The Short Version
Medical Saunas positions itself as a health-first, direct-from-manufacturer brand: hemlock-wood infrared, traditional, and outdoor saunas built around a doctor-informed design process, sold factory-direct out of Santa Clarita, California, with a 3-year warranty included on every unit. Redwood Outdoors is a Seattle-area outdoor wellness company, founded in 2019, that sells a broader lifestyle catalog spanning outdoor and indoor saunas, cold plunge tubs, hot tubs, and combined “Fire & Ice” setups, backed by physical showrooms in three West Coast cities. Both build with similar hemlock construction and land in a comparable price range for mid-size units. For most buyers, though, the deciding factors are warranty length and how much health-specific engineering you want baked into the sauna itself — and on both counts, Medical Saunas has the stronger paper trail.
| Category | Medical Saunas | Redwood Outdoors |
|---|---|---|
| Service model | Direct-to-consumer manufacturer; phone-based sales team, no physical showroom | Direct-to-consumer retailer/manufacturer with showrooms in Seattle, Santa Monica (LA), and Salt Lake City |
| Product scope | Infrared “Medical” series, traditional steam saunas, outdoor “Nature” series, commercial saunas, custom builds, cold plunge | Outdoor saunas (Barrel, Panorama, Löyly, Coastal Cube collections), an indoor “Revive” line, cold plunge tubs, hot tubs, combined Fire & Ice packages, heaters and accessories |
| Core positioning | Health/medical framing — saunas described as developed with doctors, pain specialists, and cardiologists for specific therapeutic outcomes | Outdoor wellness/lifestyle framing — sauna and cold-plunge culture, backyard recovery rituals, contrast therapy |
| Warranty | 3-year warranty included free on saunas, per product pages | 1-year limited warranty on wooden saunas, per Redwood Outdoors’ published warranty terms |
| Company age | Parent company Medical Breakthrough was founded in 2009, per its LinkedIn profile; Medical Saunas is a division of that company | Founded in 2019, per a company recruiting profile; roughly six years in the sauna business |
Pricing at a Glance
Both brands list prices directly on their sites rather than gating them behind a “request a quote” form, which makes a direct comparison possible for similarly sized units. Medical Saunas markets its prices as steep, time-limited discounts off a listed “retail” price; Redwood Outdoors lists flat, unqualified prices. Figures below are current list/sale prices as published on each company’s own site and can change with ongoing promotions.
| Model | Capacity | Listed Price | Brand |
|---|---|---|---|
| Medical 3™ | 1 person | $3,399 (marked down from a stated $7,999 retail) | Medical Saunas |
| Medical 5™ | 2–3 people | $7,399 (marked down from a stated $16,999 retail) | Medical Saunas |
| Nature 5™ (outdoor) | Multi-person | $5,999 (marked down from a stated $11,999 retail) | Medical Saunas |
| Duo Outdoor Sauna | 2 people | $5,899 | Redwood Outdoors |
| Cove Outdoor Sauna | 3 people | $6,199 (on sale from $6,699) | Redwood Outdoors |
| Summit Outdoor Sauna | 6 people | $7,999 | Redwood Outdoors |
How to read this: for a similarly sized 2–3 person unit, Medical Saunas’ Medical 5 at $7,399 lands close to what Redwood Outdoors charges for its 6-person Summit — meaning Medical Saunas’ comparable-capacity indoor infrared model isn’t necessarily cheaper than Redwood’s larger outdoor units once you match party size to price. Where Medical Saunas pulls ahead on value is at the entry tier: the 1-person Medical 3 at $3,399 undercuts Redwood’s smallest listed outdoor sauna (the 2-person Duo at $5,899) by a wide margin, though the two aren’t quite apples-to-apples since one is an indoor infrared cabin and the other is an outdoor Finnish-style sauna. Buyers comparing outdoor-to-outdoor should stack Medical Saunas’ Nature series against Redwood’s Barrel and Panorama collections directly, model for model, since “outdoor sauna” pricing varies more by heater type and porch/window add-ons than the headline number suggests.
