Harvia sauna heaters (beta): connect, start before bookings, and fix a cold sauna

Harvia heater control is in beta. It is still being developed, so follow your first bookings with it closely. Rentalbuddy can switch a Harvia sauna heater on and off around your bookings. You link each heater to the lock of the sauna it heats. Safety comes first, so by default you start the heater yourself: before each paid booking Rentalbuddy emails you a one-time Turn on the sauna heater button, and the heater only starts when you press it. If you want, you can switch on Automatic start for a heater, at your own risk; Rentalbuddy then starts it before each paid booking without asking. The heater is switched off when the booking ends. Your customer sees the heater status, the temperature and the time left on their unlock page, but cannot start or stop the heater.

If a customer is at a cold sauna right now, open the booking and press Start heater on its Heater card, then read The sauna was cold: the heater did not start further down.

What you need before you connect Harvia

A MyHarvia account with the heater added in the MyHarvia app. This is set up on Harvia's side.
A MyHarvia Control subscription. Without it, connecting fails with "Remote control requires a MyHarvia Control subscription."
The sauna's lock set up in Rentalbuddy on the location's Locks tab, so there is a lock to link the heater to.

Rentalbuddy works with Harvia heaters on the Harvia Fenix control panel. The control panel needs a Wi-Fi connection with internet, because every start and stop goes through MyHarvia. Other Harvia control panels can also show up in the Heaters list when they are in your MyHarvia account, but they are not verified with Rentalbuddy. Ask us before you buy: info@rentalbuddy.io.

You can try everything in Rentalbuddy without MyHarvia first by adding a demo heater. See Test with a demo heater.

Connect your MyHarvia account

Open Settings in the left menu.
Open the Integrations tab.
Scroll to the Sauna heaters card and press Connect Harvia.
Enter your MyHarvia email and Password, the same ones you use in the MyHarvia app, and press Connect.

When it works you get Harvia connected. The card then shows the Harvia logo, Connected and Connected as followed by your MyHarvia email. Your heaters from MyHarvia are listed right away under Heaters.

If connecting fails, the dialog shows one of these:

"Email or password is incorrect." Check the login in the MyHarvia app.
"Remote control requires a MyHarvia Control subscription." The subscription is bought from Harvia.
"Could not connect to Harvia. Try again." A temporary problem. Try again after a moment.

Before you connect, the card also explains Why connect? and How it works. After connecting, How it works folds away and you can open it again when you need it.

Guide to setting up Harvia opens a three-step guide, Connect with Harvia:

Download the app: install the MyHarvia 2 app on your phone (the guide shows a QR code for iOS and Android) or create an account at harvia.io/login. "Older Xenio systems may use a different MyHarvia app. Use the app that matches your control panel."
Add your heater: follow the setup wizard on the heater's control panel and add the sauna in the MyHarvia app. Open guide on Harvia.com has Harvia's own instructions.
Connect in Rentalbuddy: use the same email and password. The last button, Connect Harvia, opens the connect dialog.

Harvia's app and control panel can change. If the steps look different, follow Harvia's own guide.

Partners: Harvia has to be connected on your customer's account, not on your own. Open the customer from Accounts, choose Impersonate this account, then go to Settings → Integrations and press Connect Harvia. In your own Settings, without impersonating, the button works too, but it connects Harvia to your own partner account. If you open a customer's settings from the Accounts list without impersonating, Connect Harvia and Add demo heater are greyed out with "Impersonate a customer account first. Harvia must be connected for that account, not your admin account."

The Heaters table: status, lock, automatic start, preheat time and temperature

The Heaters list is on the Sauna heaters card. It shows your MyHarvia heaters and any demo heaters. Refresh reloads it. If you add a heater in the MyHarvia app later, press Refresh. When the list is empty you see "No heaters yet. Connect your MyHarvia account and Refresh, or add a demo heater to test."

