For centuries, people have relaxed in saunas, but a modern question has emerged in the last two decades: Is it safe to take your phone inside? Being that Finland is both the populariser of the modern sauna through the wood-burning sauna we see today as well as the Nokia cell phone revolution of yesteryear. It’s unfortunate that the two inventions don’t go together especially well.
Taking a phone into a sauna brings up a host of questions. Beyond whether your device can withstand the heat, there’s also the question of etiquette, whether it’s appropriate or considerate to have your phone in such a shared, relaxing space. A phone in a sauna faces both heat risks and social considerations. Depending on your sauna preferences and situation, there is likely a very specific answer to fit you. Starting from the top and working down to specific examples, let’s explore all there is to know about cell phones and saunas.
Can You Take Your Phone Into a Sauna? Risks, Safety Tips & Etiquette
Can you take your phone into a sauna? While certainly there isn’t a magnetic force keeping you from bringing your phone into a sauna, the question here is whether or not your phone can survive a sauna trip. Saunas are exceptionally hot, and that heat has the potential to damage most cell phones with plastic casings or even the plastic lining of a SIM card. With smartphones becoming increasingly waterproof, they’re also becoming more heat-resistant. For instance, the latest Google Pixel can endure temperatures above 100°C — the very temperature at which water boils.
However, even if your phone itself advertises top-grade heat resistance, it’s more than likely that your SIM card is susceptible to real and irreversible damage during an extended sauna trip. So when asking the direct question of whether or not your phone can survive a sauna, the answer is likely yes. But the chance of you getting a signal afterward is a bit lower. The higher up you sit in the public sauna, the more likely it is that your phone will be damaged; this is because, especially in traditional saunas with different height benches, saunas are designed to get hotter closer to the roof.
By all means, bringing your phone into a sauna is a real gamble. Especially if you’re not dealing with something urgent, it may be smart to keep your phone outside the sauna. Sauna safety should always come first, including protecting your devices from heat damage. When it comes to sauna wellness, it's often better to focus on relaxation rather than worrying about your phone.
Why You Should Not Bring a Phone/iPhone Into a Steam Room
Taking your phone or iPhone into a steam room might feel handy for staying on top of messages or notifications, but it can quickly cause major problems. Here are the main reasons why you should leave your iPhone outside the steam room:
1. Excess Moisture Can Damage Your iPhone
Steam rooms are extremely humid environments, and the condensation can easily affect your iPhone’s internal components. Even though modern iPhones have water resistance ratings, prolonged exposure to steam and excessive moisture can still cause damage. Excess moisture in the air can infiltrate your phone’s ports, speakers, and buttons, potentially causing corrosion and impairing its functionality.
2. Risk of Overheating
Although iPhones are designed to operate in a range of temperatures, the extreme heat in a steam room can still pose a risk. Exposure to both intense heat and humidity can make your iPhone overheat, potentially affecting its performance or causing lasting damage. iPhones are sensitive to temperature fluctuations. In a steam room, these fluctuations could be drastic enough to cause harm.
3. Shortened Battery Life
Using your iPhone in a steam room can also shorten its battery life. Prolonged exposure to high temperatures can speed up battery drain and weaken its long-term charging ability. If you plan to use your phone for extended periods while in a steam room, it’s best to leave it outside to avoid unnecessary battery wear and tear.
5. Distraction from Relaxation
The purpose of a steam room is to relax, unwind, and detox. Constantly checking your iPhone in the steam room not only distracts you from this experience but also prevents you from fully disconnecting and de-stressing. Instead of engaging in your phone, consider using this time for a more mindful experience. Focus on your breathing, the warmth of the steam, or connecting with others around you. It’s the ideal environment to take a break from the digital world.
6. Potential for Steam Room to Affect Your iPhone’s Functionality
Over time, exposure to the steam room environment can affect the functionality of your iPhone. The moisture can get into the microphone and speaker areas, causing muffled sounds, or worse, rust. If your iPhone’s screen gets too humid, it may develop fogging or even water damage, which could void your warranty.
Sauna Etiquette: Should You Use Your Phone?
