Chilled to PERFECTION

Your guide to achieving the perfect ice bath installation for your unique facility

Installing an ice bath comes with a number of key considerations. WellNation spoke with Colin Edgar, Managing Director of CET, who has been at the forefront of low temperature therapy since 2002. CET has installed thousands of CryoSpa ice baths in more than 50 countries around the world to clients including AC Milan, Arsenal FC, Wimbledon Tennis, Third Space, Wembley Stadium and the Alliance Arena. Colin shares his essential advice for ice bath installation success.

Ice baths come in many shapes and sizes but to create a proper, therapeutic effect, you need these key elements – otherwise you might as well just fill a bath with cold water!

Key Considerations

Depth

The greater the water depth the greater the pressure exerted on the body. A depth of 1m is roughly equivalent to wearing a compression garment and aids the dispersal of accumulated fluids. CET Ice Baths are the deepest on the market, available up to 1.2m deep.

Salt Concentration

Salt has a positive impact on the healing process: higher salt concentrations will draw away more of the fluids that accumulate around an injury. Saltwater has been found to allow injuries to heal more quickly while inhibiting the risk of infection. Not all ice baths can accommodate salt water so this is an important question to ask your supplier.

Jets

Jets make a huge difference to the ice bath experience. They create a penetrating cold which gets deeper into the muscles and increases the therapeutic effect. As an added bonus they also control the ‘feel’ of the water temperature. In trials, users reported that a CET Ice Bath at 8 degrees with jets running, felt cooler than an ice bath chilled to zero with no jets.

Health and Safety

Health and safety regulations for ice baths were recently updated. Your ice bath should have proper filtration and sanitisation and be HSG282 compliant. The water must be skimmed from the surface as 60% of pollutants will float. The primary sanitisers should be chlorine or bromine, which are fast acting.

The gold standard – which you will always find with CET Ice baths - is a 50sq ft skim filter and optional sand filtration combined with optional UV and auto-chemical dosing. This delivers an excellent hygiene rating, meaning our baths are the cleanest on the market and can facilitate the highest daily bather loads.

What are the most common mistakes operators make when choosing an ice bath?

Aesthetics over function

Aesthetics is often the first thing people look at but these can be easily altered, perhaps by cladding the bath in a different material, or adding a different kind of finish to the top. It’s more important to look underneath the skin of the ice bath to ensure it can cope with the demands of your facility, from filtration capabilities to bather load. Installing the ice bath in an inappropriate location Operators often underestimate the amount of heat that is produced when running an ice bath, as well as the amount of ventilation that’s required. If your ice bath and chiller are in an warm environment, such as on poolside, your chiller may have to be on all the time, and may struggle to reach it’s target temperature. Having your chiller built-in is not a good idea, we recommend locating it separately to your ice bath in a cool and dry area with plenty of ventilation.

Underestimating the number of people who will use the ice bath Gyms often underestimate how popular an ice bath will be. A popular gym in central London has one ice bath and 200 people a day wanting to use it. The implication is having to change the water during the day and then close it for several hours to chill it down to temperature. Whilst high quality filtration will mean fewer water changes, considering your daily bather load at the outset will save you headaches in the long run. ● [www.cetcryospas.com](http://www.cetcryospas.com/)