Ritual Recovery Ice Bath Tub Review - Best Cold Plunge With Automated Chiller in Australia?
If you’ve been on social media lately, it’s likely you have come across someone doing an ice bath in a cold tub full of ice, or in a dedicated ice bath tub, built to deliver extreme cold temperatures ideal for cold water therapy.
With the huge boost in popularity of ice baths from a combination of exciting new research, ongoing discussion and promotion on the benefits of cold water therapy on huge traffic channels like the Joe Rogan Experience and Huberman Lab podcasts, as well as the average punter catching on to just how good a regular cold plunge can make them feel, we’ve seen a big increase in the availability of cold plunge options for home.
Long gone are the days that just athletes were setting up a cold plunge tub filled with ice for the whole team post match or a long distance runner taking an extended recovery program involving heat and ice – now we see droves of people wanting an ice bath setup at their gym or in their backyard.
While most people start with filling up their garbage bin with ice or doing a more involved chest freezer conversion, more and more people are interested in having a tub that can deliver ice cold water on demand using something like the Ritual Recovery Ice Bath.
In this article, after having over 6 months worth of cold plunge practice, breathing our way through many cold plunge sessions of varying length and time, we give you our Ritual Recovery Ice Bath Review and show you why it’s one of the preferred plunge tubs on the market right now.
Why Take An Ice Bath Anyway?
Ice baths, cold water immersion, cold therapy, cold plunge, or however you refer to it as, has some well known and exciting benefits that make it an absolute no brainer as part of a recovery regimen for everyone looking to improve athletic performance, or for people looking to biohack their health.
The cultural phenomenon of ice bathing dates way back to ancient times and has survived as a practice which has now exploded within the health conscious movement. We can largely thank this modern day revolution of cold plungers to the likes of Wim Hof and the cult like status he brought to the combining of breathwork, movement and cold immersion.
When starting out, many people wonder how long and how long cold to make their cold plunge practice. Having answered that question in previous writings, we know that taking an ice bath at about 12 degrees for approximately 11 minutes combined over a weeks worth of cold plunge sessions is enough to achieve some for benefits of cold exposure, according to a study by Dr Susanna Soeberg.
With people all over the world catching onto the growing trend that is dunking your body in cold water, taking cold showers, swimming in cold lakes and enduring just few minutes of suffering a day, many people still have no idea of why they are doing it.
The main reasons to engage in a regular cold plunge practice are revolved around the metabolic benefits, what ice baths do for improving exercise recovery, how they can help build mental resilience, their potential in boosting mood and mental health, how they can increase feelings of wellbeing, the neuroprotective and neuroplasticity benefits, and their effects on building immunity.
Bottom Line
The Ritual Recovery ice bath is one of the most well thought out and functional ice bath tubs we have seen hit the market, with super user friendly WIFI controlled display that allows you to remotely set your temperature. I love the indoor, outdoor style of these tubs and the fact that they can be plugged straight into the wall with minimal setup.
What We Like
Solid timber and stainless design
Ideal for home or gym
WIFI control and Smart App
Plugs into wall, no setup
Easy to change filter
Hot or cold capable
Available in Australia
Comes with filter changes
Easy to drain with hose connection
What We Don’t Like
Bulky and heavy to move
Not portable
Takes 30 mins to fill
Ritual Ice Bath Price
The price of ice bath tubs for sale Australia and around the world differs dramatically depending on the functions of the ice bath. Sure, ice bath options like the Ice Barrel are very popular as they look cool and are not as expensive initially, but the catch is that you continually have to buy ice to fill them up and cool them.
Buying ice is fine if you only plunge once a week, but when you are starting to upgrade your cold plunge practice to a daily occurrence, you also may need to upgrade your cold plunge tub to something that cools itself.
Self-cooling (and heating) cold plunge tubs like the Ritual Recovery Original Dual Plunge Tub come at a significant cost, and range between $5000 - $30000.
The Ritual Recovery ice bath is very reasonable in price for this type of wifi controlled cold plunge tub, at $7440 when you use our code GURU. Particularly for buying an ice bath Australia, the Ritual Recovery tubs are more accessible to the Australian market and are thousands cheaper to other options like the Cold Plunge which is $9835USD for the hot/cold version, the Odin which can be over $14000 and is only cold capable.
The price of doing an ice bath at a recovery space ranges somewhere between $30-$70 depending on the services offered. Before owning my own ice bath, I had no issue with going to do a cold plunge session after a run or training session a few times per week, but this definitely adds up over the year.
