Ice Barrel Review - The Upright Cold Water Therapy Tub For Exercise Recovery At Home
We tried the most popular ice bath tub for cold plunge at home - just add water and ice
Ice Barrel Review 2024
Welcome to our Ice Barrel review 2024. In recent years, there has been a huge uptake of everyone from athletes to average joes using ice baths like the Ice Barrel as a science based recovery method. Wim Hof definitely brought cold water immersion as a recovery method to the mainstream.
The benefits of ice baths and cold water therapy are broad and most certainly worthy of an investment in some kind of home ice bath tub setup for a regular cold plunge. The cult-like following that Wim Hof has created around his combination of breathwork and cold immersion may have left you feeling like you need to try this practice of sitting calmly in a tub of freezing cold water with ice up to the neck, and there are a few ways that you can do exactly that at home.
With the rise in this icy practice around the world, brands like Ice Barrel have created a purpose built way to have your own home recovery setup. As far as specifics go, most of these ice bath tubs entail a large vessel that you fill with water, chill with ice and sit in for short periods to accumulate time under cold exposure.
Over the past few months we have been trialling the best ice baths for home we could get our hands on and in this article we offer an in-depth Ice Barrel review - find out if it is worth the time and money?
Bottom Line
The Ice Barrel is a bare bones, simple and durable way to have endless cold plunge potential at home, although be prepared for the added cost of ice to chill the water. You get a spacious 105-gallon capacity, easy drainage system, US-made with polyethylene and recycled materials plus a 100% satisfaction, 30-day money-back guarantee.
What we like
Easy to set up
Lightweight polyethylene
Recycled material
Easy to clean
What we don’t like
Requires added cost to cool - ice
Large and awkward for storage
Price is expensive
The Origins Of The Ice Barrel
Ice Barrel inspired by Wim Hof method
CEO, Wyatt Ewing wanted “to create the most accessible and effective cold therapy solutions to help you get colder and feel better!” After a period of being broken, sick and burnt and having a complete stranger at his gym tell him how terrible he looked, Wyatt was pointed toward the healing powers of breathwork, meditation and cold showers.
On his own Wim Hof journey, he decided he needed an ice bath that was accessible to improve on the cold showers that were not cutting it anymore - The Ice Barrel was born - and now athletes, biohackers, military and average joes are climbing into the icey tub to hack their recovery and bulletproof their wellness. The general consensus from our research on other Ice Barrel reviews is that, despite the price, Ice Barrel is one of the best solutions to a simple ice bath for cold plunge at home, at a gym or for athletes in a sporting team due to its durability, ease of setup and purpose built design.
Further Reading: The Way Of The Ice Man by Wim Hof
Ice Barrel Specs
How big is the Ice Barrel? Will the Ice Barrel even fit in your space? How much does the Ice Barrel weigh? These are all important questions to have answered if you are considering buying an Ice Barrel online. Below are a few of the basic specs pulled straight from the Ice Barrel website to get to know the measurements and dimensions of the Ice Barrel to see how well it suits your space.
42 inches (in.) high
31 in. wide at widest point
25-in. opening on top
55 lbs. when empty
750 lbs. when filled
What Does The Ice Barrel Include?
Ice Barrel is ideal both indoors and outdoors
When you purchase the Ice Barrel there are a couple of key items that will come with the Ice Barrel. Here is exactly what you get when you buy an Ice Barrel:
Barrel
Barrel lid
Barrel stand
Protective UV cover
Step stool
Ice Barrel have made a couple of upgrades since their first release of the Ice Barrel and have listened to customer reviews about the need for a step to get in and out of the barrel with ease. For shorter people, the Ice Barrel was a bit of a challenge to get in and out of and a makeshift step was needed until Ice Barrel started including a matching step.
The Ice Barrel comes with a matching recycled plastic lid which is essential for maintaining the low temperature of the cold plunge once the ice has been added to the barrel. Obviously the ice will melt over time, but by using the insulated lid, you can cycle through your cold plunge protocol with a few people using the ice barrel without the temperature rising too fast.
The Ice Barrel can get a little top heavy so it is important to use the stand that comes with it. The stand is placed under the Ice Barrel and simple cups the Barrel to make it more sturdy for getting in and out once the Ice Barrel is full of water and ice.
The Ice Barrel also includes a protective UV cover that can encase the whole barrel and is really beneficial if you are planning to set up the Ice Barrel for cold plunge in an outdoor environment and leave it there long term. The UV cover protects the plastic from wear and tear, especially from the sun and will extend the life of the Ice Barrel significantly.
All of these items are also available as a replacement item on the Ice Barrel website or if you puchased the Ice Barrel early on, you can now buy the handy step stool to go with your Ice Barrel.
Ice Barrel Cost
To access cold plunge at home an Ice Barrel will cost you $1,049.97. If you are considering the Ice Barrel and live in Australia like we do, be prepared to see the price of your Ice Barrel go up significantly when the shipping costs are added in.
