Posted 26 February 2020 by
Lizzie LeighKLAFS at Guncast is set to deliver a range of innovative sauna solutions for the home in 2020; can you tell us more?
Established in Germany in 1928, KLAFS is widely regarded as a world-leader in wellbeing facilities, thanks to our innovative take on traditional saunas. We have partnered with luxury spa and swimming pool specialist Guncast to deliver the expertise and quality products here in the UK.
We offer the full range of specialist spa facilities, each crafted to the customers’ exacting requirements. Not only do we design and build a wide range of saunas, but also steam baths, caldariums, tepidariums, hamams, mud baths, ice lounges, snow cabins, and more!
Has an increased focus on health and wellness contributed to the popularity of saunas in recent years? Why is 2020 the right time to launch these products for people to install in their own homes?
The wellness trend has grown immensely over the past few years, with the industry as a whole forecast to be worth an incredible £20billion by 2021 – but we’re just at the tip of the iceberg. While wellness was once reserved for the very best luxury hotels, more and more people are becoming aware of the important benefits of self-care and are increasingly looking to bring wellness components into their homes, for both ease of access and regular use.
Over the past few years particularly, people have become more aware that it is never too early to invest in a healthier lifestyle. We’ve seen the demand for home saunas and spas grow at a rapid pace and we’ve adapted and broadened our product range accordingly.
Can you tell us about some of the health benefits associated with regular saunas?
The stabilising health benefits of regular sauna use are well documented, protecting our bodies against all the stresses of modern life. When you enter a hot sauna cabin, the temperature of your skin, muscles and core rises, which results in increased blood flow, flushing out the tissues it reaches – liberating harmful substances and detoxifying your body. The heat not only increases your blood flow but also relaxes the muscles. Tense muscles receive a poorer supply of blood and nutrients, so relaxing them speeds up muscular recovery – which is why it’s so beneficial for those who partake in sports or regular exercise.
For customers looking to fully reap the benefits of home wellness, the thermal journey must be complete and repeated. For instance, a sauna session should be followed by a rapid cooling phase (having a cold shower or rubbing flake ice on the skin from an ice fountain) and a relaxing period (on a heated lounger preferably). Once relaxed, the cycle can be started again.
Some of your saunas can be pre-set with ‘moods’, how does this work?
We’re always working on and with new technology, to give our users the ultimate experience. A new generation of control panels enables clients to interact with the sauna remotely via an app, so the sauna is at the optimum temperature, ready to climb into when they arrive back home. Once inside the sauna, they are able to set the parameters via voice control and can adjust the sauna experience to align with moods and needs – whether that be via light, music, temperature, or humidity. This means that saunas can be entirely personalised, providing ultimate relaxation for clients. At KLAFS, we have made ‘moods’ that make it even easier for our customers to pre-set programmes to their needs, such as the “train your immune system” mood.
How complex is the installation, does the purchaser require a large space for the sauna to be fitted?
Installation doesn’t need to be complex at all. Many homeowners assume they need a very large room to house a sauna cabin, which is no longer the case. Products are becoming more innovative and streamlined – the sauna S1 range has been designed to meet the growing demand for space saving solutions – both the automatic and manual saunas can retract to the size of an ordinary bedroom wardrobe. For those on tighter budgets, our KLAFS EASY Sauna is a versatile DIY Sauna that can be quickly and easily assembled with a tool bag and two pairs of hands. It comes in 34 sizes, nine of which can simply be plugged into a standard 230V socket – making it ideal for compact, urban spaces. Best of all, the S1 and EASY saunas are stand alone, rather than being wired into a space, so owners can take them with them when they move home. KLAFS at Guncast offers a full design consultancy and installation service to help our clients in their wellness journey.
Is maintaining a sauna at home labour intensive and/or expensive?
Our saunas require a three-phase supply, we can however adapt most of them to run on single-phase supply as many houses in the UK are only equipped with single phase electricity supply. Keeping running costs to a minimum, our new generation of sauna heaters are so efficient that our cabins can be brought up to temperature very quickly, and the effective insulation means that the cabin stays warm for longer. Ensuring longevity, our saunas are extremely reliable and require little or no maintenance post installation.
What other wellbeing trends do you foresee being introduced to consumers in the next few years?
The two big trends that we’ve slowly seen emerging are multifunctionality and individualisation. More and more customers are requesting that their sauna cabins must now provide dual functionality - for instance, customers ask for saunas to be turned into a sanarium, offering the bather five different climates, each with different temperature and humidity settings. We’ve also had customers ask us to integrate a micro salt diffuser into their sauna, or to equip the cabin with infrared seats. Personalised spas are becoming the norm, with cabins that can fit into any living space and suit our customers’ own styles.
And finally, what other products are you looking to develop at KLAFS at Guncast?
We are always developing new products, researching the market and listening to what consumers want. Sustainability and health have always been key drivers in the way we design and engineer our solutions. For instance, we have conducted many health studies in partnership with medical institutes to fully understand the health benefits that wellness solutions can deliver. We continue to develop more and more energy saving products. There is always an exciting pipeline - watch this space!
Discover more about KLAFS and Guncast.