If you are someone who pays a lot of attention to recovery and wants a regular program involving cold plunge therapy, then it could be more cost effective for you to buy a cold plunge tub for home like the Ritual Recovery Ice Bath.
Going to a recovery space a few times per week could add up to over $7000/year, so it is well worth considering your investment in a purpose built cold plunge tub, especially one that does both hot and hot like the Ritual Dual Tub.
Similarly, the cost of lugging bags and bags of ice to chill your plunge tub a few times week can add up with the average ice bag chilled plunge session costing you about $30-$50 to have enough ice to reach cold enough temperatures for a challenging ice bath especially in warmer environments during the summer months in Australia.
In short – if you are wanting to a daily cold plunge practice, the financial investment is worth it for the Ritual Recovery Ice bath and it will save you money in the long run and is a much safer option to a chest freezer ice bath home DIY job.
Ritual Ice Bath Warranty
The Ritual Recovery brand offers the same warranty period across their three types of cold plunge tubs, one year. They also offer a six month commercial warranty for those who are looking to use the product in a commercial or business setting like a gym or wellness space.
The Ritual Recovery warranty is definitely not a market leader, but one year covers the products for breakdown and repair if not from misuse or lack of maintenance of the plunge tub.
In comparison, many other ice bath tub brands offer the same length of warranty of one year, like Polar Moneys, Ice Barrel, Cold Plunge and Pluslife ice baths.
Ritual Ice Bath Specs
The Ritual Recovery Original Dual Plunge tub is definitely one of the best cold tubs tubs we’ve seen for adding to a curated wellness and recovery space at home, in the garage or for a gym to add as a high value client offering.
The Ritual Recovery plunge tub is a large and heavy tub that you need to consider your access points for. The tub and chiller unit come pre assembled in a way that mean you simply have to fill the tub with water, plug it into the wall and let it chill or heat overnight to get to the desired temperature.
The size of the Ritual Recovery Original outer dimension is 1800 x 750 x 730 and the shipping size of the tub is 1830 x 830 x 1000. The Ritual Recovery ice bath weighs approximately 145kg with the tub and chiller so it requires a strong platform to set it up on.
The dimension of the inner stainless tub are 1100 x 620 x 680 and is large enough for someone up to about 6ft to comfortably plunge in. For taller people, they also have a slightly larger model which can be upgraded to included a 2HP chiller unit for commercial suitable specifications.
The Ritual Recovery Original ice bath water capacity is approximately 400L and takes about 45 minutes to fill to the required water level using a household garden hose. The garden hose can be hooked into the drain valve using a standards 12mm or 18mm attachment and drained the same way.
Ritual Ice Bath Review
When I first saw the Ritual Recovery Ice Bath I knew it was going to be a good cold plunge experience. The Ritual Recovery Original Dual Plunge tub is seriously the most plunge ready system I have come across and literally involves setting it in place, plugging it into the wall, filling it up with water and letting it chill overnight.
The initial setup of the Ritual tub needed two of us to lift the tub, which has been thoughtfully designed to fit through a standard door frame, into the back yard area and setup under cover.
The chiller unit plugs straight into the wall on this model and the tub can be connected to your existing home WIFI and then controlled for your phone, which allows you to turn it on and off, set the temperature anywhere from 3C – 42C and also lets you set a daily on/off parameter if you want it to start or stop and certain times of the day.
The noise of the plunge tub I would describe as slightly louder than a standard air conditioning unit and I have it setup outside without noticing too much noise through the night.
When I first used the Ritual Plunge tub, I filled it up and started the chiller unit to the minimum temperature of 3C and set my timer. By morning, it had reached 4C and having left it on through the day to test how well it maintained temperature, it stayed around around 7-9 degrees through the day even with a bit of sunlight on the tub.
The chiller unit is 1HP which is stronger than the majority of other cold plunge tubs I’ve tested, but it definitely needs it through a hot Australian summer day to maintain a decent cold plunge temperature.
Having left the plunge tub on 24/7 for 2 weeks apart from turning it on and off a few times to play with settings, there was not a single hiccup with the tub. What I did noticed is that, because the plunge tub has timber inside the actual tub, there was a thin layer of the oils or wax used to treat the timber for the first plunge until the water was replaced. The good thing is, with every purchase you get five water filter replacements because the filter gets pretty full on the first use for this reason.
The Ritual Recovery ice bath has some good troubleshoot instructions that helped when the flow rate on the tub dropped one morning, and I figured out pretty quickly that tub chiller unit includes a smart feature that has a water strainer on the inlet valve that catches hair and debris before it hits the chiller. This can be unscrewed and washed out in the sink and replaced very easily.