There are several places and styles of saunas where bringing your phone could be seen as overtly rude. Just as well, there are other facilities that may treat phone use like an everyday thing. In general, sauna etiquette is important to maintain a respectful and peaceful environment.
Bringing Your Phone into a Public Sauna
Usually, phones are not allowed in public saunas. The most prevalent reason why phones aren’t allowed in these areas is that public saunas very often also have public shower facilities nearby. If you try to bring your iPhone in a sauna that shares space with changing and showering areas, that could make the other occupants extremely uncomfortable. Think about how you would feel if someone had a handheld camera nearby if you were changing or showering. Even if a person isn’t using the camera, it can be very unnerving to know that someone has a pocket-sized camera in hand while they are in compromising positions.
Another key reason why phones are generally not allowed in public saunas is that they can ruin other people’s sauna experience. Many people enjoy the sauna as a space for quiet reflection. Even if people are politely chatting, the sauna is an enclosed environment for relaxation. Taking a phone call or hearing the buzz of an iPhone in the sauna could immediately take someone out of their relaxation. If you’re in a shared space, it’s important to consider the comfort and experience of those around you. Let’s admit it: phones can be very distracting, so you are probably going to damage your own experience all the while.
Before making your own call about whether or not to bring your cell phone into a public sauna, be certain to ask your spa or club staff directly. Like anything else, it is up to the club or spa officials to determine whether or not phones are permitted in their saunas.
Bringing Your Phone into a Private Sauna
When using a private sauna, it’s generally up to the owner of the sauna whether or not phones are allowed. This is a basic rule that actually goes back quite far in sauna history. While not originating with cell phones, it is usually up to the owner of the sauna to make the biggest decision about the soak. This being when to splash the rocks over the wood stove. Either the owner of the sauna or someone they nominate is in charge of bucket duty. As an extension of that base rule, there is probably someone who can make the final call about cell phones in the sauna.
The rule here, like always, is to just ask. The worst thing you could do in a private sauna is to assume that phones are allowed and bring one in without consulting your group ahead of time. You run the risk of not only insulting the sauna proprietor but making yourself look rude in the process. When it comes to sauna etiquette, it’s always best to respect the preferences of the owner or the group to maintain a harmonious atmosphere.
Bringing Your Phone into an Infrared Sauna
There is a more private kind of sauna where you may not have to ask permission to bring a phone. This is, of course, an infrared sauna. Most infrared saunas are built for only one person. So the only person you’d have to ask before getting in is yourself.
But here’s the thing. Bringing your phone in infrared sauna may be worse than both a traditional wood-burning sauna or even a steam room. Infrared saunas are heated by radiation. That radiation comes in rays which are most effective when they have a direct line to your body. If your phone goes in between you and the source of the radiation in an infrared sauna, that phone is going to heat up fast. Heat by radiation can be even more damaging to phones than the heat from other saunas because it is so concentrated. Sim cards are especially vulnerable to this type of radiation.
If you happened to lay your cell phone over your body during an infrared sauna visit, you may risk some discomfort in that region. More than just phones, it’s not advised that you bring much more than just yourself into an infrared sauna. For the best sauna wellness experience, it’s important to keep the focus on relaxation and avoid distractions.
Proper Sauna Etiquette: Should Phones Be Allowed?
Depending on where you take saunas, there may be completely different expectations about cell phones. So let’s break it down by region. But, of course, regions are sentiments more than anything else. This suggests that even saunas in one area may adhere to regulations or traditions from other parts of the globe.
Phone into a Sauna across North America and Western Europe
You'll likely find more leniency in this part of the world when it comes to rules about using phones in a sauna. Let’s consider some regional examples. Sports clubs in New York City, Toronto, and Seattle generally allow members to bring their phones into the sauna. New York Sports Club makes a note that phones are allowed in their sauna facility only after confirming with location staff. This aligns with more relaxed sauna etiquette in certain areas, where phone use is tolerated as long as it doesn’t disrupt the experience for others.