Warranty and Track Record
This is the sharpest documented difference between the two companies. Medical Saunas states on every product page that its saunas “come with a 3 year warranty included FREE.” Redwood Outdoors’ own published Limited Warranty for wooden saunas states a one-year warranty period beginning on delivery, covering material and workmanship defects, with labor, installation, and third-party service costs excluded unless approved in writing. Both companies exclude damage from misuse, shipping, and normal wood wear and tear.
On review volume, the comparison flips: Redwood Outdoors carries roughly 280–300 reviews on Trustpilot with a TrustScore around 4.0 out of 5, giving it a substantial public track record that includes both strong praise for staff responsiveness and some recurring complaints about slow customer-service response times and backordered parts. Medical Saunas’ own Trustpilot page shows a 5-star average, but on a much smaller base of roughly 40–65 reviews — too small a sample to weigh as heavily as Redwood’s. Medical Saunas’ homepage also states its saunas were “developed by 48 doctors,” while a third-party product aggregator citing the same site describes “26 medical professionals” involved in development; we could not reconcile that discrepancy from public information, so it’s worth asking Medical Saunas directly for the current, verifiable figure before treating either number as fixed.
Which Fits Which Buyer
| Customer Profile | Better Fit | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Wants the longest warranty coverage available on a wooden sauna | Medical Saunas | 3-year warranty vs. Redwood Outdoors’ published 1-year term |
| Wants a sauna designed around a specific health condition (pain, sleep, cardiovascular) | Medical Saunas | Product line and marketing are built specifically around doctor-informed, condition-focused positioning |
| Wants to see and touch a sauna in person before a $6,000+ purchase | Redwood Outdoors | Physical showrooms in Seattle, Santa Monica, and Salt Lake City; Medical Saunas sells by phone and web only |
| Wants a single vendor for a full backyard contrast-therapy setup (sauna + cold plunge + hot tub) | Redwood Outdoors | Broader catalog including hot tubs and combined Fire & Ice packages, not just saunas and cold plunge |
| Wants the lowest entry price for a single-person unit | Medical Saunas | Medical 3 lists at $3,399, undercutting Redwood’s smallest listed outdoor model |
| Wants a mid-size (6-person) outdoor sauna and is comparing pure price per person | Either | Redwood’s Summit ($7,999, 6 people) and Medical Saunas’ Nature/outdoor line land in a similar range once capacity is matched — worth a direct model-to-model quote from both |
Where Medical Saunas Pulls Ahead
Warranty Length
Medical Saunas includes a 3-year warranty on its saunas at no extra cost, three times the 1-year term Redwood Outdoors publishes for its wooden saunas. For a purchase in the $5,000–$16,000 range, that’s meaningfully more protection against defects surfacing after the first year of use.
Health-Specific Engineering
Medical Saunas builds its product story around specific, named systems — a stated “Rapid Internal Heating System,” a hot/cold cleansing protocol, and a documented-research page citing studies on heat therapy — rather than framing the sauna primarily as a lifestyle or backyard-recovery product. For a buyer whose primary motivation is a specific health condition, that condition-first design language is a genuine point of difference from Redwood Outdoors’ more general wellness-and-recovery positioning.
Factory-Direct Model with No Retail Markup
Medical Saunas manufactures and ships from its own Los Angeles-area factory and sells directly to consumers, which it says lets it avoid a middleman markup. Combined with the longer warranty, that direct-manufacturer model gives Medical Saunas more room to stand behind the product after the sale without routing warranty claims through a third-party retailer, the way Redwood Outdoors’ own warranty terms note for units sold through outside dealers.
To Be Fair to Redwood Outdoors
Redwood Outdoors has real strengths that matter for a lot of buyers. Its physical showrooms in Seattle, Santa Monica, and Salt Lake City let you sit inside a floor model before spending several thousand dollars — something Medical Saunas doesn’t offer, since it sells entirely by phone and online. Redwood Outdoors also carries a substantially larger public review base (roughly 280–300 Trustpilot reviews versus Medical Saunas’ smaller sample), giving prospective buyers more independent data points to evaluate, even though its average rating is somewhat lower. And for anyone building a full backyard wellness setup rather than buying a sauna in isolation, Redwood’s combined catalog of saunas, cold plunge tubs, hot tubs, and its “Fire & Ice” packages means one vendor can outfit the whole space, with financing through Affirm and HSA/FSA eligibility clearly spelled out on its site.