Column	What it shows or does
Heater	The heater's name from MyHarvia. Demo heaters are called Demo heater and have a Demo chip.
Status	Heater is on, Heater is off or Heater status unknown. When the heater is on you also see Current temperature, the Target temperature the heater is running at, and "{{minutes}} min left". After a start or stop, an orange Waiting for the heater… chip shows until the heater reports. Before a booking, warning chips can appear here; hover a chip to read what to do (see Heater checks and warnings before a booking). During a software update you see its progress.
Connected lock	The lock this heater belongs to, shown as location · lock. Not connected to a lock until you pick one.
Automatic start	Off until you switch it on yourself, at your own risk. Rentalbuddy then starts the heater before every paid booking on that lock without asking. See Preheat automatically before each booking.
Preheat time	How many minutes before the booking starts the heater is switched on. 45 minutes to begin with. Any value from 1 to 1440 minutes.
Target temperature	The temperature in °C Rentalbuddy sets every time it switches the heater on, just before the start. 80 °C to begin with. Any value from 40 to 110 °C. A change while the heater is running applies from the next start.
Actions	Start heater, Stop heater, All commands, Logs, and Remove for demo heaters.

The Heater column shows the name the heater has in the MyHarvia app, also in the lock's Connected heater list. If you rename a heater in MyHarvia, Rentalbuddy picks up the new name the next time the Heaters list loads; press Refresh to load it now. The new name is then used on the booking's Heater card, in heater emails and in new Logs rows. Older log rows keep the name the heater had then. If Harvia doesn't send a name, Rentalbuddy keeps the last name it knew, or shows the heater's device id if it never had one.

Preheat time and Target temperature save when you click out of the field. If the value is outside the allowed range, you get "Could not send the heater command." and nothing is saved.

A newly listed heater always starts with Automatic start off, Preheat time 45 minutes, Target temperature 80 °C and no lock.

If Target temperature shows a grey 80 instead of a number, no temperature is saved for that heater yet. Rentalbuddy then leaves the temperature that is set on the heater's control panel. Type a value and click out of the field to save it.

Test with a demo heater

You don't need a MyHarvia account for this.

Go to Settings → Integrations → Sauna heaters.
Press Add demo heater above the Heaters list. You get Demo heater added.

A demo heater behaves like a real one in the Heaters table and on the Locks tab: you can link it to a lock, start and stop it, and turn on Automatic start. Nothing is sent to Harvia. A demo heater that is switched on counts down 60 minutes by itself, or runs until the booking ends when it was started for a booking.

On bookings, a demo heater only shows up on test bookings. To see it the way your customers would, link it to a sauna lock and use Make a test booking in the top bar of that location's page, next to Save: the test booking gets a Heater card, and its unlock page shows the heater dial. Real bookings on a lock with a demo heater show no heater at all, neither the Heater card for you nor the dial for the customer.

Remove deletes a demo heater (Demo heater removed). Only demo heaters can be removed. Real heaters leave the list when you disconnect.

Before you go live, remove the demo heater or unlink it from the lock, and link the real heater. A lock can only have one heater. While the demo heater holds the lock, the real heater isn't linked to it, so the sauna is never preheated, and real bookings on that lock get no Heater card and no heater dial for the customer.

Link a heater to a lock

Each heater belongs to one lock, and each lock can have only one heater. A lock that already has a heater is not offered to the other heaters.

You can link a heater in two places:

In the Heaters table: pick the lock in Connected lock. All your locks are listed there, including Allockate locks.
On the lock: open Locations, open the location and go to the Locks tab. Open the lock's menu, choose Edit and pick the heater in Connected heater. Choose No heater to unlink it. The field is only there for manual and Igloo locks that already exist, and only once your account has at least one heater. Demo heaters are shown as name (Demo). The link saves as soon as you pick a heater.

Once a lock has a heater:

a flame button with the tooltip Heater appears next to that lock's QR code on the Locks tab,
every booking on that lock gets a Heater card,
the customer's unlock page shows the heater status.

(With a demo heater, only test bookings do. See Test with a demo heater.)

