Kohler Bought Sauna Maker KLAFS. Now It’s Selling Saunas in America.

Kohler, the 153-year-old Wisconsin plumbing company, acquired German sauna manufacturer KLAFS in January 2024 and is now selling KOHLER-branded indoor and outdoor saunas in the United States with white-glove installation available through Kohler.

The saunas draw on KLAFS craftsmanship, come fully insulated, and arrive with an integrated KLAFS heater that cannot be swapped for a third-party unit. Indoor models start at $13,400 and outdoor models at $30,600, according to Designers Today’s October 2025 report. The heater is proprietary and integrated. Installation is available through Kohler. And the corporate strategy behind the launch is bigger than most of the press coverage has acknowledged.

The acquisition that made this possible

The Kohler sauna story starts not in Wisconsin but in Schwäbisch Hall, a medieval town in Baden-Württemberg where KLAFS, which dates its founding to 1928, has its headquarters. When Amsterdam-based private equity firm Egeria agreed to buy a majority stake in January 2021, KLAFS had 733 employees, 25 showrooms, and four production sites, and Egeria puts its revenue that year at about EUR 115 million. By the end of Egeria’s ownership, KLAFS had 850 employees in eight countries, among them the UK, Spain, and Mexico. Its UK business includes the pool builder Guncast.

On December 1, 2023, Kohler signed a definitive agreement to acquire KLAFS from Egeria. The deal closed on January 18, 2024. Financial terms were not disclosed, though Egeria’s investment range of EUR 50 to 350 million in enterprise value gives a rough bracket. KLAFS was placed into Kohler’s Luxury and Wellness Brands group alongside ANN SACKS, KALLISTA, Robern, and Kast Concrete Basins.

“KLAFS is an international market leader that shares our passion for innovation, design, and a relentless pursuit of providing exceptional wellness products, services, and experiences,” David Kohler, Chair and CEO, said at the time of closing. KLAFS CEO Phillip Rock and CFO Jens Friedrich both stayed on.

This is not a licensing deal or a supplier relationship. Kohler owns KLAFS outright. The heater inside every KOHLER-branded sauna is not sourced from an outside partner. It is a KLAFS heater, and KLAFS is a Kohler subsidiary.

Two brands, one owner

Kohler is running a dual-brand sauna strategy in the US that most coverage has not explained clearly. KLAFS continues to operate independently as a premium and commercial brand, with its own US website (klafsusa.com) and its own product lineup, including the retractable KLAFS S1, the VALORA, and the ARISO. Design for Leisure serves as the authorized commercial dealer for KLAFS products in the US and Caribbean.

The KOHLER-branded saunas are a separate line: simpler, more standardized, and aimed at the residential buyer who wants a finished product from a name they already trust. Katie Stevens, General Manager of Kohler Wellness, explained the structure to Designers Today in October 2025. As the publication summarized it, the KLAFS division operates as its own brand with support from Kohler, while Kohler draws on KLAFS’s craftsmanship and expertise in its own saunas, “providing a distinct design personality, quality and experience that is uniquely Kohler,” Stevens said.

The practical implication: if you want a custom sauna for a $40 million hotel spa, you call KLAFS. If you want a three-person sauna for your primary bathroom renovation, you order a Kohler C1. Same parent company, same manufacturing DNA, different buyers.

Kohler at KBIS 2026

Kohler’s booth at the 2026 Kitchen & Bath Industry Show, which runs alongside the International Builders’ Show in Orlando as Design & Construction Week, occupied 15,600 square feet at the Orange County Convention Center. The company staged indoor and outdoor wellness spaces that placed the C1 and C2 saunas alongside the Kohler x Remedy Place ice bath and the Anthem+ smart shower with Invigoration Series steam. The message was clear: Kohler is not adding saunas as a line extension. It is building a wellness division.

The saunas sit in Kohler Wellness, the business Katie Stevens runs as general manager, which also launched the ice bath. Kohler Health is a separate venture. Kohler launched it in October 2025 with Dekoda, a sensor that attaches to the toilet bowl and tracks hydration and gut health, and it made its KBIS debut in the same booth. The saunas are the most visible piece of the wellness push, but the products around them signal a longer play.

The product line splits into two families. The C1 is the indoor range, available in two-, three- and five-person sizes. It can stand alone as a freestanding unit or integrate into the walls of a renovation or new build. The C2 is the outdoor range, in three-, five- and six-person sizes, built with triple-insulated waterproof ceilings, dual-pane glass, and a locking door and control box.

