When shopping for an infrared sauna, heaters should be the first thing to look at. Mainly there are two types of heaters, ceramic and carbon fiber.
Ceramic Heaters
Generally speaking, ceramic heaters are a metallic coil inside a ceramic tube (most likely covered with another material such as Incoloy). The ceramic tube emits infrared waves when heated by the metallic coil. Because of the small heating surface area, the ceramic heaters tend to get very hot (above 380° F) in order to heat the entier sauna room. This can create hot spots near the heaters and cold spots away from the heater.
Carbon Fiber Heaters
Carbon fiber heaters were recently developed as a solution for ceramic heaters issues. Carbon fiber heaters are thin and have a large surface area which heats at a lower temperature. Carbon fiber heaters are created by impregnating carbon ink (carbon in nanometer form) into a fiber glass sheet, which is sealed between two fiber glass sheets to eliminate any gases. The heaters do not use any glues or plastics.
PureCarbon are commercial grade carbon fiber heaters, and they are built to work continuously for a long period of time (between eight to ten hours) with a lifetime expectancy of 100,000 hours. Regular heaters -carbon or ceramic- must be turned off after 90 minutes of use for at least an hour, which make them unsuitable for commercial use.
Carbon Fiber vs. Ceramic Heaters Comparison
| Feature |
PureCarbon |
Carbon Fiber |
Ceramic |
| Heating Surface Area |
up to 960 square inches
 |
up to 620 square inches
 |
12 to 56 square inch
 |
| Lifetime Expectancy |
100,000 hours |
20,000 hours |
5,000 hours |
| Cold Spots |
No |
No |
Yes |
| Commercially Tested |
Yes |
No |
No |
| Emissivity Rate |
96% |
94% |
85% - 94% (rate will drop as heater get hotter) |
| Wavelength Range |
6-14 micorns |
4-22 micorns |
3-18 microns |
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