Emptying and filling the tub is very easy too, and I simply screwed on an 18mm garden hose attachment to the drain valve and attached my garden hose to it. For emptying, I did the same thing and drained it straight into my garden which took about 45 minutes to an hour.
Having had multiple people use the tub the temperature shifted only about 2 degrees from 5 – 7 degrees with each of us three people doing a two x three minute plunge sessions each. As a general rule, I noticed that the chiller was able to chill the water back down at a rate of about 1 degree per hour when its already near the minimum.
The original design of the Ritual Recovery Plunge tub is a half powder coated metal container where the chiller unit is house, and the other end is the stainless steel tub, which is capped with Alder timber and has a platform for sitting or resting your towel and the chiller end. I find the design fits in really well to both indoor or outdoor space and I also found out that they offer the option for custom colour powder coating the entire exterior for a little bit extra cost which is ideal for more protection from the elements.
Shop the Ritual Ice Bath tub for $7440
Ritual Recovery Models
The Ritual Recovery brand offers a couple of different cold plunge tubs at the time of writing this article which gives the option to upgrade or downsize from the Ritual Recovery Original model.
For people looking for a cheaper, portable option, there is the Ritual Recovery Portable ice bath which also includes a 1HP chiller unit that provides hot and cold capability. The Ritual Recovery Portable ice bath pumps up in about 15 minutes and takes roughly 30 minutes to fill with water.
There are loads of portable ice baths on the market with chiller units, but a lot of them have a huge mark up in price or take super long to arrive when you order them from the customer reviews we have seen. The Ritual Recovery portable ice bath is $4999 at the time of writing and you can use our code GURU for $250 off. What I really think is useful for the portable ice bath option is that it can deflate and pack down into its own back pack and placed into the boot of a car along with the chiller unit which weighs about 40kg so is light enough for one person to lift. The tub weighs about 12 kgs.
The other option that Ritual Recovery have is their Commercial XL model tub which is designed more towards use in a gym or wellness centre but is also still suitable for setup at a residential space.
The Ritual Recovery commercial ice bath includes a 2HP chiller unit if needed, or can be purchased with 1HP unit too. The 2HP chiller unit, along with the larger size of the tub, makes it a better option for business use, although it is significantly more expensive at $12500 at the time of writing this.
Who Is Ritual Recovery Ice Bath For?
Really, the Ritual Recovery Original Dual Ice Bath is for anyone who take their cold water immersion practice seriously and does it more than a few times per week. As this tub is a pretty big cost for a lot of people, it is essential to make sure this tub is suited to your size and space requirements, particularly important for people who live in apartment blocks or places with limited access to consider.
This tub is really perfect for anyone who has a large house that already has a dedicated gym or fitness area and could use a recovery tool to compliment the space. If you are someone who already has a sauna or infrared sauna set up, this ice bath would be a perfect combo for hot and cold therapy or contrast therapy.
The way this tub performs, it could even be used at a low traffic gym or wellness space in a cool shaded area as it seems to maintain its temperature pretty well even with repeated use. If this plunge tub is being used regularly though, one of the things I would highly recommend keeping on top of is emptying and washing out the water strainer of hair and debris build up as this affects everything from water clarity and quality as well as flow rate and performance.
Who Should Avoid the Ritual Recovery Plunge?
The Ritual Recovery plunge tub is probably not the best option for someone who has not tried a cold plunge therapy practice before and has only just heard about it. Sure, if you want to dive head first into cold plunge and have the budget, then go for it, as this tub still allows you to set your temperature to the specific degree you want it at, which may be around 12C-15C if you are new to ice baths.
The Ritual Recovery Original tub is a no for anyone who has restricted or limited access or for anyone living in a tight, confined living where noise would be an issue. This tub is not for someone who has only a super exposed outdoor area that gets a lot of direct sunlight and is exposed to the elements a lot as the performance will be affected like it would for any cold plunge tub.
Conclusion on Ritual Recovery Ice Bath Review
The Ritual Recovery Ice Bath is pretty new to the ice bath scene, but is already pretty popular. With the design and functionality of the Ritual Recovery ice bath and its competitive price point, all things considered this is seriously one of the best plug and plunge tubs to buy right now and I’d give it a 4.8/5 rating.
The only area that the Ritual Recovery ice bath could improve is in warranty length but they still offer a one year warranty. The Ritual Recovery Ice bath has been going strong and has been the morning ‘ritual’ now for the last 3 months with a daily plunge at six degrees for three minutes.
Having tested a load of plunge tubs and sifted through the specifications of the rest, this is a stand out product and should be at the top of your list for buying a cold plunge tub.