In Western Europe, there are more than a few gyms, clubs, and sole sauna facilities in major cities such as Paris that allow cell phones. This also applies to the United Kingdom. In Paris, a club in the 11th arrondissement, requesting anonymity, mentioned that while they permit phones in the sauna, users are asked to put them away if other members voice objections. This reflects the flexible approach some facilities take toward phone usage in saunas.
However, all of the examples mentioned here are non-heritage-affiliated sports clubs and sauna facilities. When using a facility that is tied closely to traditional cultural practices, like the Turkish Hamman, you can almost always expect phones to be banned from the front door. This strict sauna etiquette ensures that the traditional experience is preserved without distractions.
Phone into a Sauna across Eastern Europe
Nearly all sauna facilities in Eastern Europe will expect public sauna users to not use phones in the main area. France is a good place to consider as the wide border between Eastern and Western Europe sensibilities and the further you travel from Paris to the East. The more likely cell phones will not be allowed in sauna facilities at all. For example: while nearly all sports clubs in Paris will allow cell phones in their main sauna rooms. Sauna facilities in Strasbourg however, on the Eastern border of France near-uniformly do not.
Phones into a Sauna in Scandinavia
Expect in Scandinavia for phones to be a no-go in nearly every sauna you could find. Even tourist-heavy Helsinki (a city with more saunas than are reasonable to count!) ‘No Cell Phones’ is a very common rule to find written in both Finnish and English at most facilities. An interesting exception to this rule is that phones are often more common at Scandinavian spa facilities that are frequented by Western tourists. A key example is the Blue Lagoon spa and sauna in Iceland. This resort is a natural hot spring actually. But there are several world-class traditional saunas on the grounds of the spa.
Despite public saunas in Reykjavik meant for Icelanders not allowing phones, phones are allowed both in the hot springs and sauna facilities of this major spa. The spa even supplies phone bags so that sauna and hot springs users’ phones don’t get wet at the facilities.
Being that most saunas are indeed cultural objects rooted in tradition in Scandinavia, use the same rule of thumb mentioned above when deciding whether or not to bring your iPhone. Any practice based on tradition and a shared history likely wants nothing to do with modern distractions like cell phones. These practices from Hammam to Finnish saunas bring the users in touch with thousands of years of history. And a long line of generations all taking part in the same restorative and relaxing practice. By bringing your phone into one of these facilities, it’s more than rude: you may very well be outright insulting the heritage and culture of the people who maintain the facility you are using.
Tips for Safely & Politely Using Your Phone in the Sauna
Even having addressed the major situations when a phone in the sauna is allowed, there are still a few more exceptions.
Is It Impolite to Bring a Phone Into a Sauna Even If Expecting an Important Call?
While rules generally hold, there are times when exceptions arise — and this could be such a moment. If you are expecting an urgent call and you are using the sauna with close friends, be certain to explain yourself ahead of time. If you happen to receive an important call, step out of the sauna to answer it, ensuring you don’t disrupt others enjoying the space. The point is, you shouldn’t be staring down at your phone and looking at social media while you’re in the sauna.
If your phone is quietly next to you on the bench of the sauna, that is probably fine. Sauna etiquette generally suggests that distractions like phone use should be kept to a minimum to maintain a peaceful environment.
While saunas are known for calm and relaxation, they’re equally suited for genuine social engagement. It’s not terribly uncommon for two strangers to become fast friends in the hot halls of a sauna. So don’t miss out on a chance of making a great human connection by having your phone in the sauna. Isolating you from the life that the sauna can bring us. If you are really trying to relax or connect with others in the sauna, being glued to your phone could defeat the purpose.
And if you are truly expecting some urgent news or are in the middle of a deal that makes your phone essential, maybe now isn’t the best time to use the sauna in the first place. If you find yourself unable to fully disconnect, consider postponing your sauna visit until you are more able to immerse yourself in the sauna experience without distraction.
The Dangers of Bringing Your Phone into a Sauna
The biggest difference today is that iPhones and modern smartphones can access the Internet and do much more than old-school phones. While traditional phones could still annoy others with their shrill ringers and clicky keys, modern cell phones act as mini-computers. With a smartphone, you have hundreds of ways to create discomfort for yourself or others.
