- Review: HOTT Sauna – The most portable sauna tent? - February 5, 2026
- Review: Telttasaana Sauna Tent – Narvi stove is the MVP! - February 4, 2026
- The Best Sauna Tents – A Complete Guide (2026) - January 22, 2026
I have very high sauna standards – I have been to a sauna festival (yes that’s a thing), worked and maintained at a very high-end one in Sweden, and often stay inside for hours at a time while nonstop adding water. I also use sauna as part of my business doing rentals, private sessions for clients, public events, etc. I abuse mine heavily.
Being a company based in Sweden, I expect lots from the HOTT system.
Skipping more preamble, lets get into the meat and bones here – pros and cons of the HOTT Gnistan sauna tent system.
Note: The Hott sauna coupon code: NOMAD1500 will save 150 eur on checkout
Don’t forget to read my Best Sauna Tents guide to see what else is on the market!
Table of Contents
Pros and Cons
To quickly list the best and worst of the HOTT Gnistan sauna tent system:
The Pros
- Good sauna stove
- Tent packs very small
- Very high temperature
- Large viewing windows
The Cons
- Low tent cieling
- Stove placement
- Long burn-off process
- Harder setup
The first impression
I seldom mention this with any product review I’ve ever done, but for this case I think it’s worth mentioning. Right from the delivery I was very pleasantly surprised by the branding on the boxes, the ‘Sauna Journey Begins’ dossier, and the Ikea-like instruction manual.
Maybe I’m a sucker, but all these thoughtful details already a warmed me, before I’ve even hopped in! More than almost any product I’ve ever opened or tested, it really was a nice touch which I think all manufacturers across industries should consider – the customer experience. Okay now, lets get into the more important details.
Performance – “The Beast” Stove
I have 2 other stoves to compare this one to – the one from the Bast Sauna, and the one from the Telttasaana.
And it fits right in between the two – I find the stove is certainly overpowered for the size of the tent – which is a good thing!
The firebox itself is similar to that of the Bast – slightly shorter in length but similar in width x height. The air control is on the removable ash tray itself.
It’s pertinent you do several burn-off cycles to remove manufacturing oils and residues and let the paint cure – this stove took all day to burn off all the chemicals – quite a bit more than other stoves! It was quite a toxic and nasty smell, but it has all nicely burned off at this point and no problem.
Check the sauna stove off-gassing post on Reddit to see with your own eyes!
The design of the side covers allows for heat to rise and congregate onto the stones above, rather than purely rise and heat the air, like on the Bast system. As a result it’s more effective for heating and generates better löyly.
I found a simple 20kg of stones to not be enough to cover the whole stove properly. It would be better to have 30-40kg instead.
The stove itself sits a few centimeters lower than on the Bast, which, is of course a benefit as you don’t need to be as high to get the heat benefits. It is higher than the Narvi stove on the Telttasaana system though.
I found it did not take more than 45 minutes to get the internal temperature up to 85 degrees celcius, and blisteringly hot löyly.
Note: The Hott sauna coupon code: NOMAD1500 will save 150 eur on checkout
This is especially compounded by the fact that the internal volume feels like 50-60% of the Bast or Telttasaana systems.
As far as heat and performance, I have nothing but good things to say. I will say that it is still inferior to the Narvi stove that Telttasaana system uses, but it is certainly a good stove!
Performance – The Gnistan tent
It’s a 3-layer insulated Oxford 300D/210D nylon body – similar to other sauna tents on the market. In my experience it’s hard-wearing, effective, and durable. It insulates relatively well and the large TPU windows can have covers affixed to them to improve insulation, at the cost of that panorama.
Speaking of the windows – they’re huge! I love it – it opens up the space a lot and all my friends have commented how much they enjoy the view.
Now, for me the tent is just slightly too short. I’m (190cm) unable to stand up completely tall without craning my neck down a bit. For shorter folks it’s not a problem, but I do like to be able to move around without hunching and shuffling.
To compound this, the stove placement can use a little improvement. I find it is too close to the walking path at the entryway and both reduces the usable space in the tent, and may provide for a burn hazard by touching the hot stove walls.
I will try to experiment with some angled stovepipes to shift the stove over a foot or so towards the wall. I think this would help a lot with that issue. Behind the stove is a heat-shielding which is nice to see!
The tent has done a rather good job at dealing with high levels of rain and wind so far – very small amounts of water ingress through the chimney hole and only minor droplets entering from the roof.
Wisely, there is a fresh-air intake in the tent next to the stove, and 2 additional ventilation slots to open up. One of those slots serves as a nice access point to leave a phone, speaker, or beer right outside the tent.
You can comfortably sit 4-5 people inside, which is not bad considering the overall footprint of the tent is smaller than others.
Unfortunately at 190cm I’m unable to lay down flat on the benches without my head and feet touching the tent, which, is my absolute favourite thing to do inside a sauna – lay down, stretch out, etc. If I bend my knees I can make it work and my shorter girlfriend has no problem to lay out.
It’s wise that the zippered door, while small (and you must crouch down low to enter, difficult for my elderly father), is lifted off the floor in order to reduce drafts when a guest inevitably doesn’t zip the door fully. The zipper system is nice in that it’s 2-ways and came with a very visible red ribbon.
So, for the size of the tent it’s really quite decent, though I’d love to be able to shift that stove ~30cm to the left to make more room for walking!
Note: The Hott sauna coupon code: NOMAD1500 will save 150 eur on checkout
Portability & Assembly
Between all the sauna tent systems I have currently (Bast Björk, Telttasaana, HOTT Gnistan), the Gnistan is the smallest and lightest of the bunch. The stove is equal in volume to the Bast stove, but the Gnistan Tent is about 1/4 the size when folded up.
Not to mention that the carrying bag for both the stove and tent has backpack straps! This actually makes carrying it so much easier in comparison! Really, I quite like this feature.
However, the tent doesn’t assemble as easily as the pop-out method found on the Bast. Instead it requires you to assemble and feed poles through the tent like a typical camping tent.
It’s not majorly difficult, but more time consuming and effort than just simply pulling the walls out. It still only takes about 5-10 minutes, but that’s more than 30 seconds of the other system!
2 people can easily carry everything needed in 1 trip – stove and tent on each persons back, and then in the hands a bag for stones, a bag for wood, a bag for benches, and a bucket of water. This is superior so far to any other system I have used thus far!
Note: The Hott sauna coupon code: NOMAD1500 will save 150 eur on checkout
Overall
It definitely has its place in the market as the most portable, hottest system around. True to the name!
You can achieve the same from other systems, don’t get me wrong, but it’s easiest to get to this level of heat in the HOTT system.
If you’re looking for a highly portable system to share with friends or only want to host a maximum of 4-5 people, then I really cannot see you going wrong with this system. It’s more affordable than many others on the market, too.
Personally, I do prefer larger systems simply because of my height and being able to host a dozen friends is a virtue, though I must say that the heat is consistently hotter and easier to keep hot in the HOTT sauna!
Thanks for reading and if you have questions please drop them down below!
Check out my Bast Sauna review and Telttasaana review to see how those systems stack up!
Don’t forget to read my Best Sauna Tents guide to see what else is on the market!
Hott Gnistan Sauna Tent
Pros
- Very portable
- Strong heater
- Large stone basket
- Large windows
Cons
- Stove placement
- Bit too short
- Setup