Cold therapy has been around since the days of the Ancient Greeks, but it’s a hot topic in modern-day health and wellness. On my husband’s anti-aging quest, he convinced me to get a cold plunge tub, and my thoughts on it surprise even me. We bought the Plunge All-In, and I’m happy to share the goods and bads, along with other options we looked at.
Why are we doing this again? Jumping into an ice bath is thought to have many benefits, including stress management and supporting your immune system. Cold-water therapy can help you recover from exercise more quickly and could help with weight loss. Ice baths used to be reserved for professional athletes and gym members, but cold plunge pools are now available for home use, and we just had to jump on the trend.
Over the last few months, I’ve been trying out one of the most popular models, the Plunge-All In Cold Plunge Pool. This video takes you through my honest thoughts.
In my full review, I’ll outline the pros and cons of this cold plunge tub, and give you some helpful tips on how to position, use, and maintain it.
I’ve also rounded up another 9 of the best cold plunge tubs on the market to help you choose the best cold plunging tub for your home.
What are the benefits of cold plunge therapy?
More and more people are discovering the health benefits of cold immersion therapy.
Plunging yourself into freezing cold water can feel uncomfortable at first. However, once you get past the initial shock, the experience can be relaxing and even meditative. It can improve mental clarity, support mental health, and help you build resilience to stress.
The cold shock dilates blood vessels and improves blood flow so more nutrients and oxygen reach tissue quickly. Cold exposure can also reduce muscle soreness and help muscle recovery after exercise.
Regular exposure to cold temperatures could even support weight loss by making the body work harder to burn calories.
However, there’s still a lot that we don’t understand about cold water immersion therapy, and the main benefits of a cold tub need to be researched further.
What to look for in a Cold Plunge Pool?
If you’re thinking of buying a cold plunge pool, here are a few factors you need to consider before you take the plunge:
- Size: How much space will your tub take up?
- Location: Is your tub suitable for use inside your home or only outdoors?
- Portability: How easy is it to move around your home?
- Maintenance: Is filling, emptying, and cleaning your tub easy?
- Temperature: How cold can your tub get? Does it retain the temperature well?
- Chilling Options: How do you chill the water? Do you need to add ice, or does it have an electric chiller?
- Features: Does your tub have additional features like underwater lights or a phone holder?
The Plunge All-In Cold Plunge Pool
The Plunge All-In Cold Plunge Pool is a cold-water plunge tub. It’s made from the highest quality materials so it’s suitable for outdoor use, and the underwater light let you enjoy nighttime plunges.
The tub’s integrated cooler module will take your water down to 37°F, and there’s also a heated version that gives the option to use your cold plunge pool as a hot tub.
The Plunge All-In has a very sleek and modern design that will look great in your yard. It’s also easy to use, which makes it easy to incorporate cold plunging into your daily wellness routine.
A cold plunge tub is a big ticket item, so there are a few aspects to consider before you take the plunge on your purchase. Here are my thoughts on the Plunge All-In Cold Plunge Pool, which I’ve been using at home for the last few months.
Positioning your Cold Plunge Pool
The delivery company will unbox the pool and place it wherever you want. However, at 270 lbs without water, moving it will be a job for 2 people and a dolly truck. So, think carefully about where you want to place the tub before it arrives.
The tub is designed to be suitable for indoor or outdoor use. Personally, I can’t imagine using it indoors unless it was in a bathroom with a tile floor where you could easily mop up any water spilled during drainage. Or maybe you’re less splashy than me, but I get water everywhere when getting out.
You’ll sit facing the square edge of the tub, so you need to place the angled part of the tub where you want your back to be. This looked a little bit odd to me because you’d think that the square edge would go against the wall of your house. But that would have meant we’d be laying back and looking at the house instead of the yard.
Setting up the Plunge All-In Cold Plunge Pool
It was pretty easy to get the Plunge All-In up and running. You can plug the tub into a regular outlet, but the manufacturer recommends installing it on a dedicated circuit. We already had a home sauna on the closest circuit to where we wanted to place the tub, so we ran a separate circuit specifically for the plunge. Factor that in to your expenses if you’ll need to do the same.
Once you’ve plugged your tub in, you need to install the carbon filter and then let the water run from your garden hose through the filter for around 30 seconds to activate the carbon. If you don’t do this properly, you’ll get little bits of black carbon dust in your tub, and it’s impossible to clean them out without draining the whole tub.
After that, you can just fill up the tub from your hose, set the temperature, and let the integrated do its job!
Cleaning and Maintenance
I was surprised to find that there’s quite a lot of work involved in maintaining a cold plunge pool.
I thought it would be more straightforward than maintaining a hot tub, but even with ice-cold water, you need to maintain it properly to keep the water clean and free from bacteria.