Shipping cost is not so bad for the US based, noting that the Ice Barrel was born in the USA and will cost around $95 in shipping, depending on where you live. As far as the price of an Ice Barrel goes, I suppose you need to consider what else you could get for that price if you have a limited budget to spend on a home recovery setup.
As far as other costly recovery tools go, you could be looking at a sauna blanket and a quality massage gun for roughly the same price, or even a low end infrared sauna. At roughly the same price as an average gym membership for a year, it is understandable if you bawk at the thought of spending this amount on a tub for filling with ice.
It is worth considering how much you are prepared to spend on coffee or alcohol annually though and consider if an Ice Barrel is a worthy investment in your health and wellness for a lifetime!
Once you have bought the Ice Barrel, there is an ongoing cost of buying the ice to fill the barrel which can add up depending on how many sessions per week you intend on doing. We usually aim for 2-3 cold plunge sessions per week which amounts to about $20/week in ice. Something to consider if you thought the Ice Barrel was a low cost option for cold therapy at home - $20/week turns into $80 per month turns into $960/year.
We will leave that up to your budget calculator.
Does Cold Therapy Work and What Are The Benefits?
Benefits of ice baths
What is a cold plunge and what are the benefits of ice baths and cold therapy for recovery? Wim Hof has been a pioneer of using breathing mixed with cold water immersion (CWI) as a means to control the body, fight off illness and reduce inflammation. Because of Wim Hof, the research and evidence surrounding the benefits of ice baths and the overall benefits of cold water immersion have been brought to the public eye and given much more attention.
Physiologically, cold therapy creates a constriction of the blood vessels and decreases metabolic activity, which in turn reduces swelling and tissue breakdown. Upon leaving the cold water, the tissues warm and blood flow returns which assists lymphatic drainage and removing byproducts particularly those associated with increased exertion from exercise. The main proven benefits of ice baths are:
Decreased muscle soreness or DOMS
Increased perceived recovery
Boost metabolism
Increased resilience
Reduced pain levels
Mood improvements
Relaxation and reduced heart rate
Faster recovery from intense cardio
Reduced inflammation
Stronger immune function
Better sleep quality
The idea of ice bathing or cold water immersion is to have reasonable short bouts of full body exposure to the cold water following exercise or whilst practicing the Wim Hof breathing method in conjunction with cold therapy. But, using an ice bath post exercise isn’t always a good idea.
When to avoid ice baths
The athletic community is somewhat divided or undecided on ice baths after exercise. The effects of ice baths on exercise performance and recovery depends on what kind of exercise is involved. A researcher found that, “large reductions and/or blunting of the desired results from strength training such as increasing strength and muscle mass, and cellular improvements within the muscle. This was most likely a result of the cold water negatively interfering with the natural protein and cellular responses that happen in the muscle after each strength session.”
Takeaway
Ice baths are effective and useful for recovering from post-endurance type exercise.
Ice baths are not recommended and can produce negative effects when used post strength training type.
Buy the Ice Barrel online at Ice Barrel
Ice Barrel Review - Our Experience
Using the Ice Barrel outdoors
Ice Barrel Setup
What you will need to set the Ice Barrel up for a cold plunge at home is a garden hose and about 4-6 bags of ice to chill the water depending on how long you are doing your cold plunge and how many people are using it.
There’s not much to it really - pour all of the ice into the barrel and fill the tub about ¾ full with water. If you have purchased the lid to accompany your Ice Barrel, place that on and let the ice cool down the water to an appropriate temperature for you. We usually aim for about 9 - 10 degrees celsius and check the temperature using a floating pool temperature gauge.
Line up the steps, pump yourself up with a few minutes of Wim Hof breathing and get icey!
Getting In and Out
Climbing into the Ice Barrel or any ice bath is always easier than climbing out once the muscles go a little number and moving becomes more rigid as the cold kicks in.
Getting into the Ice Barrel is made easier with the matching coloured steps that come with the Ice Barrel purchase and I don’t doubt it would have been challenging to get in and out of this thing before the steps were part of the inclusions.
Getting out is also fine, although we would recommend having the Ice Barrel placed somewhere that a hand hold or hand rail can be used for support when climbing out, as the body does not always do what you want it to do after a few minutes in freezing cold water.
Ice Barrel Storage
Storage of the Ice Barrel is not exactly compact noting that the Barrel is not at all collapsible and is quite round and awkward. I found it a little hard to find a good space for the Ice Barrel ice bath in my new house because there were limited options for running a hose so be sure that you have somewhere suitable to easily fill up the barrel. This could pose an issue for those with a tight space at home but all it takes is a small portion of a deck, a grassed area or a section of the garage to set up the Ice Barrel or leave away for storage.
Ice Barrel Warranty
The Ice Barrel comes with a limited lifetime warranty to cover defects and damage for some parts of the Ice Barrel. They guarantee that your Ice Barrel will not crack and will remain free from material defects so long as the barrel is used for its intended purposes and is subject to reasonable maintenance.
