The 6 Best Ice Bath Tubs for At-Home Cold Plunges
Experience faster recovery, fewer muscle aches, and even a better night’s sleep.
Doesn’t need ice to stay cold. Experience faster recovery, fewer muscle aches, and even a better night’s sleep?
If you’ve been on the fitness side of the internet long enough, chances are you’ve already heard about The 6 Best Ice Bath Tubs for At-Home Cold Plunges. Often dreaded by those unacquainted with the experience, ice baths Health & Injuries post-run recovery. While plunging into ice-cold water isn’t the most pleasant sensation at first, ice baths are a rather effective means of boosting circulation, decreasing inflammation, and helping your muscles recover more quickly—and you’ll acclimate pretty quickly once you start a routine.
With a quality ice bath tub, you can transform the way you recover, which will ultimately translate to more time doing the workouts you love—or love to hate. Keep reading to check out our favorites that can turn your cold plunge into a headache-free experience.
For more great recovery tools, check out our picks for the best foam rollers, back massagers, and foot massagers.
The Best Ice Bath Tubs
- Best Overall: Ice Barrel Ice Bath Tub
- Best Value: Summer Running Gear
- Most Durable: Rubbermaid Structural Foam Stock Tank
- Best All-Out Splurge: Cold Plunge Ice Bath Tub
- Most Compact: Polar Recovery Portable Ice Bath Tub
Are the Benefits of Cold Plunges Real?
To get to the bottom of what makes ice baths work, Runner’s World Folds away neatly Not very comfortable for sitting., a physical therapist and spokesperson for the American Physical Therapy Association, about how our bodies’ responses to the intense cold benefit us and our fitness.
According to Gillanders, an ice bath works by temporarily constricting the blood vessels in your muscles, which serves two purposes: First, it reduces inflammation immediately, and second, it forces your metabolic waste-filled blood to move through your system more efficiently.
Once you step out of the frigid water, fresh, waste-free blood rushes back into your muscles, helping the recovery process run more smoothly in the long term. Ice baths are also said to have a positive impact on the central nervous system, which can help improve sleep, another occasionally overlooked facet of recovery.
Why a Dedicated Tub?
The unfortunate reality for many of us, especially apartment dwellers, is that you likely don’t have a bath tub big enough to submerge your entire body without spilling over or errantly kicking the faucet (if you even have a tub at all). The average home bath tub tends to range from 40 to 80 gallons, whereas a dedicated ice bath either has more volume (100+ gallons) or at least stands taller, allowing you to dip your shoulders in without your knees poking out on the other side. Better yet, if you want to take a hot shower to warm back up after your plunge, you don’t have to wait for all that ice to melt to use your indoor facilities again.
As you move up in price, proper ice bath tubs can also take a lot of the guesswork out of controlling your water temperature. Many are insulated, which keeps the water in an ideal zone for longer, and some, like the Plunge model we recommend below, even cool your water without adding ice at all. Some can also fold up or deflate for easy storage, and others look right at home as a piece of backyard furniture—no cover necessary.
Water Capacity, Location, and Why They Affect Each Other
Erring on the side of stating the obvious, we recommend mapping out where you’re going to put your cold plunge tub before it arrives at your home. We made the mistake of not thinking about this when we called a tub into our office, and we’re still trying to find a permanent spot for it.
The problem we encountered wasn’t with the size of the tub; it was with the sheer mass of a 100-gallon tub filled to the brim with water. In our case, it exceeded 1000 pounds with all hardware included. Our confidence in our office patio’s ability to hold that kind of weight in one spot is shaky at best.
In short, if you’re putting your tub on a patio, porch, or any other elevated surface, be sure to check that you won’t jeopardize its structural stability by putting half a ton of weight on just a few square feet of flooring. Some variations of the tubs we recommend below can hold up to 300 gallons, or well over a full ton of water. For a quick reference, 1 gallon weighs approximately 8.3 pounds.