In fact, there’s probably more management involved with this type of pool than some of the more portable plunge pools, which you’ll drain more frequently.
Filling and draining the Plunge All-in-One
Draining and refilling the Plunge All-In tub isn’t a straightforward task. You’re supposed to be able to attach a garden hose and drain it that way, but I tried two hoses, and neither worked. Eventually, I drained it without using a hose, which worked OK and it took 20-30 minutes to drain the whole tub.
Then, I used bleach and water to scrub the inside, especially around the water line where there was some discoloration. I drain and clean the Plunge All-In every couple of months as it’s pretty time-consuming, but you might want to do it more often if you have more time available or if you’re using it on a daily basis (we probably use ours 3-4 times a week).
Changing the Filter
The filter needs to be changed every couple of weeks, and it’s a pretty finicky job. The filter needs to be put back in precisely the right spot, and the lid must be put back on very tight, or the water will leak out.
I wish it was a simple drop-in-and-screw-on task, but it is what it is!
Testing the Water
You’ll also need to test the water quality in your pool to prevent it developing a scum on top. Your Plunge All-In pool will arrive with a starter kit for testing and balancing the water’s chemical composition. We already use bromine in our hot tub and pool, so we used that in a small floating device rather than the chlorine they provided.
Even with changing the filter, testing the water composition, and running the pool regularly, it still develops a scum on the water surface from time to time. So, we keep a little skimmer handy and check the water before getting in.
It’s worth taking your time over cleaning and maintaining your Plunge All-In pool. The manufacturers are pretty strict about the warranty, and it could be voided if you don’t maintain the pool correctly.
I didn’t expect maintaining a cold plunge pool to take this much effort, so that’s something to consider before you purchase a tub.
Tips for Using the Plunge All-In
The Plunge All-In comes with an insulated cover with straps to secure it on top of the tub. We leave that on to maintain the water temperature, which makes it a lot more energy efficient and also means it’s ready to use quickly.
When you’re ready to get in the tub, you can either leave the filter on or pause it. If you leave it running, you can feel the cold water jets blowing at your back and legs, which can be uncomfortable. The app has different settings to pause the filter for 15-60 minutes, so I usually hit the pause button for a more comfortable plunge.
It’s a good idea to keep some shoes nearby for walking to the tub. If you walk out to your plunge pool with bare feet, you’ll carry dirt, sand, and other debris into the plunge pool. The cleaner you can keep your pool, the less time you’ll spend cleaning it!
Advantages of the Plunge All-In Cold Plunge Pool
The Plunge All-In Cold Plunge pool has several plus points that make it a great tub for cold plunging at home.
Design
First of all, it looks fantastic. The chiller motor is integrated into the tub, so it has a sleek design that will look great in your yard. The underwater lighting is a feature that most cold plunge tubs don’t have, so this is a great tub for chilly night time plunging. I will superficially say that the fact that it looks nice was something that made me more willing to spend a lot of money on it.
Size
Although it’s only a one-person plunge pool, it’s spacious enough for tall people up to 6 feet 9 inches to enjoy full-body immersion.
Ease of Use
The ease of use is another plus point for the Plunge All-In. The tub is controlled through an app that also allows you to set reminders for cleaning the vents or changing the filter. The integrated chiller doesn’t have many settings, so you can get it up and running in a few minutes.
So, it’s been easy for us to make cold plunge therapy a regular part of our daily routine, and we haven’t had any real issues with it in the 7 months or so that we’ve been using it.
On the other hand, if you don’t do things precisely the way the manufacturers recommend, you can cause yourself more work down the line. So, it’s essential to take time to read the instructions before you start setting it up.
Disadvantages of The Plunge All-In
Like all plunge pools, there are some disadvantages to the Plunge All-In tub, and you need to consider these when choosing your home cold plunge pool.
Size
Although the Plunge All-In is only a one-person tub, it’s 76 inches long and needs plenty of space in your yard. You’ll need an area approximately 7 feet by 3.5 feet, and with a filled weight of 1100 pounds, you’ll need to prepare the ground where your tub will stand. You’ll also need to ensure access to a dedicated circuit.
Cost
One major downside of the Plunge All-In is the cost of the tub. It’s one of the more expensive models out there, so you’ll need to consider whether you’ll get enough use to make it worth the price.
However, if you’re a fan of regular cold plunges, this model could be a good investment as the integrated chiller removes the need for 60-80 pounds of ice every time you use it.
Winterizing your Pool
You also need to consider whether to pay extra for the heated version of the tub. Like us, you might already have a hot tub and feel you don’t need to buy the heated version of the Plunge All-In.
However, if you live in an area that experiences freezing temperatures in the winter, you’ll need to buy the heated version or be prepared to fully drain and winterize your plunge pool when the temperature drops.
This wasn’t clear before we bought our pool, and it was disappointing to discover that our pool would be unusable during the winter without extra work.