The warranty does not cover cosmetic issues (i.e. fading, scratches, etc.) resulting from normal wear or dirt, water retention, internal/external surface contamination from exposure to environmental conditions, and inclement weather, including but not limited to storms, tornados, hurricanes, hail, sleet, ice, moisture, rain, flooding, snow, sun, and wind.
The Ice Barrel is made from LLDPE (Low Linear Density Polyethylene), which will fade over time if left in direct sunlight. The protective cover included in the purchase does a little bit to combat the fading from UV rays but it is worth noting there is no warranty against fading, as some of the materials we use may form natural signs of aging with use.
Chiller Unit For Ice Barrel
One of the main questions we get asked is: “does the Ice Barrel come with a chiller unit”, or “best chiller unit ice barrel conversion”. An update to our Ice Barrel review is that Ice Barrel has actually been working towards a chiller unit for the Ice Barrel.
While you can not currently buy a Chiller unit option on the Ice Barrel website, we have seen quite a few chiller units with filtration and sanitation that Ice Barrel customers have retrofitted to the barrel. For the best ways to add on a chiller unit to your ice barrel if you are sick of buying ice, there are loads of Youtube videos of people doing this, and it seems like the official Ice Barrel version is not too far away.
In fact, Ice Barrel actual now have a free DIY Water Chiller setup guide PDF on their website if you provide your name and email.
Ice Barrel Alternatives
Ice Barrel vs Cold Plunge vs PlusLife vs Blue Cube
The Ice Barrel is a cold plunge tub that requires you to add ice to the tub each time you use it for cold plunge. For some, the Ice Barrel seems quite expensive for a plastic barrel that has none of its own cooling mechanism and requires the added cost of ice for each use after spending over $1000 on the tub. There are loads of Ice Barrel alternatives that either include a chiller that doesn’t require you to buy ice bags each time, or others that still require you to buy ice but are much cheaper and still purpose built for cold plunge.
Below are some of the Ice Barrel alternatives that we recommend for setting up cold plunge at-home.
PlusLife Ice Bath - The PlusLife Ice Bath certainly rivals the Plunge very closely and is a fantastic option for Australian plungers looking to buy a good, solid, self cooling ice bath without having to pay huge shipping costs for transport from the US to Australia. The PlusLife cold plunge actually gets to a colder temperature than the Cold Plunge at 2.5 degrees celsius and has a super sleek Acrylic design that is suitable for indoor and outdoor use like the Cold Plunge.
Cold Plunge - The Cold Plunge is one of the most premium cold plunge tubs we have come across when reviewing cold plunge tubs for home. We came across The Plunge listening to Dr. Andrew Huberman talking about deliberate cold water exposure and the health benefits associated with it. He talks about some really good cold plunge protocols that you can use as a framework to build on your ice bathing practice in his podcast. The Plunge is an Acrylic tub that can be setup indoors or outdoors and includes its own chiller and particulate filtration system that allows you to have icy water ready for cold plunge whenever you need it. The Plunge is available in a an XL size as well as the Pro version which includes hot and cold capability.
Edge Theory Labs Ice Bath - Many people start with a cost effective, portable and inflatable ice bath tub like our very own cold plunge tub. Edge Theory labs have a number of automated portable and inflatable ice bath tubs with built in filtration and sanitation. These tubs are a little more expensive than the Ice Barrel, but still a cheap and transportable option for cold plunge both at home and for taking away to sporting events and games for teams to recovery post activity. The Edge Theory Labs tubs range from $4490USD to $5490USD for the EliteXL option.
Blue Cube Ice Bath - The Blue Cube is a super high priced ice bath tub that features some beautiful timber trimmings and is best for someone looking to create a luxury feel recovery space in their home, gym or wellness space. You won’t get much change from $15,000 from one of these, so unless you are very sure about your commitment to cold plunge you may find it more logical to start with something for less than half the price that does the same job like the Cold Plunge.
Final Word On Ice Barrel Review
Credit: Ice Barrel
If you are looking for a simple and durable ice bath for home without the need to be fixed or plugged into a power source then the Ice Barrel is probably suitable for you. I really love that the Ice Barrel is made in the US from recycled materials and is a fairly portable ice bath due it’s lightweight design when empty.
Overall, we found the Ice Barrel extremely simple to setup for cold plunge, even our most instructionally-challenged team members could set it up with ease in a couple of minutes. The Ice Barrel can also be purchased in a few different colours including black and the tan brown colour in the photo above which is pretty cool.
Although the Ice Barrel is a little more expensive than one would expect for a recycled plastic barrel with a lid and step, the Ice Barrel is definitely a must have for the ultimate home recovery setup. Don’t forget to use discount code GURU for $180 off your Ice Barrel.
The price and ongoing cost of buying ice to cool the water for the cold plunge sessions is the biggest drawback for buying an Ice Barrel but the relative cost of this simple ice bath tub is still very low compared to some electric fan cooled variants of ice baths that can retail for 5-10x higher price.
After using the Ice Barrel for the past month a couple of times per week at the Recovery Guru ranch we conclude that this bit of recovery gear is a worthy investment in your wellness if you have the space, budget and the courage to brave the ice cold plunge temperatures.
