This page sets out the review evidence we describe on our Nova Saunas brand profile. Website review data came from the public customer review feed on novasaunas.com.au, captured on 30 Oct 2026 (Australia/Sydney). Screenshots are dated in the bar at the top of each image. Where we give a view, it is our opinion based on these records. None of it proves that any single review is fake.
1. Customer reviews dated before Nova was trading
- The Nova website shows 91 customer reviews dated between 1 Jan 2024 and 16 Dec 2024. All are marked verified and 17 include photos.
- On 16 Dec 2024 the Internet Archive saved novasaunas.com.au as a “Launching Soon” holding page with an email signup and no shop (Wayback Machine captures).
- ABN Lookup shows the NOVA SAUNAS business name was registered in Apr 2025, and Nova Saunas Pty Ltd (ABN 35 688 665 223) has been active since 2 Jul 2025.
- Photos attached to reviews dated Jan, Jul and Nov 2024 show crates stencilled “NOVA SAUNAS” and a sauna door with a “NOVA” nameplate.
A possible explanation is early stock sold under another name before launch. Even so, in our view the dates and “verified” labels shown on reviews from before mid 2025 cannot be taken at face value.
2. The review count grew backwards (Wayback Machine, 2 Apr 2025)
In plain English: on 2 April 2025 the Internet Archive saved a copy of Nova’s homepage. It showed 44 reviews in total across the four saunas. Today, Nova’s website shows 116 reviews dated earlier than that day. Reviews cannot be written in the past, so about 72 of them appear to have been added after April 2025 and given older dates, or imported from somewhere else and back dated. Either way, the dates shown today are not a reliable record of when those reviews first appeared.
Archive capture: web.archive.org/web/20250402174114/https://novasaunas.com.au/ (saved 2 Apr 2025, 17:41 UTC, which is 3 Apr 2025, 4:41 am AEDT). The counts appear under the stars on each product card and in the page code of the review widget Nova used at the time.
| Sauna | Reviews shown on 2 Apr 2025 (Archive) | Reviews on the site today dated before 2 Apr 2025 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sauna Lite (2 person) | 16 | 50 | +34 |
| Sauna Cabin (4 person) | 14 | 27 | +13 |
| Sauna Cube | 8 | 22 | +14 |
| Sauna Lodge | 6 | 17 | +11 |
| Total | 44 | 116 | +72 |
Caveats: the Archive saw only the homepage badges, not each review. A badge can lag the real total, and Nova may have imported reviews from another channel when it changed review apps. Neither explains reviews with Nova branded crate photos dated in 2024, while the site was a holding page.
3. The Sauna Drink: reviews before the product was listed
- The Sauna Drink product listing was created on 14 Sep 2026 (public product data from novasaunas.com.au, captured 30 Oct 2026).
- 15 customer reviews are dated 16 Jul to 7 Sep 2026, before the listing existed.
- Most are stamped exactly midnight UTC on a roughly three day cadence: 24, 27 and 30 Jul; 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 19, 25 and 28 Aug; 2, 4 and 7 Sep.
- 13 are five star and 2 are four star. They are short and casual in tone.
- Three photo reviews (27 Jul, 15 Aug and 2 Sep 2026) show the finished retail box and sachets weeks before the product was listed. Several look like posed creator style shots rather than casual customer snaps.
Pre launch samples given to early users are a possible explanation. In our view the regular midnight cadence looks scheduled rather than organic.
4. Wider review pattern on the Nova website
- 381 customer reviews in the feed on 30 Oct 2026. 359 (94%) are five star; there is one 1 star review.
- 303 of 381 (80%) are stamped exactly 00:00:00 UTC. This is common with bulk imports, so on its own it is a weak signal.
- 377 of 381 carry a verified flag, but only 37 hold the review app’s stronger “Verified Reviewer” status.
- A surge of 138 reviews from Jul to Sep 2026 (49, 46 and 43 a month), against 2 to 16 a month before that, including 14 consecutive days of midnight stamped reviews from 23 Aug to 5 Sep.
- We found no duplicated review text, no repeated people or locations across review photos, and no signs of AI generated photos.
5. Trustpilot history
Profile: au.trustpilot.com/review/novasaunas.com.au
- 13 Aug 2026: 4.4 from 29 reviews
- 27 Oct 2026: about 4.5 from 16 reviews
- 30 Oct 2026: 4.0 from 9 reviews (seven 5 star, one 4 star, one 1 star)
20 reviews have left the public page since mid August, 7 of them in three days. Trustpilot removes reviews it flags as fake or in breach of its guidelines, and businesses or reviewers can also cause removals. Trustpilot does not say which applied here. The only negative review still showing (19 May 2026) reports delays. No new Trustpilot reviews have appeared since 19 Jul 2026.
6. Google reviews snapshot
The Nova Saunas Google Business Profile showed 4.3 stars from 6 reviews on 30 Oct 2026. Google shows relative dates, so the dates below are approximate as at that day.
| Reviewer | Posted (approx.) | Stars | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hoborobo23 (Local Guide, 67 reviews) | 29 Oct 2026 | Negative | Bought a sauna 8 weeks earlier, no contact since, called twice for tracking and could not get it, but still receives promotional emails every 4 days. |
| Gaby Marino (Local Guide, 42 reviews) | Early Oct 2026 | 5 | Enjoying the sauna, installed it themselves with the supplied parts and a few tools. Includes a video. |
| Bradley Pratt (1 review) | Late Sep 2026 | 5 | “The team was helpful and the sauna is fantastic.” |
| Sadie Davidson (2 reviews) | Late Sep 2026 | 5 | Quick to set up, gets really hot. |
| Samuel Morris (2 reviews) | Late Sep 2026 | 5 | “Great sauna. Using it daily.” |
| Tom Barnett (Local Guide, 17 reviews) | Late Sep 2026 | 5 | Moved from a gym sauna, compared options, called Nova and spoke with a staff member. Includes a photo. |
Nova’s reply to Hoborobo23 (29 Oct 2026): Nova said it could not find an order linked to the reviewer’s details, suggested “a bit of a misunderstanding”, and asked the reviewer to call its operations team for tracking. We cannot verify either side. We note it because a delay complaint also appears on Trustpilot.
Four of the five positive Google reviews come from accounts with only one or two reviews in total, all shown by Google as posted “a month ago”.
7. The platform gap
Nova’s own website shows 381 customer reviews, including 116 dated before 2 Apr 2025. On independent platforms, where the business cannot load or date reviews itself, we found 9 on Trustpilot and 6 on Google. In our view that gap means the website review feed should not be relied on as an independent measure of customer experience.
Method
On 30 Oct 2026 we downloaded the public customer review feed and public product data from novasaunas.com.au, checked Internet Archive captures from Dec 2024 and Apr 2025, captured the Trustpilot and Google profiles, and compared all 161 review photos by eye and by image similarity scoring. We have kept copies of every capture. Nova Saunas is welcome to contact hello@saunasaustralia.com with corrections or context and we will review this page.