Link the heater before bookings come in. Rentalbuddy plans the heater for a booking when the booking is paid. A booking that was already paid before you linked the heater has no plan. Start the heater from that booking yourself, or use Extend or Move on the booking, which plans it again.

If you use Allockate units with the Sauna device type ("1 lock and 1 heater control"), that heater control is part of the Allockate unit, not a Harvia heater. See the locks guide.

Start the heater yourself (the default): the "Turn on the sauna heater" email

This is how every heater works until you switch on Automatic start: Rentalbuddy doesn't start the heater, it asks you. You check that the sauna is ready to heat and press the button.

The email goes out 15 minutes before the moment the heater should start, which is Preheat time plus 15 minutes before the booking starts. With 45 minutes and a booking at 18:00, the email comes at 17:00.
If the booking is paid after that moment, the email goes out right away.
Subject: Turn on the sauna heater for booking followed by the booking number. It shows the location, the heater, the start time and the booking number.
The Turn on the sauna heater button starts the heater for that booking. "It works once, until the booking ends."

When you press the button, a page opens with Start the sauna heater and a second Turn on the sauna heater button. The heater only starts when you press that second button, so an email program that opens links to check them can't start your sauna. Then you see The sauna heater is on. This page means Harvia accepted the start, not that the heater has confirmed it is on. Look at the booking's Heater card to see the heater's own status. The heater runs until the booking ends, at the Target temperature.

If the link can't be used, the page says why:

"This link has already been used."
"This link has expired. The booking has ended."
"This link is not valid."
If Harvia doesn't respond, you see Could not start the heater with a Try again button. The link still works.

Only the newest link for a booking works. The one exception is the button in a heater warning email (see Heater checks and warnings before a booking): it doesn't cancel the other links. A newer start email for the same booking, such as the failed-preheat email, replaces the older link. So do Extend, Move and marking an unpaid booking as paid by changing its payment, because they plan the heater again. A heater without Automatic start then gets a new reminder with a new link at the new time, or right away if that time has already passed. Cancelling or returning the booking cancels the link. An old or cancelled link opens "This link has already been used." Start the heater from the booking instead.

Preheat automatically before each booking (Automatic start)

Automatic start is optional and at your own risk. It stays off until you switch it on for a heater, and from then on Rentalbuddy heats the sauna without anyone checking it first. Use it only for a sauna you know is safe to heat without a check before each booking.

In the Heaters table, switch on Automatic start for the heater.
The Automatic heating dialog opens: "Allow Rentalbuddy to start this heater automatically before bookings. Rentalbuddy AB is not responsible for heating, temperature, or any damage, injury, or other issue caused by automatic or failed heating. You remain responsible for the sauna and the Harvia device."
Tick I understand and accept and press the I understand and accept button.

The dialog comes back every time you switch Automatic start on again after turning it off.

With Automatic start on:

The heater starts Preheat time minutes before the booking starts. For example, with 45 minutes and a booking at 18:00, the heater starts at 17:15. Times follow the location's time zone.
Each start first sets the Target temperature, then runs the heater until the booking ends.
If the booking is paid after the preheat moment, for example a last-minute booking, the heater starts right away, as long as the booking hasn't ended.
Only paid bookings are started. A booking that is unpaid, failed or expired is not started.
Rentalbuddy checks for due starts every minute, so a start can come up to about a minute late.
If the start fails, Rentalbuddy tries again up to 3 times on its next runs. Before each new try, and before any email, it reads the heater: if the heater is on after all, nothing more happens and no email is sent. Only if the heater is still off, about 4 minutes after the planned start, do you get the Automatic preheat failed email (see Emails about heaters). Nothing is retried once the booking has ended.

Changes apply to bookings planned after the change. A booking is planned when it is paid, and planned again when it is moved or extended. If you change Preheat time or switch Automatic start on, bookings that were already paid keep their old plan. If you switch Automatic start off, bookings that were already planned are not started automatically, and you don't get a start reminder for them either. Their starts still appear in Planned starts and stops, but they won't start. Start those heaters from the booking.