The supplier’s customer service department was pretty unhelpful when I contacted them to see if we could arrange a replacement model, saying we’d have to pay a restocking fee of several thousand dollars. They claimed that a separate heating element would be available for around $1000 in the future, but that hasn’t happened yet.
Ultimately, we solved our problem by buying an aftermarket add-on from Amazon, which plugs in and keeps the pipes from freezing. This is our first winter with the cold plunge tub, but so far, it’s working really well even though sub-freezing temperatures. So, we’ve found an efficient and cost-effective solution to the problem, but the supplier’s lack of help was disappointing.
App Features
Generally, I’ve found the Plunge All-In very easy to use, and my only real complaint about the functionality is actually with the app you can use to control the temperature and track your plunges.
It’s not possible to have multiple users set up on the app, which means my husband and I have to share a single user account on the app. He uses the tub at a colder temperature than I like, and if I forget to change it back, I get a nasty shock! Additionally, our plunges get tracked together, so it makes it hard to see how frequently one of us is actually using it because it’s all mixed together. That basically ruins the gamification features they are trying to build in, with “streaks” and other incentives to use your cold plunge tub.
It seems weird to me that the tub has a feature to take an automatic selfie during your plunge, but you can’t have multiple profiles for different family members.
Temperature Resets
Another issue is that when the tub loses power, it doesn’t automatically turn back on when the power returns. We live in an area with frequent power outages, and every time it happens, the tub wipes all your temperature settings and defaults to 70 degrees Fahrenheit. You have to turn it on manually and set it up again to your preferred temperature. I also find that the frequent power outages have made it so the wifi features are finicky, which makes the app even less usable.
It would be helpful if the tub reset itself to your preferred temperature after a power outage. It’s not a major problem, but it’s an annoyance you wouldn’t expect in a tub at this price.
Is the Plunge All-In Cold Plunge Pool Worth It?
Considering all these pros and cons, would I recommend the Plunge All-In Cold Plunge Pool?
It’s true that the pool needs some maintenance and management to ensure you have clean water to plunge into. I also had some issues with the app’s features, which don’t always feel intuitive.
However, the tub is easy to set up and use, spacious enough to stretch out and relax in, and its sleek design looks good in our yard. Most importantly, it makes cold plunging very easy to fit into our everyday lives, so we now get regular use out of our cold plunge pool.
With a list price of $8,990, the Plunge All-In Cold Plunge Pool is at the top end of the cold plunge tub market, but overall, I think the Plunge All-In is very impressive.
If you have the space to fit it into your home and the budget for this high-end plunge pool, it’s a game changer. I would definitely recommend the Plunge All-In Cold Plunge Pool.
9 More Cold Plunge Pools to Consider
If you’re looking for a smaller or more affordable plunge pool than the Plunge All-In, here are 9 alternative chill tubs for home use:
The Plunge: Original Cold Plunge Tub
Originally known as The Plunge, the Original Cold Plunge Tub is a great alternative that includes many of the great features of the Plunge All-in.
This model has the same quality craftsmanship and high quality materials as the top-of-the-range model but has a separate cooling module that will take your water down to a chilly 37°F.
It’s slightly smaller than the Plunge All-In, but there’s still enough room for someone up to 6 feet 8 inches to stretch out and relax.
Like its big brother, the Original Cold Plunge Tub’s sleek styling won’t look out of place in your yard, and its underwater lighting is ideal for nighttime plunging. Its list price is $5,990, making it a more affordable option than the Plunge All-In Cold Plunge Pool.
Sun Home Cold Plunge Pro
If you’re looking for a really chilly plunge, the Sun Home Plunge Pro has a whisper-quiet built-in chiller that creates ice-cold water at a frosty 32°F. When the weather turns colder, you can use the heating function to enjoy a relaxing hot soak instead.
This tub measures an impressive 78 inches long, 2 inches longer than the Plunge All-In, and its sleek lines will look great on your patio. It has a detachable headrest that can be adjusted to your comfort, and casters make moving the tub around easier.
Other great features include an easy-access drain at the bottom of the tub, an insulated lid, internal jets, and lighting options.
However, the tub has no additional cushioning, and with a list price over $10k, it may be outside many people’s budgets.
Coldture Ultra Barrel Light
The Coldture Ultra Barrel Light is an affordable way to start cold plunging at home, with a list price just under $500.
This barrel-style tub has a small footprint that makes it perfect for smaller yards, but still offers enough room for people up to 6’ 8” to enjoy cold water immersion therapy.
It’s quick to set up and is also a lightweight option, weighing just 25lbs without water.
The basic pool will require bags of ice to bring the water down to your preferred temperature. Alternatively, you can upgrade by adding the Chiller Pro module which can cool your water to 37°F or heat it up to 107°F.
