If you have been looking at a SaunaSpace® Hearth panel from inside the EU, the hardware is only part of the bill. The panel ships from Columbia, Missouri, and a European buyer pays import VAT and customs duty on top of the listed price. This page compares the Hearth with our own incandescent near infrared panel, which is built and shipped inside the EU.
We are not affiliated with SaunaSpace® in any way. All figures below were taken from their own store on 9 October 2026 and may change.
What the two have in common
Both are incandescent near infrared panels, not LED devices. Both use clear heat lamps rather than diodes, so both give you near infrared light and radiant warmth from the same source. Both are designed to turn a small space — a corner, a shower, a tent — into a sauna without building a cabin. If you have decided that incandescent is what you want, you are choosing between two versions of the same idea.
Side by side: four-bulb panels
We compare our panel with the Hearth Quartet, because that is the model with the same bulb count and the same total power. Comparing it with the three-bulb Trio would not be a fair match.
| Red Light Sauna panel | SaunaSpace® Hearth Quartet | |
|---|---|---|
| Panel price | 634 € with bulbs | $1,995 (EURO adapter) |
| Shipping | 20–80 € within the EU | about $350 to Europe |
| Import duty and VAT | none — ships inside the EU | about $550 |
| What you actually pay | 654–714 € | about $2,900 |
| Bulbs | 4 × 250 W, peak 850 nm | 4 bulbs |
| Total power | 1000 W | 1000 W |
| Dimensions | 65 × 40 × 21 cm | 60.3 × 59.7 × 22.9 cm |
| Weight | 8 kg with bulbs | 5.2 kg |
| Irradiance | 70 mW/cm² at 40 cm | not published |
| Electric field | 0 V/m at 40 cm, grounded shield | shielded design |
| Built in | European Union | United States |
| Ships from | EU, no customs clearance within Europe | United States |
| Plug | CEE 7/7, 240 V, ready to use | EURO adapter option |
| Warranty | 2 years | not stated on the product page |
| Returns | 30 days, no reason needed | 100-day home trial |
| Running cost | about 0.15 € per hour | not published |
What importing from the US adds
The listed US price is not the landed price. On top of the $1,995 panel you pay freight from the United States, then import VAT at your national rate, customs duty where it applies, and a clearance fee from the carrier. In practice that has worked out at roughly $350 for shipping and around $550 in duties and taxes, which puts a Hearth Quartet on a European doorstep at about $2,900 — close to €2,590 at the European Central Bank reference rate of 1.1186 USD to the euro on 8 October 2026.
Treat those two figures as estimates, not a quote. Freight depends on the carrier and the destination, and duty and VAT are set by your own customs authority, not by either seller — VAT alone ranges from 17 % to 27 % across the EU. Our panel ships inside the EU, so none of it applies: you pay the panel plus a flat 20 to 80 € shipping depending on country, and nothing arrives later.
The same goes for anything that happens later. A warranty claim, a return or a replacement bulb crosses the Atlantic in both directions if you bought from the US. Ours does not.
Where SaunaSpace is the better choice
We would rather you buy the right thing than buy from us. SaunaSpace has been building these panels since 2013 and has a deeper catalogue than we do, including complete cabin systems and EMF-shielded tents. Their 100-day home trial is far more generous than our 30 days. Their Quartet is lighter than our panel, at 5.2 kg against our 8 kg, which matters if you move it often. And if you want their specific red-filtered bulbs or a Faraday-shielded enclosure, we do not offer an equivalent.
Where we think we win
Same bulb count, same 1000 W, no import paperwork, a plug that already fits your wall, and a two-year warranty handled inside the EU. On list price alone we are around a third of the Hearth Quartet. Once shipping and import charges are counted, a delivered panel costs you roughly a quarter of what the imported one does. We publish our irradiance and field measurements because you should be able to check them rather than take our word for it.
If that is the trade you want, the panel is here: Incandescent near infrared sauna panel. If you are still deciding what kind of device you need at all, start with our comparison of NIR, FAR and LED.
SaunaSpace®, Hearth® and FireLight® are trademarks of their respective owner. This comparison is published for information only and reflects publicly listed prices and specifications on 9 October 2026.