Planned starts and stops

The Planned starts and stops card is below the Sauna heaters card. It lists what Rentalbuddy will still do by itself: Time, Heater, Action (On or Off) and Booking. The booking number opens the booking. With nothing planned it says "No automatic starts or stops scheduled."

On rows are automatic starts, so they only show for heaters with Automatic start.
Off rows are the stops at the end of every paid booking, for every heater linked to the booking's lock, with or without Automatic start. Stops are planned whether or not the heater was ever started.
A stop that won't happen because another booking keeps the heater on (see When the heater turns off) is left out.

Start reminder emails are not listed. The times are shown in your computer's time zone.

The list shows what was planned. If you switch Automatic start off, that heater's On rows stay in the list but the heater is not started. After Disconnect, rows for the old heaters stay too, shown with a technical id instead of the heater name, and do nothing. For those bookings, start the heater from the booking.

Heater checks and warnings before a booking

The warnings are a beta aid that helps you catch a problem in time. They don't guarantee that the sauna will be warm, and a heater without a warning can still fail, so keep following your bookings.

Rentalbuddy checks the heater Preheat time plus 30 minutes before each paid booking starts, with or without Automatic start. With 45 minutes and a booking at 18:00, the check is at 16:45, before the start reminder email (17:00) or the automatic start (17:15). After that it reads the heater every minute until the booking ends.

If it finds a problem, a warning chip appears in the Status column of the Heaters table and on the booking's Heater card. The card has a line under the chip that explains what to do; in the table, hover the chip to read it. Customers never see these warnings.

Warning	What it means and what to do
Remote start blocked (red)	"The safety switch or door contact has disabled remote start. Close the sauna door and re-enable remote control on the heater panel."
Controller offline (red)	"Rentalbuddy can't reach the heater controller. Check its power and Wi-Fi connection." Shown after 3 failed reads in a row, when Harvia reports the controller offline, or when the heater's readings are more than 10 minutes old while it is heating.
Heating slowly: about … of … at start (orange)	"At the current rate the sauna won't reach its target temperature before the booking starts." Shown when the temperature the sauna is on track to reach at the start is more than 10 °C below the target.

The warnings clear by themselves when the problem is gone. All warnings for a booking clear when the booking ends, or is cancelled, returned or moved.

Warning emails. Each warning also sends an email, once per warning type and booking:

Sauna heater cannot be started remotely: booking … for Remote start blocked,
Sauna heater controller is offline: booking … for Controller offline,
Sauna may not be warm in time: booking … for Heating slowly.

They are in English and go to the addresses in Account Contact E-mail. They are always sent: the Heater emails switches don't turn them off. The offline and blocked emails have a one-time Turn on the sauna heater button for when you have fixed the problem. Unlike other start links, it doesn't cancel the earlier links for the booking. Every warning email ends with "Rentalbuddy AB is not responsible for heating or any issues with it."

When the heater turns off

At the end of every booking with a heater, Rentalbuddy switches it off. This happens whether Automatic start is on or off.
When a booking is cancelled or marked returned, the heater is switched off right away, even if the booking was days in the future. This also switches off a heater that someone started by hand for another reason.
If another paid booking on the same lock is already running, the heater stays on. It also stays on if the next booking is paid, already in its preheat time and has Automatic start. That way the next guest doesn't arrive at a sauna that was just switched off. Only paid bookings keep a heater on like this: a booking that is unpaid, failed, expired, cancelled or returned doesn't.
Without Automatic start, an early start for the next guest doesn't survive the end of the previous booking. If you press the start button for the next booking while the previous booking on that lock is still running, the heater is switched off when the previous booking ends. Press Start heater on the next booking's Heater card after that, because the email button only works once.
When a booking is extended or moved, the start and stop are planned again. A heater that is already on gets the new end time.
Changing a booking with Full edit, or moving it to another lock on the Booking management timeline, doesn't plan the heater again. Check Planned starts and stops afterwards. If the start is missing, at the old time or on the wrong heater, start the heater from the booking.

