m not sure at the end of the day, but I’d love to hear from you in the comment section below at the bottom of this page if you’ve bought a sauna from Costco, or any other Dynamic style sauna.


The Sauna Is Actually Nice For The Price (but I would later find out has shockingly HIGH EMF levels)

The sauna itself looks nice, and performs ok. The time it takes to heat up is longer than some other infrared saunas, but overall fit and finish seemed fine.

I wouldn’t stack it up against a $5,000 dollar plus sauna however, those that I rented sessions in were much much higher quality.


I’m Not Sure If Costco Knows About It, But This Dynamic Sauna Company Is Flat Out Lying In Their Marketing

I don’t think Costco cares about this. They took the listings down for a while, now they’re back up.

I mean I get it, if the saunas sell well for a retailer, what do they care. As a customer though, especially someone who pays for a Costco membership, I care. It would be like they had contaminated food with salmonella or something and didn’t pull the items from the store and kept right on selling them.


They Still To This Day, Claim “Low EMF” On Amazon

Nothing has changed with the listings at all. They still claim zero emf in some cases, which is not at all true as we’ve seen multiple times from everyone in the Facebook group.


Are Other Costco Saunas Like Almost Heaven High EMF?

Not sure about this, but usually traditional 240v dry electric heaters have a massive 90mg AC magnetic field emanating from them.

Is this really a problem in a large 4 person sauna with multiple benches, whereby you can sit a decent amount of distance away? I don’t think so. In a small 1-2 person model though, I’m not so sure about that.


Steam Saunas & Outdoor Saunas Usually Have Higher EMF (but it’s not an issue like you’d think)

The steam saunas and a lot of the outdoor barrel saunas are in a much much larger cabinet/sized sauna. Due to the fact that these style saunas are made with the single heater style (typically a single heating element for steam), the distance between you and the heater is far greater, than having your body surrounded by carbon infrared emitters.

I’m not saying you can’t have low emf carbon infrared saunas, you absolutely can, but these Chinese companies that are importing these saunas, simply won’t spend the extra money to mitigate it.

But back to the steam saunas like the Almost Heaven… because you sit farther away from the heating element, and you’re not bathed in the wiring (where the emf actually comes from), these don’t typically suffer from high emf exposure during usage, unless you sit on top of the damn thing after you pour water on the rocks.

So a lot of people are probably wondering, well why the hell didn’t you just buy a steam sauna Matt? First, I don’t think it will detox my heavy metals as fast as a far infrared sauna will. And the way my health has been lately, I’m looking to feel better as soon as possible.

Second, when I first started this blog, I moved to a 500sq ft apartment for two years to lower expenses, and quit my job to blog full time. I didn’t have space, nor a big back yard where I could put an outdoor sauna. It simply wasn’t an option due to space constraints at the time, and I wouldn’t choose steam over infrared now that I do have the space anyway. (and I originally started out with an NIR heat lamp sauna)

I’m still testing saunas, and have now tested over $22,000.00 dollars worth of infrared saunas. In a few months after the final brands have been through the ringer, I’ll have some rock solid recommendations I trust for friends and family looking for a good safe infrared sauna for detox.

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19 thoughts on “Costco Infrared Sauna EMF Reviews (way higher than advertised!)”

    • Completely False Information. Matt, let’s give the public the truth. The DYN-6106-01 is at less than 10mG. What lies Matt will push to promote the sauna products of the company he promotes? Not very professional! For factual information on Dynamic Saunas, please reach out to us as we can provided documented results:
      [email protected]
      (909) 212-5555

      Reply
      • Steffen, I’m not sure what you’re trying to accomplish by posting here. Clearly your company doesn’t communicate internally at all, and this isn’t my doing… you guys publish this stuff yourselves now, do you realize that? This is my own experience with your product… which I’m surprised you’re saying what you’re saying, since it’s your company’s experience with it as well?

        For one this is not an isolated incident with your saunas, a ton of customers have had the same experience with them. You can cherry pick, make claims for blah blah meter, call me an influencer or paid promoter or whatever… but this is my personal blog and my own opinion after using your product. Bottom line, if I won’t use your saunas myself in my own house due to this, why on earth do you think I’d recommend them or not steer people away from them?

        For two, your company engages in false advertising… And I’ll prove it to you in a minute so you stop spamming my blog. Now you’re upset about it because a blogger published on it instead of sweeping it under the rug. What about all the customers that never checked their sauna, or even know they SHOULD check the health equipment they bring into their home? Ridiculous.

        You’ve copied and pasted this exact comment so many times, now there’s tons of this crap in the spam filter on my website. It would probably be useful for you to start your own website and youtube channel, so you can illustrate what you’re saying on your own platform. But if I had to guess that’s not likely, because your company already has and it’s not good: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFVIxFkxNfM

        Funny that other employees at your own company (who you’re clearly not communicating with? Otherwise you’d know your very own company publishes their own high emf readings… without any influence from me at all??? I have nothing to do with golden designs/dynamic/blue wave/etc…) are also finding high EMF in your own saunas. Still 20mg at the backrest? 1,000 v/m electric fields???? How come you’re not mentioning those high readings on the meters on the right and left? You know EMF is a plural term.

        My biggest mistake here, is bothering to engage with you at all. You’re wasting my time, but I couldn’t help falling into the trap after you spammed my stuff to death. And the biggest mistake we’re both making? Instead of arguing nonsense, focusing on how to improve your products and making them better, because then I could promote yours too if it’s something I’d want to use myself.

