Best Steam Shower Generators
Steam generators turn a sealed shower stall into a 110-120°F, 100%-humidity steam room — a different experience from a sauna's dry radiant heat, and the right one for people who love the hammam feel. These are renovation projects, not appliances: the generator needs a 240V circuit and a plumbed water line, the stall needs vapor-sealed walls and a sloped ceiling, and an autoflush/drain module is the difference between a reliable system and a scale-clogged one. Sized right (cubic feet of the stall, adjusted up for tile and outside walls), they're the most spa-like thing you can put in a bathroom.
Sauna Critic tracks 2 steam shower generators from 2 brands, priced $1,799 to $2,600. Our top-rated pick is the Mr.Steam eSeries MS90EC1 Steam Shower Generator at 4.5★. Compare them all below.
Cross-shoppers land here after realizing their dream isn't dry 195°F air but a 115°F fog you can barely see through — a steam shower, and Mr.Steam is the name-brand way to build one. The eSeries MS90EC1 is the residential workhorse: 5kW, sized for tiled enclosures up to 71 adjusted cubic feet, about $1,799 at big-box retail for the generator. The critical education, which r/Sauna delivers bluntly in every crossover thread: steam and sauna are different animals (100% humidity at ~110-120°F versus dry 180-200°F), and the generator is the cheap part — a properly vapor-sealed, sloped-ceiling tiled enclosure plus plumbing and electrical routinely runs $5,000-$15,000 in renovation. Owners of finished installs love them daily; the horror stories are all botched enclosures, not failed generators. Buy controls, AromaSteam head, and AutoFlush as a package; à la carte pricing stings.
Steamist (Delta SteamScape)
Steamist SM Plus SMP-7 Steam Shower Generator
Steamist is the other legacy American steam name — now also sold under Delta's SteamScape branding after acquisition, a detail worth knowing when comparing listings — and the SM Plus SMP-7 is its 7.5kW mid-size generator at about $2,600. The engineering pitch is SteadySteam, which modulates output to hold your set temperature instead of the blast-and-coast cycling cheaper generators do, plus a stainless tank and a sub-gallon water draw per 20-minute session. Plumbers and owners rate the brand's reliability alongside Mr.Steam, with the choice often coming down to which controls ecosystem (TotalSense vs. iSteam) and which dealer you like. All the steam-category realities apply: the enclosure build is the real project and the real budget, hard water is the enemy, and r/Sauna will remind you — accurately — that a steam shower is a different pleasure than sauna, not a substitute.