The Sun Home Solaris is one of the most expensive outdoor saunas you can buy off a website, and that's the thing you have to reckon with first. The Medium runs $45,399. For that money you get a genuinely well-made cabin: a thermally modified Thermory pine shell, a cedar interior, a quality 9kW HUUM WiFi heater, and — the part most kits skip — real insulation injected into the frame. It also shows up fully built. No flat-pack panels, no weekend of wrestling walls into place. You set it down, an electrician wires the heater, and you're done. The question isn't whether it's nice. It is. The question is whether it does $45,000 worth of things that a well-designed sauna at a third of the price doesn't — and where the design still cuts corners you'd expect it not to at this price. We grade every product against the same engineering standards we use on custom builds, and we cross-referenced Sun Home's spec sheet, its help-center documentation, and the HUUM heater specs to keep this honest.

Overview

The Solaris Medium is a made-to-order outdoor sauna handcrafted in Europe and delivered pre-assembled. The exterior shell is Thermory pine — thermally modified so it resists rot and weather without staining or sealing — with marine-grade stainless steel hardware. Inside is a cedar cabin with stacked (double-level) benches, warm interior lighting, and a large double-pane tempered glass front. Heat comes from a 9kW HUUM heater on HUUM's WiFi control, which reaches 220°F+ and holds up to about 132 lbs (60 kg) of stones.

Exterior dimensions are 90.1" wide by 90.1" deep by 94.5" tall, and it weighs roughly 1,874 lbs. The interior cabin height is 79 inches, and the interior volume is 287 cubic feet. It runs on a dedicated 240V, 40A circuit, hard-wired — there's no plug, so an electrician runs a dedicated line from your panel to the heater. Lead time is 3–4 months since each unit is built to order.

The price is $45,399 for the Medium (Sun Home lists it around $46,199 at full price).

What the Solaris Does Well

It arrives fully built

This is the real selling point, and it's a legitimate one. Most outdoor saunas in the "kit" category show up as a pallet of panels you assemble yourself or pay a crew to put together. The Solaris arrives pre-assembled after 100-plus hours of factory build time — you position it and have the heater hardwired, and that's it. If you don't want a construction project in your backyard and you're not going to build custom, that convenience has real value.

A quality HUUM heater with a proper stone load

The 9kW HUUM is a good heater, well-sized for the 287 cubic feet of the Medium, and it holds up to about 60 kg of stone. That stone mass matters more than people think — more rock means softer, more even löyly and smaller temperature swings when you throw water. Plenty of prefabs in the $10–15k range ship a thin wall heater with barely 20 lbs of functional stone; this isn't that. The WiFi control is also genuinely useful. The strongest sauna benefits show up at 4–7 sessions a week, and being able to preheat from your phone removes just enough friction that you actually go more often. If you want that same heater on its own, it's the HUUM Drop 9kW — the exact class of heater the Solaris ships with.

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Materials built for the outdoors

Thermory pine is thermally modified wood, which means it's been baked to drive out moisture and sugars so it resists rot, warping, and weather without chemical treatment. Paired with a cedar interior and marine-grade stainless hardware, this is a cabin built to live outside permanently through freeze–thaw cycles, which is exactly what you want in a mountain climate. The large double-pane glass front is a nice touch too — the view out is a real part of the experience, and double glazing keeps it from bleeding heat the way a single pane would.

Actual insulation

Most prefab saunas are single-wall cedar or thin sandwich panels with an R-value you could count on one hand. The Solaris injects high-density insulation into the frame, which means faster heat-up, steadier temperatures, and lower running cost over time. Sun Home doesn't publish an R-value, so we can't put a number on it — but insulated framing is a meaningful step up from the single-wall boxes it competes against, and it's a big part of why the cabin holds heat well.

Where It Falls Short

The price, for the space you actually get

At $45,399, the Solaris Medium is roughly three to six times the price of the outdoor cabin kits we've reviewed — and it isn't three to six times the sauna. A lot of what you're paying for is the pre-built delivery and the brand, not extra usable space or better core engineering. For $45k in the Tahoe area, a custom build gets you a sauna sized to your exact space, a heater and ventilation designed together, and a footprint that isn't dictated by what fits on a truck — usually for less. The Solaris is a nice sauna; it is not a nice-sauna value.

It's rated for far more people than it comfortably holds

Sun Home lists the Medium at 4–6 people. The engineering says otherwise. A healthy sauna needs roughly 105 cubic feet of air per person to keep CO₂ under about 700 ppm; at 287 cubic feet, that's a realistic 2–3 people. Cram in 5 or 6 and CO₂ climbs past 1,200 ppm — which is what actually causes the dizziness and fatigue people tend to blame on "the heat." Buy the Medium expecting a comfortable 2–3 person sauna and you'll be happy. Buy it expecting to seat six and you won't.