Modern smartphones are equipped with powerful cameras, and the thought of someone using one in a sauna can make some people uneasy. Many sauna-goers wear only a towel or might be fully nude. Even if you don’t plan to snap any pictures, you must understand why others might feel anxious about phones in the sauna. This concern explains why so many saunas in traditional regions, like Scandinavia. In these parts of the world phones are banned - they expect guests to sauna in the nude.
Saunas aren’t just quiet spaces for relaxation; they also offer a great opportunity for genuine socializing. It’s not unusual for two strangers to become fast friends in the steamy heat. Don’t miss out on this chance to make a real connection just because you’re glued to your phone in the sauna. I
If you expect urgent news or are in the middle of a deal that requires your phone, reconsider whether now is the right time for a sauna visit. If you struggle to disconnect, it’s better to postpone your sauna experience until you can fully immerse yourself in the moment without distractions.
Conclusions on Phones in the Sauna
So, can you take your phone into a sauna? Technically, yes — but that doesn’t always mean you should. There’s plenty to discuss about when and where phones are allowed in saunas, yet the real question is whether they’re even necessary in the first place. Sure, if you want to take a consensual group photo or take a group Facetime to a friend or relative who can’t join you in person that is likely completely fine. But if you are bringing your phone into the sauna just to scroll on it as if you were killing time on the subway, you may very well be missing out on the best part of the sauna experience.
Shutting your eyes and letting your thoughts drift freely in the warmth of a steamy sauna is one of the most deeply refreshing experiences for anyone enjoying it sober. And the only way to reach that bliss is to fully sink into the sauna experience! Using phones in a sauna can distract you from the full relaxation and benefits it offers. While sure, modern cell phones can indeed survive the sauna, take it upon yourself to ask whether or not you truly need your phone while spending time in the sauna.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you take your phone into a sauna?
Yes, you can take your phone into a sauna, but it’s generally not recommended. A phone in a sauna is exposed to extreme conditions that can shorten its lifespan. High heat and humidity can affect both performance and longevity.
Can my phone be damaged in a sauna?
Excessive heat can harm internal components, the battery, and especially the SIM card. Prolonged exposure increases the risk of permanent damage. Even brief sessions in high heat can push your phone past its safe operating temperature.
Is it safe to bring your phone in infrared sauna?
Infrared saunas run cooler than traditional saunas, so the risk is lower. Still, the heat can build up over time and potentially harm your phone.
Can I take my phone in a sauna, especially an infrared sauna?
You can take a phone inside sauna, but with caution.
As far as infrared saunas are concerned, they may be milder, but your phone can still overheat if it is kept inside for a long time.
Why are phones not allowed in public saunas?
Phones are often banned to protect guests’ privacy and maintain a peaceful environment. They also prevent potential damage to devices. Additionally, phone use can disrupt the shared sense of calm that saunas are meant to provide.
Why do saunas ban phones?
Saunas ban phones to maintain a peaceful, respectful environment and protect both guests and devices. Common reasons include:
- Preserving privacy and preventing unwanted photos or recordings
- Avoiding noise and interruptions that break relaxation
- Reducing the risk of heat or moisture damage to the phone
How can I use my phone safely in a sauna if I must?
If you absolutely must use your phone in a sauna, keep your exposure minimal and take precautions like:
- Placing the phone near the floor, where temperatures are lower
- Using a heat-resistant or insulated protective pouch
- Limiting usage to quick checks rather than extended use
Can an iPhone survive a steam room?
Steam rooms are riskier than dry saunas because moisture can enter openings and cause internal damage. Even water-resistant iPhones may fail under high humidity.
Can a SIM card get damaged in the sauna?
SIM cards are sensitive to heat and can warp or malfunction after prolonged exposure. This can lead to connectivity issues even if the phone survives.
Why is using a phone in the sauna considered bad etiquette?
It breaks the calm, reflective atmosphere and may invade others’ privacy. Saunas are meant to be distraction-free spaces for relaxation. Using a phone can also make others feel uncomfortable or distracted in a space meant for relaxation.