        Also a lot has changed since I originally published this years ago. I’m also much more knowledgeable than before, and it’s easy to fix your saunas on the assembly line. I’ll even tell you how to do it right here: during the lamination process of your carbon heaters, reverse the polarity to cancel out the magnetic fields. Don’t put the temperature sensor on the back of the heater in a place close to point of body contact, and take the wire shielding all the way to it instead of cutting it short where the pigtail drop comes out of the wall. This will do two things: 1) it’ll stop emf bleed through from the wiring, and the temp sensor will always red a little high… so when you get these keyboard warriors that don’t know how to use an EMF meter to stop cherry picking testing zones or even knowing how to evaluate a hot spot spike. (they don’t even know why there’s a high side to a heater, they just think it’s “high.” Naïve interpretation.)

        Those high electric fields you see on the meters from the golden designs video can either be reduced by mitigation or eliminated at the source. Mitigation strategy looks like a grounded faraday in front of the heater, to shield the user from coming in contact with the surface fields, yet still allowing heat to pass through. 1/8″ grounded metallic mesh works well for this, just staple to the back of the heater guard before attaching to wall assembly. Or a bit more intense elimination method, would be a grounded foil sheet in the lamination process, to discharge the electric fields emanating from the heater altogether. Don’t do like some other companies, and put a grounding strap under the bench or outside the heater… this just makes the sauna user’s body become the conductor and thus the conduit for discharge. Current still flows through the user this way, not ideal. (his is why I always say never use a grounding mat/strap/nothing in your sauna. Ever. Even some of the sauna company’s I recommend make these… don’t use them.)

        Reply
      • Hey Matt so if I were to wrap the electrical wiring in the sauna with a product like faraday fabric that would help lower the electric exposure? Just the wiring or would it be necessary to panels as well?

        Reply
  1. Do you have any information on the almost heaven saunas? I know you mentioned them in this article, but any reviews?

    Reply
    • Hi David,

      No sorry, I’m in a tilt wall concrete construction, and there isn’t a chase to run new electrical to add a 30 amp 220 circuit to my panel for the sauna. Would like to buy one, but I don’t have the ability to test it without major expense.

      Reply
    • Hi Marie,

      I’m not sure, I’d have to buy one and test it. A little hesitant to do so after the last slew of them as you can imagine… although Costco is probably one of the only places I could get my money back in full, without paying restocking fees and getting stuck with return shipping like on some of the others. (sauna companies do not want you to return a 300lb pallet of firewood)

      I would be absolutely FLOORED if they mitigated electric fields, but wouldn’t be surprised if they’ve gotten their head out of their ass on the magnetic.

      If there’s enough demand for it, I’ll buy a new 2020 model to see. It’s a lot of work though, there’s gotta be decent speculation the juice is worth the squeeze to sign up for that!

      Reply
  2. I own one.
    EMF from ac wiring is nonsense.
    I’ve worked in electronics and electrical equipment for over 60 years.
    On equipment with more than 40kw of radiation. In perfect health at age 80. I’ll tell you how it has damaged me when I get really old.

    What emf do you think you get from an MRI? Thousands of times more!

    Reply
  3. Okay so here are some questions. First, is the research on the dangers of EMF conclusive? From what I have read there is not necessarily any evidence to support that it is a problem. Am I wrong here?

    Next, how do other devices such as cell phones and laptops compare?

    Reply
    • Hi Chris,

      You’ll have to do your own research here, as it would take an entire book to answer these simple questions with clarity. I’ll give you the cliffs to point you in the right direction:

      – Some is conclusive, and some is not. Magnetic fields have been shown to cause all types of issues in high milligauss ranges. Electric fields, less so, however you can clearly see the impact on the body via body voltage. But the latter hasn’t been covered extensively by science like magnetic. Both can be present in any sauna.
      – Then there is the AC/DC debacle. AC is documented harmful, DC is not. Some saunas have both, some one or the other depending on the power supply and heater type.
      – Cell phones and laptops give off not only magnetic and electric fields, but usually more prominently RF radiation from wifi and bluetooth. This is why it would take writing an entire article here in the comments to separate this out. Both types are harmful, but in different ways. RF is totally documented if you look at the sources not funded by telecom.

      * Note – if emf is not important to you, just forget about it and proceed as usual. The learning curve can be steep depending on application… not always worth it depending on your goals.

      Reply
  4. I ve been reading your blogs and I’ve not found these questions answered,
    1. I’m looking for a sauna with a glass front, doors etc. I have 59″ width space in my bathroom and like the look of mostly glass in front. I like jacuzzi sanctuary 2 but the 6000$ price to too much for me. Any suggestions on a similar looking sauna?
    2. Have you seen dynamic sauna Marseille 3?
    3. I’m trying to find something to use the 59″ width to the max.
    4.Do you know a source for older models that still might be available?
    5. In your “5 mistakes….” you tube video shows a total glass front sauna ? Do you know which model this is? Thanks Sharon

    Reply
    • Hi Sharon,

      No sorry, I don’t have a list of all the sauna dimensions with me… should be pretty easy to see though on any sauna specs.

      The glass sauna in that image was intentional… those suffer from heat loss pretty bad; not the best. Sorry I probably should’ve made that more clear showcasing what not to buy.

      Reply
  5. Matt, I know you are extremely busy and this is not your only thing going on. That being said, is there any way we could have a 5 min conversation at some point? I really have a question that I would not want to make public due to it being drawn out and probably a drawn-out response as well. I understand if this is not possible but I figured I’d give it a shot.

    v/r

    SeanW

    Reply

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