Carleton Athletics is looking to rebuild their saunas with a new design after countless repairs have plagued the facilities.
The two saunas, built in 1974, are located in both the men’s and women’s change rooms and have had about three or four repairs in the last couple of years, according to John Wilson, business and facilities manager at Carleton Athletics.
People misusing the saunas have caused the damages, Wilson said.
“The number one problem is [people] pouring water on it to create a hotter feeling because of the steam that comes off,” he said. “It’s gotten to the point where it gets so hot that the wiring gets burnt out. We’ve had to replace the wood behind it because it’s actually been blackened where it’s close to being on fire.”
Others have changed settings on the saunas’ control panel despite security measures put into place, Wilson said.
“We even tried to protect the controls with putting a lockbox over, but people were unscrewing the bolts on the lockbox so they could get control and do what they wanted with it,” he said.
Both saunas are currently out of service. A posting outside the women’s change room announcing the issue is dated July 31, 2014.
The saunas’ problems and continuous need for repairs, Wilson said, made staff question whether the saunas were worth the maintenance.
“At one point it was a question of whether do we really want to do anything with the saunas,” he said.
Carleton Athletics sent out an online survey Oct. 8 in order to gauge how members felt about the saunas. The results showed members do enjoy using the sauna, so staff are looking into redesigns, Wilson said.
“People want to have a sauna,” he said. “But they don’t want a sauna that’s breaking down all the time.”
Right now, Wilson is waiting to hear back from construction consultations.
“We’re expecting to get feedback any time now, in the next week or so, different types of options to look at.”
An infrared sauna, he said, may be a possibility.
“We’re hoping that we can come up with a system that will solve a lot of those problems [we had] and be able to keep running on more of a regular basis,” Wilson said.
Samantha Putos uses Carleton’s Athletics facilities regularly, but is not a student and said she wouldn’t use a sauna at Carleton, but thinks it is still an important service athletics should offer.
“I primarily use the Carleton gym for the pool, and when you get out of the pool you’re pretty hot, so it’s not something I would personally use all that often,” she said. “However, I think it’s actually useful to stretch in there, especially during the winter before I start my workout. I definitely think it’s something useful to have.”
—with files from News Editors
