Can You Take Your Phone in a Sauna?

Saunas are wonderful places of relaxation, calming, and intense heat. When taking a sauna bath, the temperature in the room could get over 190′ F, which is very high! This heat is typically an extremely dry heat. But as most traditional sauna bathers know, the steam is where the magic happens. In many saunas, the humidity levels can change very quickly.

Can you take your phone in a sauna? The answer is usually no, you can’t take your phone in a sauna. But it depends on the type of sauna, the type of phone, and how you’re using it.

In this article, we’ll look at the potential risks of harm to your phone from taking it in the sauna. You should also consider consider the etiquette of using a phone in the sauna!

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Spending Time in the Sauna

Do you find that you get bored and restless while sitting in the sauna without mental stimulation? Do you wish you could spend this time doing something more productive?

Do you constantly feel the urge to use your cell phone to reply to emails and text messages? Even just scrolling through social media while you sit there seems like a good idea.

I get it. I feel it too, often. That pull can be irresistible.

But you should try to use your sauna time as “me” time. Focus on yourself, use the sauna time to lay down and meditate, restore yourself, enjoy the scenery, the smell of the wood, the powerful heat, the sensations on your body.

You will get so much more out of your sauna time by letting go of the pull of technology.

In researching how saunas relate to workout and recovery, it became clear that one of the biggest benefits to being in a sauna is that it is calming, restorative, and soothing. The sauna can be a quiet place for contemplation, or it can be a social place for chatting and bonding. But if your head is in your phone, you won’t be getting any of those benefits.

And you’ll almost certainly be damaging your phone.

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Can You Take Your Phone in a Sauna?

While some people do take their phones to the sauna, in our opinion it’s not a smart decision on their part. Here, we will explain why taking your phone to the sauna is a bad idea.

Temperature and Humidity

First of all, the high temperatures and changing humidity conditions inside a sauna are hard on almost all consumer electronic devices, including all common cell phones.

The moisture in the air of a sauna room can cause irreparable damage to your device if your phone isn’t equipped to deal with the fluctuations.

Sweat and Phone Use

A good sauna will get you to sweat a river of sweat. You’ll be dripping, dripping, dripping in sweat after a few minutes in a good quality sauna. All the sweat dripping down your arms will be directed right to your phone, which can’t be good.

Yes, many phones are water-resistant, but they probably weren’t tested in a sauna environment for water resistance!

Germ Propagation

If you take your phone into a sauna, you’ll be exposing any sweating people in the area to the germs on your phone. That’s right, on your phone.

Studies have found that phones are perhaps the most germ-infested items we carry. As Time Magazine Put it, our phones are 10x as dirty as our toilet seats.

You’re more likely to expose those around you to germs if your phone is in an area where they are sweating a lot.

Phone Contamination

It can go the other way, too!

Even if you have a waterproof cell phone, taking your phone into the sauna will expose it to many germs. Let’s not forget that people sweat excessively in a sauna room. This leaves a lot of germs and bacteria behind. Taking your phone in such a place will result in those germs landing on your phone.

After the sauna session, you will likely take a shower to clean yourself. But you’re not going to wash your cell phone off! You probably won’t even wipe it down with a wet wipe.

Disturbing Noise

If you’re in a home sauna like a barrel sauna, home infrared sauna, or similar, you won’t be bothering anyone if you talk. But if you’re in a public sauna, no one is going to want to listen to you talk away on your phone while they try to relax at the same time!

You should not disturb others if they’re trying to chill in the heat.

If you’re answering calls or watching noisy videos inside the sauna, other people will not be okay with that. Try to be considerate and step out if you need to make an important call.

Oh, and remember to close the door as quickly as possible to avoid excess heat loss.

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Keep the Environment Peaceful

A sauna is a place where people come to relax. It is a place where people unwind and let stresses go. So, don’t disturb others while they’re relaxing, and don’t make a lot of noise when you’re sitting in a sauna.

And if you’re in a public sauna, no one wants to worry that you’re taking their picture while you’re using your phone in the sauna.

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Operating Temperatures of Common Cell Phones

Let’s look at the recommended operating temperatures of a few common cell phones.

iPhone in Sauna

iPhones have a recommended maximum usage temperature of 85’F and a maximum operating temperature of 113’F. This means that if the phone shouldn’t get above 85′ F while you’re using it, and it shouldn’t get above 113’F while on, but not in use. There is a temperature warning system that will alert you if you get over that temperature.

Can you bring your iPhone in an infrared sauna? Even those are a bit too high temp for your phone.

Samsung Galaxy in Sauna

The Galaxy phones are a little more high-temperature friendly. The battery stops charging at 113′ F, and the phone will emergency shut off at 185’F. This is nearly the temperature of many saunas.

But you don’t want your phone to emergency shut down.

Google Pixel in Sauna

The Pixel is designed to work in temperatures up to 95′ F. It can be left powered on but not in use in temperatures up to 113′ F, similar to the iPhone.

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Sauna Operating Temperatures

Now let’s look at the operating temperatures of a few common types of saunas.

Charcoal/Wood Saunas

These saunas are perhaps the most traditional of all, and they run at the highest temperatures. These saunas use wood or charcoal stoves to heat up the room. Water is poured on hot sauna rocks for humidity.

These saunas can get up to, and occasionally over, 200′ F.

Electric Stove Saunas

A sauna with an electric sauna heater is heated by electricity. These heaters max out at around 190’F. Humidity is added by pouring water over sauna stones.

Infrared Saunas

Infrared saunas use a different style of heating than electric saunas, though both use electricity. Infrared saunas use radiant heat, which heats the body directly, as opposed to heating the air in the room. These saunas are more and more popular as home saunas, and even portable saunas.

Some infrared saunas use sauna rocks to supply steam, though many of these systems don’t work with sauna rocks and steam.

Infrared saunas run at a much lower temperature than traditional saunas, landing at around 110′ F – 140′ F.

Dry Saunas and Phones

Wood, electric, and infrared saunas are often referred to as dry saunas. They warm with a dry heat, and moisture is only generated through pouring water on lava rocks.

Steam rooms, on the other hand, are much more humid. They work in a fundamentally different way. Phones will have more difficulty in steam rooms than in dry saunas.

Home Steam Saunas

Home steam saunas operate at a temperature of about 130′ F. These are almost always in the portable tent format, and are not freestanding structures. Due to this design, your hands remain outside the unit when you’re using it. So your phone wouldn’t actually be exposed to those temperatures, even though the rest of your body would.

Shower Saunas are usually built-in or free-standing shower units with steam functionality. These units can expel steam into the enclosure, and create a very moist, steamy environment. Phones are best kept out of these areas.

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Humidity, Sauna Style, and Phone Use

As the sauna temperature information and the recommended phone temperature information shows, it is a very bad idea to bring a phone into a wood-fired or electric heated sauna. These saunas get hotter than the hottest recommended temperatures of common cellphones. And the significant humidity fluctuations can’t be good for electronics.

They may do some damage to your phone, or constantly cause it to trigger emergency shut down.

Infrared saunas, however, are slightly different. They operate at a lower temperature, and are more compatible with the recommended operating temperatures of most phones. They also often don’t have a steam functionality, so the humidity often stays dry the whole time.

You may be able to get away with light cell phone use in an infrared sauna, but as mentioned above, I strongly discourage you from using it in the sauna.

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Conclusion

In many saunas, you’ll almost certainly cause damage to your phone, or cause it to emergency shut down, if you take it inside. So why bother? If you need to make a call, do so before or after you use the sauna. Spend your time in the heat relaxing, sweating, and focusing on yourself and your loved ones.

Not on your Instagram feed!