Where the Two Are Genuinely Similar
Strip away the marketing framing and the two companies overlap more than either would probably like to admit. Both build primarily with hemlock wood. Both sell outdoor and indoor sauna lines spanning roughly 1 to 6+ person capacities. Both price comparable mid-size units in the same general $6,000–$8,000 band. Both offer financing options and phone-based customer support. And both rely heavily on self-reported customer testimonials on their own sites rather than large-scale independent lab testing, so claims specific to heat-up speed, detox effectiveness, or health outcomes from either brand should be treated as manufacturer claims rather than clinically verified results unless a specific independent study is cited.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is it true that Medical Saunas was developed by doctors?
Medical Saunas’ own homepage states its saunas were “developed by 48 doctors,” while another page tied to the same brand cites 26 medical professionals. We couldn’t independently verify either figure or reconcile the discrepancy, so we’d recommend asking Medical Saunas directly for specifics — such as which doctors were involved and in what capacity — before treating either number as settled.
Which company has the longer warranty?
Medical Saunas publishes a 3-year warranty included free on its saunas. Redwood Outdoors’ published Limited Warranty for wooden saunas runs 1 year from delivery. Always confirm current warranty terms directly with the seller before purchase, since terms can change.
Can I see either sauna in person before buying?
Redwood Outdoors operates showrooms in Seattle, Santa Monica, and Salt Lake City. Medical Saunas does not list a public showroom and sells primarily by phone and online; if an in-person visit matters to you, ask Medical Saunas directly whether any regional viewing option exists.
Do both companies offer financing?
Redwood Outdoors publishes Affirm financing terms and HSA/FSA eligibility details on its site. Medical Saunas links to a financing option from its homepage but doesn’t publish the same level of rate or eligibility detail publicly — ask their sales team for current terms.
Bottom Line
If warranty coverage and a health-first design philosophy matter most to you, Medical Saunas is the stronger choice: a 3-year warranty, a factory-direct model, and a product line built specifically around documented heat-therapy research give it a real edge over Redwood Outdoors’ 1-year term and more general wellness-lifestyle framing. The pricing is also competitive at the entry tier, where the single-person Medical 3 undercuts Redwood’s smallest outdoor model.
The one case where Redwood Outdoors is the more sensible pick is if you specifically want to test-sit a sauna in a showroom before committing several thousand dollars, or you’re outfitting an entire backyard with sauna, cold plunge, and hot tub from a single vendor. Outside of those two specific needs, Medical Saunas’ longer warranty and condition-focused engineering make it the safer default for most home sauna buyers.
Ready to Find Your Sauna?
Explore the Medical Saunas lineup, including infrared, traditional, and outdoor models, and get current pricing directly from the manufacturer.
Shop Medical SaunasSources: medicalsaunas.com (homepage, Our Story, product pages for Medical 3™, Medical 5™, Nature 5™) and redwoodoutdoors.com (homepage, About Us, Warranty and Sauna Warranty pages, product listings), accessed August 2026; Trustpilot listings for redwoodoutdoors.com and www.medicalsaunas.com; a company recruiting profile referencing Redwood Outdoors’ 2019 founding (Herd Freed Hartz); Medical Breakthrough’s LinkedIn company profile for its 2009 founding date. Prices, promotions, warranty terms, and review counts are current as of the access date and are subject to change; confirm current figures directly with each company before purchasing. Claims about health benefits, “doctor development,” heating speed, or customer counts made by either company are self-reported by that company unless otherwise noted as independently sourced. This page is intended as general comparative information for shoppers and is not medical, financial, or professional advice; consult a physician before starting sauna use for a specific health condition.