Start or stop a heater from the booking, the Locks tab or the Heaters table

On the booking. Open the booking. The Heater card shows:

the status Heater is on, Heater is off or Heater status unknown,
an orange Waiting for the heater… chip after a start or stop, until the heater reports its new state,
warning chips with a line explaining each one, if the check before the booking found a problem (see Heater checks and warnings before a booking),
"{{minutes}} min left" and Current temperature while the heater is on,
Target temperature,
the heater's name, with a Demo chip for a demo heater,
Connected lock.

Start heater runs the heater until the booking ends, at the target temperature. Stop heater switches it off. You can use both on any booking that isn't cancelled or returned, including unpaid bookings and before the booking starts. On a cancelled or returned booking the buttons are still shown but give "Could not send the heater command." Use Start heater in the Heaters table or on the Locks tab instead. Recent activity lists the latest heater commands for the booking. The card only appears when a heater is linked to one of the booking's locks. For a demo heater it only appears on test bookings.

After you press Start heater or Stop heater, you get Heater is on or Heater is off if the heater confirms within about 10 seconds. Otherwise you get "Command sent. Waiting for the heater to confirm." and the Waiting for the heater… chip stays until it does. You don't need to reload the page: the heater status refreshes by itself every 10 seconds while Rentalbuddy waits for the heater, and every minute while the heater is on or has a warning. This works the same in the Heaters table.

Rentalbuddy sends each start or stop up to 3 times, 5 and 10 seconds apart, and counts it as done as soon as the heater reports the new state. It gives up if a newer command for the heater has gone through in the meantime, or the booking was cancelled or returned. If the heater doesn't report the new state within 5 minutes, Logs gets a Failed row after the Succeeded row.

On the Locks tab. The flame button (Heater) next to the lock's QR code opens Start heater and Stop heater.

In the Heaters table. The Start heater and Stop heater buttons in Actions.

Starts from the Locks tab or the Heaters table are not tied to a booking. They have no end time of their own, so press Stop heater when you are done. But if a booking on the same lock ends or is cancelled while the heater runs, Rentalbuddy switches it off. They also use the target temperature.

Changing the target temperature during a session. Rentalbuddy sets the Target temperature just before each start. If you change it while the heater is already running, the new value applies from the next start, not to the session that is running.

All commands sends any other Harvia command to the heater: Adjust duration, Remaining time, After-heater, External switch, Fan, Heater, Infrared heater, Lights, Restart, Sauna, Steamer, Trace log, Software update and Vaporizer. Pick the Command, set State, Minutes, Index or Mode when asked, and press Send. You get Command sent. "Not every command is available on every heater. Harvia returns an error if this device does not support the command." For Restart and Software update, the button changes to "Restart this heater?" or "Start a software update on this heater?". Press it again to confirm. During an update the status reads Update running, then Update completed or Update cancelled. Rentalbuddy keeps an eye on an update for about half an hour and sends it again if it stops.

If any command fails you get "Could not send the heater command."

Heater logs: who switched the heater on or off

Logs in the heater's Actions shows the last 7 days of commands for that heater: Time, Heater, Action, Source and Result (Succeeded or Failed). The Source tells you what sent the command:

Staff: someone pressed a button in the Heaters table, the Locks tab or All commands.
Booking: Start heater or Stop heater on a booking's Heater card, or the automatic stop when a booking is cancelled or marked returned.
Automatic: an automatic start or stop, or an automatic software-update retry.
Email link: the Turn on the sauna heater button in an email.

A Failed row means one of these: Harvia refused the command, the heater didn't report the new state within 5 minutes, a newer command replaced it, or it was stopped because the booking was cancelled or returned.

When the command belonged to a booking, the source links to that booking. With nothing in the last 7 days: "No heater activity in the last 7 days." On a busy account the list can reach back less than 7 days, because only the account's most recent heater commands are loaded.