Adding the chiller module brings the price up to around $3175, which is still at the more affordable end of the plunge tub market.
Ice Barrel 400
The Ice Barrel 400 vertical cold plunge pool is a good budget-friendly alternative to the Plunge. Its simplistic design is ideal if you prefer to soak upright rather than in a horizontal position.
However, it’s large enough for an average-sized adult to float in a comfortable squatting position.
The Ice Barrel 400 is made from crack- and weather-resistant thermoplastic, and its vertical orientation makes it easy to fit into your yard.
At 55lbs without water, it’s also pretty easy for two people to move into position.
Unlike the Plunge tubs, this cold plunging tub doesn’t have a chiller module, bringing down the tub’s cost to a more affordable $1200. However, you’ll need to add up to 80 pounds of ice to bring the water down to temperature, so remember to consider this cost.
Ice Barrel 300
If you’re looking for a cold plunge pool to fit a smaller space, the Ice Barrel 300 is perfect.
It’s not deep enough for full immersion but has a built-in seat with enough room to accommodate an adult up to 6 feet 2 inches and 250 pounds in a seated upright position.
The fully insulated barrel is just 30.5 inches tall, which makes it easy to step in and out without using a step stool.
The smaller size also means filling the Ice Barrel 300 takes just a few minutes and minimal maintenance is required.
Like the Ice Barrel 400, this tub has no chiller module, so you’ll need to add around 40 pounds of ice to bring your water temperature down. Remember to add this cost to the $999 list price.
Polar Monkeys Brainpod 2.0
The Polar Monkeys Brainpod 2.0 is the perfect tub for people who want the option of both hot and cold water immersion.
The separate cooling and heating unit will take your water temperature range as high as 107°F or down as low as 32°F, cold enough to create icy water.
The Brainpod 2.0 hot and cold plunge tub is large enough for adults up to 6 feet 2 inches tall.
It only weighs 110 pounds without water, yet has a sturdy construction that feels solid and its angled back is ideal for comfortable relaxation.
This tub is at the upper end of the market with a list price of around $6300. It also comes in an XL version that costs around $500 more, and a range of colorful artist-designed styles are available.
Plunge Air
The Plunge Air is an inflatable cold plunge tub made from a durable material that’s UV-resistant and insulated to keep your water chilly.
Inflatable tubs are the perfect choice for easy portability, and with a 15-minute setup time, the Plunge Air is ideal if you only need occasional access to a cold plunge tub.
Adults up to 6 feet tall will fit comfortably in the Plunge Air, and it’s a fairly shallow tub, so stepping in and out is easy.
You can purchase the Plunge Air on its own to use with ice or add the Evolve chiller unit for hot and cold plunging options.
However, like the Plunge All-In, this tub must be drained and winterized when the outdoor temperature falls to 10 degrees Fahrenheit.
The $2,490 list price makes this portable ice bath a great option for affordable cold plunging.
Coldture Classic + Chiller Pro
The Coldture Classic is ideal for anyone who needs access to a cold plunge tub on the road. It weighs just 22lbs when empty and the rugged all-in-one design has insulated walls and cover to keep your water cold for longer.
Cold plunging is even easier when you combine the Coldture Classic with the Chiller Pro module, which has a temperature range of 37°F-107°F.
The tub’s advanced water filtration system keeps the tub clean for 20-30 days. Its convenient mobile app allows you to set the temperature in advance, so the tub is ready for you to plunge into as soon as you get home.
The Coldture Classic has a list price around $999 for the standalone tub or $3175 with the Chiller Pro module.
Nordik Recovery Ice Tub
If you’re looking for a budget-friendly cold plunge tub, the Nordik Recovery Ice Tub offers premium quality at an affordable price.
This inflatable cold plunge tub is made from military-grade PVC and is large enough to accommodate adults up to 6 feet 7 inches tall.
The basic Nordik Recovery Ice Tub has a list price of just $549, but you’ll need to add the cost of bags of ice to chill your water. Alternatively, you can add a chiller unit or upgrade to the premium model, which has a hot tub function and a filtration system to help keep your water clean for longer.
Cold Plunge Pools: The Final Verdict
After using the Plunge All-In Cold Plunge Pool for around 7 months, my husband and I are big fans of cold water immersion therapy. Its sleek looks, spacious tub, and quick setup make cold plunging simple, and we now enjoy a cold plunge experience regularly.
I highly recommend the Plunge All-In Cold Plunge Pool. It’s a great product, but if the high price point and large dimensions make it unsuitable for your home, there are several alternative cold plunge models. For example, the Ice Barrel 300 would be ideal for smaller spaces, and the Plunge Air is perfect if you only want to use your plunge tub occasionally.
Whichever option you choose, home cold plunge pools are a great way to introduce cold water therapy into your regular routine. Which is the perfect plunge pool for your home?
