Custom dry sauna cabins for houses across Malang

Why is a dry sauna the first thing people ask for in Malang?

Because the climate rewards it. Nights settle at 18–24 °C, the bediding season pushes Sukun and Lowokwaru towards 15 °C, and Karangploso mornings in August start at 10–12 °C. Fifteen minutes at 80 °C before bed does something here that it cannot do in Surabaya, and the cool air afterwards finishes the job instead of undoing it.

The second reason is practical. A dry sauna asks for no waterproofing, no floor falls and no tiling, so a cabin can go into a spare room, a garage bay or the end of a terrace without touching the drainage. A 2×2 m four-person cabin takes less floor than a double bed. Two bench levels come as standard: the lower at around 45 °C for children and older users, the upper where the real heat sits. Households after the full contrast circuit usually add a cold plunge later.

Sizing follows use. Two people at 1.5×1.2 m suits a couple in a Tidar townhouse; 2×2 m covers a family; 2.4×2 m at eight kilowatts suits a Permata Jingga household with weekend guests. We would rather build the small cabin used weekly than the big one heated twice a year.

How do you fit a dry sauna into an old Ijen house?

Carefully, and from the inside out. Colonial houses along Jalan Besar Ijen and through Klojen have ceilings of three to four metres — beautiful, and thermally hopeless. So we build a cabin within the room: an independent insulated box at 2.1 m internal height, freestanding on its own frame, touching the original plaster nowhere.

That protects the house as much as the sauna. Nothing is chased into old brickwork, no mouldings are cut, and if the property changes hands the cabin can be dismantled and taken away. The wall is the standard five layers — panel, 50 mm rockwool, aluminium foil vapour barrier, 20 mm ventilation gap, cedar or thermowood — and ventilation ducts to an existing opening rather than a new hole in a heritage façade.

Timber choice matters more in an old house, because the floor may not be flat and the air is damper. Thermowood barely moves, cedar resists rot, benches are aspen or abachi. Ulin and bengkirai stay outside on decking.

Electricity: what supply does the heater need here?

The heater is sized to the cabin volume and the supply to the heater, in that order. A two-person cabin runs 3.6 kW and wants about 5,500 VA. A 2×2 m four-person cabin uses 6 kW on 7,700 VA. Six- and eight-person cabins at 8–9 kW need 11,000 VA; above ten people it is three phase.

Clusters in Araya, Blimbing and Permata Jingga usually hold 5,500–7,700 VA, so the work is a new circuit and nothing more. Older houses in Klojen and around Ijen often sit at 2,200–4,400 VA and need a PLN change of capacity first; the application goes in before fabrication and the fee is paid by the owner, with the figure shown before you commit. Where an upgrade is impractical, the honest alternative is an infrared cabin at 1.7–2.4 kW.

Every dry sauna leaves us with SiHF cable back to the consumer unit, its own breaker, an ELCB, a heater guard and a firing test run in front of you. Running cost for regular family use is IDR 200,000–500,000 a month; ranges are on the price page.

Indicative pricing

Indicative in IDR, including heater, stones, SiHF cable, breaker, ELCB and the heat test. The PLN upgrade is billed to the owner. The firm quote follows the free survey.