Emails about heaters and who receives them

All heater emails go to the addresses in Account Contact E-mail on the Account tab in Settings. If you add several addresses there, each one gets the email. The emails are in English.

Start reminder: Turn on the sauna heater for booking …, for heaters without Automatic start. See above.
Automatic preheat failed: subject Automatic sauna preheat failed for booking …. It is only sent if the heater is still off after the retries. It gives the reason from Harvia, a one-time Turn on the sauna heater button, and reminds you that you can start the heater from the booking page. If remote start is switched off at the heater, the reason reads "Remote start is disabled at the heater panel (safety switch or door contact). It must be re-enabled at the panel."
Warnings before a booking: Sauna heater cannot be started remotely: booking …, Sauna heater controller is offline: booking … and Sauna may not be warm in time: booking …. See Heater checks and warnings before a booking.
Heater on / off notices: Sauna heater on for booking … or Sauna heater off for booking …. Heaters started without a booking get the heater's name instead of a booking number.

The on/off notices can be switched off on the Heater emails card below the Sauna heaters card: Email when a heater is turned on and Email when a heater is turned off. Both are on at first. "Sent to the account contact emails." These switches only control the on/off notices. The start reminder, the failed-preheat email and the warning emails are always sent.

Rentalbuddy sends a stop to the heater at the end of every paid booking on its lock, and when a booking on that lock is cancelled or marked returned, even if the heater was never on. Each of those stops sends a Sauna heater off for booking … email. If you don't want these, switch off Email when a heater is turned off.

What customers see on the unlock page

When the customer's booked lock has a heater, their unlock page shows a round heater dial. They see it during the booking, once they are allowed to open the lock:

The heater is on, The heater is off or Heater status unknown.
The current sauna temperature in large numbers, with the target temperature below it. If Harvia doesn't report the current temperature, only the target is shown.
The time left, as hours:minutes (for example 1:00), while the heater is on.

The dial updates about once a minute. Customers can't start or stop the heater. There are no heater buttons for them. If the heater should be on and isn't, the customer has to contact you.

Customers who arrive early or late, or who haven't finished the steps before unlocking yet, don't see the dial.

The unlock preview on the Customer flow tab always shows an example heater dial (62°, 80°, 1:00), even if you have no heaters. Your customers only see it when their lock has a heater.

Who can do what

Connect Harvia, Disconnect, Add demo heater, Remove and the Heater emails switches: users who can change settings, which means Account owner and Account member.
Linking locks, Automatic start, Preheat time, Target temperature and the start, stop and All commands buttons: users who can manage locks, which means Account owner and Account member.
Start heater and Stop heater on a booking: users who can manage bookings.
An Account viewer can see a booking's Heater card but has no buttons, and doesn't have the Integrations tab.

Disconnect or reconnect Harvia

Disconnect on the Sauna heaters card asks Disconnect Harvia? "Live Harvia heaters will stop working in Rentalbuddy until you connect again. Demo heaters stay." After Harvia disconnected, your real heaters are gone from the list, along with their lock links and settings. Demo heaters and their links stay.

When you connect again, your heaters come back from MyHarvia as new rows. Automatic start is off, the settings are back at 45 minutes and 80 °C, and no lock is linked. So after reconnecting:

Link each heater to its lock again.
Set Preheat time and Target temperature, and switch Automatic start back on if you use it.
Check Planned starts and stops. Bookings that were paid before the reconnect lost their automatic starts and reminders, even if they are still listed there under a technical id. Start those heaters from the booking, or use Extend or Move on the booking to plan it again.

Remove or replace a heater in MyHarvia

A heater you delete in the MyHarvia app disappears from the Heaters list, but Rentalbuddy keeps its lock link in the background. Bookings on that lock still get a Heater card with Heater status unknown, starts and stops for them fail, and linking another heater to that lock fails with "Could not send the heater command.", even though the lock looks free.

