The ozone sauna owner's operating handbook

Owning an ozone steam sauna is not complicated, but almost everything that goes wrong comes from the same short list of habits: running it dry, switching it on in the wrong order, leaving water under the footrest, using the wrong water, and running the sauna without the oxygen concentrator.

This handbook covers day-to-day operation of the three saunas we make: the Standard, the Deluxe and the Red Light ozone steam sauna. It sits alongside the operating manual that goes out with every sauna. That is the button-by-button reference for your model; this is the routine around it.

Setting up in the room

No model needs plumbing, so the room needs a suitable power outlet, floor space and ordinary ventilation. We supply each sauna with the plug for your country.

The minimum room we recommend is 2 m by 2 m. Optimal is 3 m by 3 m or larger, which gives you room to work beside the sauna while a client gets in and out, and space for the oxygen concentrator to draw air freely rather than sit in a cupboard.

Allow for the doors. The Standard and Deluxe are 680 mm wide closed and 1360 mm with the doors open. Saunas have to be uncrated to fit through a normal doorway, so plan the route in before delivery day.

Electrically, the total draw including the oxygen concentrator is 1,750 W. Power: 220 V / 10 A. For the 110 V versions (ordered from the international section): Red Light 110 V / 13.5 A; Standard and Deluxe 110 V / 11 A. The oxygen concentrator runs on its own separate socket (300–450 W). A 110 V sauna needs its own dedicated circuit. Before delivery, ask a qualified electrician to confirm that your circuit and socket can carry the sauna’s rated current continuously. A 3 kVA or larger inverter will run the sauna and the concentrator together. A generator of that size can too, but we do not recommend one, because generator supply fluctuates and the electronics do not like it.

On ventilation, our position after nearly twenty years of operation is that normal room ventilation — an open door and window, or an extractor fan in a small treatment room — is sufficient. Ventilate for the person who is there all day: a client has one session, the operator is in the room for every session on the timetable.

The switch-on sequence

Learn this properly, because the order matters.

1. Check the bottle at the back of the sauna is filled with verified distilled water.
2. Clean up any spilt water, especially near the oxygen concentrator or the wiring.
3. Switch the wall socket on.
4. Switch the oxygen concentrator on and confirm it is running.
5. Switch the sauna on last.

Shutdown is the reverse: sauna off, then concentrator, then unplug at the outlet.

Two warnings sit behind that order. If the water runs low or empty, the sauna sounds a warning and pauses the session — top it up rather than trying to run through it. And if the sauna runs for a prolonged period without the oxygen concentrator on, it will damage and burn out the ozone generator, and can cause further burn damage. That is the reason the concentrator goes on first and off last.

If an alarm sounds during a session, it is usually the air-flow alarm, which means too little oxygen is passing over the ozone generator. Check the concentrator is running and the tubing is not pinched, kinked or disconnected.

Water

Use only verified distilled water. The bottle we supply covers four to eight sessions, depending on the temperature you run: a hotter sauna makes more steam and uses more water. No descaling is required when the correct water is used, which is the whole reason we are strict about it.

The other half of the water routine is under the footrest: clear all of it between sessions, or water runs to the front of the sauna and the sauna stops heating.

Running a session

The electronics are built into the door. The Standard has a digital display with 10-level ozone adjustment; the Deluxe a 4.3-inch full-colour TFT screen with the same ten levels; the Red Light model adds status indicator lights and an automatic light cutoff when the doors open. All have automatic temperature control. The operating manual for your model has the button-by-button detail.

The first preheat of the day, or after a long gap, takes 10 to 20 minutes depending on the ambient temperature of the room. Preheat the empty sauna with the doors closed while you prepare the client, so their 30 minutes is 30 minutes of session rather than half a wait.

