COVID and chest freezers and stock tanks, oh my!
Our tubs evolved out of years of testing and perfecting cold plunges for best performance
In 2019-2020 Matt began frequenting a cold plunge gym in Phoenix. And then came COVID, shutting down access to the cold plunges he relied on. There were some existing plunges on the market that were prohibitively expensive; they also didn’t have good cover insulation to keep the cold in, which is an important feature in the Arizona summer for both keeping the water cold and minimizing the electricity consumption / work the chiller had to do to keep the water cold.
He started looking around at how to build one for at-home use. He discovered the work of John Richter, who was writing on the internet about building cold plunges using common chest freezers. Matt bought his book and rigged up a chest freezer in his garage.
The first iteration worked well for a year or so; the chest freezer was great at maintaining cold thanks to its insulation. But Matt’s engineer mind set about working on an upgraded filtration system, and began exploring different pump and chiller systems he could use to maximize the efficiency and experience of his cold plunge while still (again) keeping an eye on cost.
The next cold plunge tub Matt built was a stock tank, custom insulated with Line-x, with an outer wooden frame. This allowed for a 2ft, deep, deep soak, allowing a person to be immersed up to their chin, and allowed for a high circulation flow rate in the tub, which causes the plunge to feel colder than it is because it prevents the body from being able to form a heat barrier. The Line-x worked well for insulation from the sides, but the design still needed insulation on the top of the tub for best insulation and electric efficiency. This tub version was also very heavy and difficult to move, It was also intensive to build.
As Matt’s enthusiasm and expertise grew in making cold plunge tubs, the interest in cold plunging grew amongst his family, neighbors and friends, who were eager to test out prototypes and have their own home cold plunges. A friend had a large cooler, and asked Matt if he could adapt it as a cold plunge. They tried it out, finding that the insulation was amazing / highly energy efficient, especially in the heat; and as a result didn’t need as a big a chiller. And with that, the current iteration of the Desert Plunge tubs was born.