What the construction includes

The construction is where these saunas earn their price. Every C1 and C2 has 2-1/8 inches of mineral wool insulation in its walls, not the aftermarket retrofit that owners of cheaper cabin kits know too well. The walls are thick. The glass is tempered. The interior benches are obeche, a West African hardwood favored in European saunas for its low thermal conductivity (it stays cool enough to sit on at full operating temperature).

Ventilation runs through what Kohler calls the Aerotherm system, an integrated airflow design intended to circulate heat evenly from floor to the upper bench. Indoor models come in two exterior finishes (Scandinavian Spruce or Graphite Grey) with Scandinavian Spruce interiors across the board. Outdoor models offer Douglas Fir or Weathered Grey Spruce exteriors, also with Scandinavian Spruce interiors.

Kohler has not disclosed where the KOHLER-branded line is made. The KLAFS connection points toward the production sites KLAFS runs in Germany and Poland, but the company’s July 2025 launch announcement described the products as “scientifically tested and unmatched in quality” without naming the country of manufacture.

The heater: a KLAFS FERO you cannot swap out

Every Kohler sauna ships with a KLAFS FERO, a tower-style electric heater that uses Finnish olivine stones in an aluminum basket. Two sizes cover the range: Kohler’s product pages list a 4.5 kW FERO in the two- and five-person indoor C1 and a 9 kW FERO in the three-person outdoor C2. The heater includes an aroma cup for essential oils, dual thermostatic controls, and a touchscreen that manages time, temperature, and ambient lighting (including what Kohler calls a “sunset lighting system”). All of these run on a 240V dedicated circuit. Electronic components comply with UL and CSA safety standards.

For the builder, installer, or enthusiast who prides themselves on heater selection, the locked configuration is the deal-breaker. If you want a Harvia Cilindro, a HUUM DROP, or an EOS Mythos in your sauna room, this product is not built for you. Kohler has designed the heater cavity, the electrical routing, and the ventilation around the FERO specifically. Kohler does not offer the saunas with third-party heaters.

The trade-off makes more strategic sense once you understand that KLAFS is not an outside supplier. It is Kohler’s own subsidiary. The company is not locking you into someone else’s heater. It is standardizing on a heater from a company it owns. That standardization should also simplify installation, since every model is built around the same heater line.

Installation and pricing

The installation offer is the most distinctive piece of this launch. Kohler’s launch announcement says white-glove installation service is available for the saunas. It does not say which installers do the work or exactly what the service covers.

For context, the standard American path to sauna ownership means buying a unit from a manufacturer or distributor, hiring your own electrician, and coordinating delivery yourself. With most sauna brands, including kit sellers and importers, buyers typically arrange their own installation. The commercial side of the US sauna market is surging (Bathhouse raised $35 million this year to fund an eight-location expansion), but the residential path remains fragmented.

The bet, in our reading, is that installation friction, not product quality, is what holds back residential adoption in the US.

At $13,400 for the entry-level indoor model and $30,600 for the entry-level outdoor, Kohler is pricing above the assembled-in-a-warehouse kit market and below the custom European build. The value proposition is not price. It is the elimination of every friction point between wanting a sauna and having a working sauna: product selection, heater matching and warranty service from one brand, with white-glove installation available.

The bigger play: a home wellness portfolio

The sauna launch is one piece of a broader corporate strategy that Kohler has been building methodically since the KLAFS acquisition. In October 2024, the company announced the Kohler x Remedy Place ice bath (a partnership with Dr. Jonathan Leary’s social wellness club). In November 2024, KLAFS launched the VALORA and ARISO sauna lines in the US under its own brand. In March 2026, KLAFS announced the US launch of its retractable S1.

By the time Kohler showed up at KBIS in February 2026, the saunas, the ice bath and the steam shower were being shown together as one home wellness offer.

The contrast therapy portfolio now includes traditional saunas (KOHLER and KLAFS branded), infrared saunas, ice baths, the Invigoration Series steam generators, and the Anthem+ digital shower (which includes an ice shower mode). Stevens told Designers Today: “We see ourselves as a single, trusted, one-stop shop for creating comprehensive at-home wellness spaces.”

Kohler is privately held. That private status is why there are no SEC filings, earnings calls, or analyst reports to cite. Kohler’s sauna strategy is documented entirely through press releases and trade interviews.