Set the seat height before the client arrives — four levels on the Standard, five on the Deluxe. The sauna takes users up to about 2 m (6 ft 5 in) tall; rated user weight is 120 kg on the Standard and 180 kg on the Deluxe. The client sits with their head outside the sauna and the neck opening covered by a towel. That is the whole safety principle of the design: they are not breathing the ozone and steam mixture, and what ozone reaches them reaches them at the skin.

Choosing an ozone level

At full output the generator produces 500 mg/h. Each of the ten display levels steps that output by 10 per cent, and the oxygen feed stays constant at 2 litres per minute. At that feed the ozone concentration across the whole air volume inside the sauna is about 47 ppm, fluctuating with the size and build of the person inside, because they displace part of that volume.

Our guidance is to build up the number of sessions first and only then raise the ozone level, gradually. Where a client sits in that range is a decision for the practitioner supervising them, who should hold a medical history. Keep a record of the level per client, and change one variable at a time so a reaction can be traced to a cause. If a client develops a rash or any other skin reaction, stop and refer them to their doctor before resuming.

After the session

The generator stops producing ozone five minutes before the session ends, and ozone’s half-life in the hot, steam-filled sauna is roughly 10 to 20 minutes, so there is little residue by the time the doors open. Switch off in order, then help the client out. Watch their feet: kicked door rubbers are the usual cause of heavy steam escape next session, and they push back into place without glue. Keep the client warm and let them rest for about 20 minutes.

Then wipe the sauna down, clear the water under the footrest, refit a full water bottle and reset the towels. Turnaround runs about 15 minutes in practice — 5 minutes for the client to get out and dress, 5 minutes to wipe down and reset, 5 minutes for the next client to undress and get in. The sauna is built to run back-to-back sessions.

Cleaning

Wipe with a clean towel after every use. Once a week, or more often if the sauna is busy, clean it with soap, warm water and a soft cloth, concentrating on the seat, doors and floor, then run the ozone for 15 minutes with no one inside to clear the chemical trace the soap leaves.

Every model also has disinfection options, always run with no one inside the sauna. On the Red Light, an automatic ozone disinfection cycle starts with one tap on the screen and runs with no one inside the sauna, between sessions or whenever time allows; the sauna shows a warning for the cycle. Ozone is a recognised disinfectant. Treat it as a feature of the sauna rather than a substitute for cleaning: sweat and skin oils on the surfaces consume ozone. Meet whatever your local health authority requires for shared body-contact equipment. Keep abrasives, bleach and solvent cleaners away unless we confirm them in writing, and spray onto the cloth, not into the sauna.

Checking that ozone is still being produced

Use the glove test. With the concentrator running and the ozone on, hold a latex glove in front of the ozone outlet for a few seconds; ozone oxidises latex and a hole appears. It is a yes-or-no check, not a measurement.

Do not test by smelling at the outlet. Ozone is toxic to the lungs, people who work around it become desensitised to the odour, and a smell test is therefore neither safe nor reliable.

If there genuinely is no ozone, the likely causes are a pinched, blocked or disconnected pipe, a concentrator that is off or set wrongly, or the ozone pipe fitting inside the sauna screwed on too tightly.

Moving it, and servicing it

Four lockable castors hold the sauna in place and let you roll it. Do not tilt it on its sides or backwards when moving or carrying it. Regular scheduled servicing is not required when the unit is well maintained and kept clean. For planning, average lifecycles are more than 3,500 hours for the ozone generator, 15,000 hours for the oxygen concentrator and 30,000 hours for the LEDs on the Red Light model.

The rhythm

Daily: full water bottle, no spills, concentrator on first, glove test at the ozone outlet before the first session, preheat, wipe down and clear the footrest water between clients, shut down in order.

Weekly: soap and warm water clean, 15 minutes of ozone, inspect the oxygen tube.

Monthly: check the ozone inlet fitting, check the castors roll and lock, check the concentrator’s air intake and filters.

Write it down. A dated check sheet beside the sauna makes the routine survive staff changes, and it is the first thing worth having when you call us.