Before you remove or replace a heater in MyHarvia, set its Connected lock to Not connected to a lock in Rentalbuddy. Then link the new heater to the lock.
If the heater is already gone from the list, press Disconnect and Connect Harvia again to clear it, then follow Disconnect or reconnect Harvia.

After moving, replacing or removing a lock

Move to another location: the heater goes with the lock. The move dialog says "The connected heater follows the lock to the new location."
Replace lock: the heater moves to the new lock along with the lock's place, unless the new lock already has a heater of its own. In that case it stays linked to the old lock, which is now inactive. Check Connected lock afterwards, and if needed link the heater in Connected lock or in the new lock's Connected heater. Otherwise bookings on the new lock get no heater, no plan and no heater dial.
Deleting a lock: the heater is unlinked and shows Not connected to a lock. Pick the new lock in Connected lock.

See the locks guide for how moving and replacing locks work.

The sauna was cold: the heater did not start

Work down this list.

Start it now. Open the booking and press Start heater on the Heater card.
Look for a warning chip on the Heater card. Remote start blocked, Controller offline or Heating slowly tells you what went wrong, and the line under it what to do (see Heater checks and warnings before a booking). Check the warning emails in Account Contact E-mail too.
Read the logs. In Settings → Integrations → Sauna heaters, open Logs for the heater, or look at Recent activity on the booking. A Failed row means Harvia refused, the heater didn't report the new state within 5 minutes, a newer command replaced it, or the booking was cancelled or returned. No row at all means no start was sent.
"Connected" doesn't prove the login still works. Connected as … only means Rentalbuddy has your MyHarvia login saved. If the MyHarvia password was changed, or MyHarvia Control ended, every command fails even though the card still says Connected. Typical signs are Heater status unknown, Failed in the logs, and "Could not send the heater command." Fix it with Disconnect and Connect Harvia, then follow Disconnect or reconnect Harvia.
Is the heater linked to this booking's lock? The booking needs a Heater card. If there isn't one, the heater is linked to another lock, to a lock that was replaced, or to none, or the lock has a demo heater instead of the real one. If there is a card but the heater is no longer in the Heaters list, it was deleted in MyHarvia. See Remove or replace a heater in MyHarvia.
Was it planned? With Automatic start, the booking should have an On row in Planned starts and stops before its start time. Bookings paid before you linked the heater or switched on Automatic start aren't planned. See Changes apply to bookings planned after the change.
Was the booking paid? Unpaid bookings aren't started automatically.
Did the reminder reach anyone? Without Automatic start, someone has to press the button in the start email. The email goes to Account Contact E-mail. Check that the address is right and look in spam.
Is a demo heater linked instead of the real one? Then real bookings on that lock show no Heater card, the customer sees no heater dial, and nothing is sent to the real sauna. Unlink or remove the demo heater and link the real heater to the lock.
Check Harvia's side. Is the heater online in the MyHarvia app? Is MyHarvia Control active? Does the control panel accept remote start? If it doesn't, the Heater card shows Remote start blocked: close the sauna door and re-enable remote control on the heater panel. If a demo heater works in Rentalbuddy but the real heater doesn't, the problem is with Harvia or the heater itself. Check Harvia's own help.

Common questions

The sauna was cold when the customer arrived. Why didn't the heater start? Look for a warning chip on the booking's Heater card, then at Logs and Planned starts and stops. Most often the heater wasn't linked to the lock, or, with Automatic start off, nobody pressed the button in the start email. Another common cause is a MyHarvia login that stopped working while the card still said Connected.

Can my customers turn the sauna heater on themselves? No. They only see the status, the temperature and the time left on their unlock page. You switch it on, with the email button or from the booking, or Automatic start does if you have switched it on.

How early does the heater start before a booking, and can I set the temperature? Preheat time minutes before the booking starts, 45 minutes to begin with, anything from 1 to 1440 minutes per heater. Target temperature in the Heaters table, from 40 to 110 °C (80 °C to begin with), is set every time Rentalbuddy switches the heater on.