A low ceiling, and you sit close to the stove

The interior cabin height is 79 inches — about 6'7". We design for 7.5–8 feet, and the reason is heat physics: heat rises, and you want enough vertical space to build an upper bench where your feet sit at or above the top of the stove. At 79 inches with stacked benches, the upper tier sits low, and in a footprint this compact you're also sitting close to the heater. That means more direct radiant heat coming off the stove rather than the even, ambient warmth of a taller room. It's still a good sauna — but the geometry is fighting the ceiling, not working with it.

A flat roof, in a snow climate

The Solaris has a flat roof. A flat interior ceiling is good — it distributes heat evenly. A flat exterior roof is a different problem: in Tahoe, or anywhere with real snow, a flat roof holds load instead of shedding it. Over a winter that's weight sitting on the structure and standing water finding seams. It's not a dealbreaker if you'll shovel it, but it's the kind of thing that should be engineered out at this price, and it isn't.

No published ventilation design

Sun Home says nothing about how the Solaris ventilates — no mention of a mechanical intake above the heater or an exhaust below the foot bench. That matters. Ventilation is what keeps a sauna from going stale and damp after a couple of rounds; it's the difference between air that feels alive and air that feels close. Injected insulation makes a tight cabin, which makes ventilation more important, not less. Maybe there's a passive vent scheme they don't document — but at $45k, "not published" isn't good enough, and it's the first question we'd put to them before buying.

Bench depth isn't published either

Sun Home confirms stacked, double-level seating but doesn't publish bench depth. That's a real spec, not a detail — a bench needs to be at least 24 inches deep to lie down on, and plenty of prefabs come in around 18–20 inches, which locks you into sitting upright. If you're spending this much, get the exact bench depth in writing before you order.

Specs vs. Design Standards

The Bottom Line

The Sun Home Solaris is a well-built, good-looking, genuinely nice sauna. The materials are right, the heater is right, it's actually insulated, and it shows up ready to use — which is worth something if you don't want a build project and won't go custom. If those things matter more to you than money, it delivers.

But at $45,399 for a realistic 2–3 person sauna, you're paying a very steep premium for convenience and brand, and the design still leaves real questions on the table: a low 79-inch ceiling, a flat roof in snow country, no documented ventilation, and no published bench depth. None of those should be open questions at this price. Before you buy, ask Sun Home three things in writing: how the cabin ventilates, the exact bench depth, and the full frame/cabin warranty (not just the 5-year heater coverage). And if you're in the Tahoe area, get a custom quote before you commit — for this budget you can usually get a sauna designed around your space and your heater, ventilation included, without the flat-roof compromise.

All that said — any sauna is better than no sauna. If the Solaris is what gets you sweating four times a week, that's the win. Just go in knowing exactly what the $45k is buying.

Also read: Coldture Outdoor Sauna Pro Review — another premium pre-built, at a third of the price.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many people does the Sun Home Solaris Medium actually fit?

Sun Home rates it for 4–6, but at 287 cubic feet the realistic comfortable capacity is 2–3 people. Beyond that, CO₂ builds up faster than the room can clear it, and the sauna starts to feel stuffy and draining rather than energizing.

Does the Solaris need special wiring?

Yes. The Medium requires a dedicated 240V, 40A circuit, hard-wired directly to the heater — there's no plug. A licensed electrician has to run that line from your panel before delivery, so schedule the electrical work in advance.

Does the Sun Home Solaris come with ventilation?

Sun Home doesn't publish a ventilation design for the Solaris. A good sauna uses mechanical downdraft ventilation — fresh air in above the heater, exhaust low behind the foot bench. Because the cabin is insulated and tight, we'd confirm exactly how it ventilates before buying, and be ready to add a simple mechanical vent kit if it doesn't.

Is the flat roof a problem in snow?

It can be. A flat roof holds snow load and standing water rather than shedding it. In a mountain climate you'd want to keep it cleared over the winter, or factor that maintenance in. It's the one structural spec we'd want engineered differently at this price.

Is the Sun Home Solaris worth $45,000?

It depends on what you value. You're paying a large premium for a pre-built, well-insulated cabin with a quality HUUM heater and a brand behind it. If convenience and finish are worth that to you, it's a legitimately nice sauna. If you're optimizing for the best sauna per dollar, a custom build of the same size — designed with proper ceiling height, ventilation, and a snow-shedding roof — usually costs less and performs better.

Looking for guidance on what makes a great sauna? Our Sauna Building Guide ($19) walks you through the engineering principles that matter most — bench heights, heater sizing, ventilation design, and insulation — so you can evaluate any sauna, kit or custom, with confidence. You can also see how the Solaris stacks up against other options in our honest sauna reviews, or find vetted brands in The Sauna Directory. Or if you'd prefer a professional assessment for your specific space, our design consultations start at $1,250.