Why do I get "Sauna heater off" emails when the heater was never on? Rentalbuddy sends a stop at the end of every paid booking on a heater's lock, and when such a booking is cancelled or returned, and each stop sends the email. Switch off Email when a heater is turned off if you don't want them.

The button in the heater email says "This link has already been used". Why? Only the newest link for a booking works. A newer email, Extend, Move, a payment change, cancelling or returning the booking all cancel the old link; only the button in a warning email leaves the other links alone. Start the heater from the booking instead.

The admin says Connected but nothing happens. What do I do? Connected only means the login is saved. Disconnect, connect again with your current MyHarvia login, then link the heaters to their locks again and switch Automatic start back on if you used it.

I replaced the sauna lock. Does the heater follow? Yes, Replace lock moves the heater to the new lock, unless the new lock already had a heater of its own. If bookings on the new lock show no heater, link it in Connected lock or in the lock's Connected heater.

I added a demo heater but don't see it on my booking. Why? A demo heater only shows on test bookings. Make one with Make a test booking in the top bar of the location's page; real bookings never show a demo heater.

Why does a heater show a code instead of its name? Rentalbuddy reads the name from MyHarvia when the Heaters list loads. Press Refresh; if it still shows a code, give the heater a name in the MyHarvia app and press Refresh again.

I started the heater for the next guest, but it switched off. Why? Without Automatic start, the end of the previous booking on the same lock switches the heater off, even if you already started it for the next booking. Start it again with Start heater on the next booking's Heater card.

Why does the unlock preview show a heater dial when I don't have a sauna? The Customer flow preview always shows an example heater. Customers only see a heater when their lock has one linked.

Who gets the "Turn on the sauna heater" email? Everyone listed in Account Contact E-mail in Settings → Account. It goes out 15 minutes before the heater should start, for heaters without Automatic start.

Which Harvia heater or control panel can I use? Harvia heaters on the Harvia Fenix control panel, connected to Wi-Fi with internet, with a MyHarvia Control subscription. The integration is in beta. Other Harvia control panels can show up in the Heaters list but aren't verified with Rentalbuddy, so ask us before you buy: info@rentalbuddy.io.

Is the Harvia integration finished? Is it safe to let Rentalbuddy start the sauna? It is in beta, so follow your first bookings with it closely. By default nothing starts by itself: before each paid booking you get a one-time start button by email, and you decide. Automatic start is optional, switched on per heater, and used at your own risk: Rentalbuddy AB is not responsible for automatic or failed heating.

What does "Waiting for the heater…" mean? Rentalbuddy has sent a start or stop, and the heater hasn't reported its new state yet. The chip goes away by itself when it does; if the heater doesn't report within 5 minutes, Logs shows a Failed row.

I got an email saying the sauna heater cannot be started remotely, is offline or may not be warm in time. What do I do? These are the warning emails from the check before a booking. Open the booking's Heater card: the line under the warning chip says what to fix, for example close the sauna door and re-enable remote control on the heater panel, or check the controller's power and Wi-Fi. They are a beta aid, not a guarantee.

When does Rentalbuddy check the heater before a booking? Preheat time plus 30 minutes before each paid booking starts (with 45 minutes and a booking at 18:00, at 16:45), and then every minute until the booking ends, with or without Automatic start.

Does Rentalbuddy try again if an automatic start fails? Yes, up to 3 times. It reads the heater before each try and before emailing, so you only get the Automatic preheat failed email if the heater is still off. Nothing is retried after the booking has ended.

Why are there Off rows in Planned starts and stops for a heater without Automatic start? Rentalbuddy switches the heater off at the end of every paid booking on its lock, whether or not it started it, and lists those stops for every linked heater. A stop that another booking will keep from happening is left out.

I changed the target temperature while the sauna was heating. Why didn't it change? The Target temperature is set just before each start, so a change during a running session applies from the next start.