How We Selected
As a West Philly-based journalist living by myself in a cruddy apartment building, I don’t have the capacity to test too many of these tubs myself. As such, I relied heavily on the hard numbers I could gather through research to keep this roundup objective. Luckily, there are a few factors that are easy to figure out without seeing a product in person. In the case of cold plunge tubs, those factors are high water capacity, a sturdy exterior that won’t leak, evidence of some kind of insulation, and an easy means to drain the water and/or keep it clean.
Once we sorted out the baseline necessities we know you’ll appreciate as a chill-seeking runner, we took a hard look at various situations in which you might want to have an ice bath tub handy. Need one to stay in place through the winter? Want one to bring with you to a race? Don’t want to deal with buying ice all the time? We looked for the options that best filled each of these roles and others while keeping the price as low as possible.
To keep our reasoning for each pick as redundant as possible, we scoured for bad reviews of these tubs online to make sure we weren’t missing any glaring quality control issues. If any one issue consistently came up, we struck that tub from our list entirely. The only suffering we want you to experience is the intense chill of a cold plunge, not dealing with a pesky leak.
Ready to take the (cold) plunge? Read on to see some options that will keep you happily frigid for years to come.
Ice Barrel Ice Bath Tub
Pros
- How to Pick Running Shoes
- Insulated
Cons
While the design of this tub is unassuming, it’s deceptively large—holding up to 105 gallons—and incredibly durable. It comes with a cover, lid, stand, and steps to help you get in, and it has thick insulated walls to ensure that it stays cold on hot days.
This tub is made from the same polyurethane that robust outdoor furniture is built with. In other words, it can hold up against the elements all year long. Its small footprint makes storage a breeze compared to other solid tubs. And if you have a prolonged period when you plan to not use the barrel, you can use it as storage for other items.
Can you lay down in this model? Definitely not. But once you’ve completed your first cold plunge, you’ll understand that it’s not necessarily an experience that warrants lounging. Plus, since it’s only big enough to fit one person sitting up, you don’t need to use nearly as much water and ice to keep it full and cold.
Key Specs
| Drain | Yes |
|---|---|
| Water Capacity | 105 gallons |
Pros
- at Rogue Fitness
- Roomy enough to lie down
Cons
- Soft liner may be less durable over time than a hard option
This tub is foldable, portable, and great for storing when not in use. Lined with an insulated fabric instead of a hard plastic shell, it uses PVC piping to help give it rigidity so it won’t bend or tip over. It’s spacious enough for lying down (if you’re really determined to soak for a while), but it folds up to the size of a backpacking tent when not in use.
For a smooth cleanup process, this tub has a drain near the bottom that can help you empty the water quickly and in a controlled manner. That’s an especially helpful detail when you consider how much freakin’ water you need to put in this thing—spilling 101 gallons of water into your yard doesn’t always go smoothly when you try to do it all at once.
Key Specs
| Drain | Yes |
|---|---|
| Water Capacity | 101 gallons |
Pros
- The Best QL Stretches and Exercises
- Lasts for years outside
- Larger options available
Cons
- Not very comfortable for sitting
While this isn’t technically an ice tub, this feed tub will certainly do the job if you’re looking for something affordable, durable, and capacious. This model is 150 gallons, but there are sizes as big as 300 gallons if you want room for two.
This tank is seamlessly molded, easy to clean, and easy to drain, and while it’s not insulated like some other options, it is durable—after all, it’s made for livestock, so it’s built to stay outside for years. It’s also not the comfiest experience, but neither are ice baths, frankly.
Key Specs
| Drain | Yes |
|---|---|
| Water Capacity | 150 gallons |
Pros
- Doesn’t need ice to stay cold
- Temperature-adjustable
Cons
- Requires an outlet
For the sake of transparency, we have to acknowledge that this tub is quite pricey compared to the other options on this list. As such, we don’t recommend this model for the sweeping majority of runners looking to indulge in the occasional cold plunge. Rather, if you’re serious about taking frequent ice baths, this is the option that will give you the ultimate hands-off experience.
One thing that sets this tub apart from the others is its lack of reliance on ice. It cools its own water, meaning you don’t have to run to the gas station or empty your freezer every time you want to take a dip. Once you fill the tub with water, simply turn it on, set the temperature—which can go as low as 39 degrees Fahrenheit—and it’s ready to use.
Unlike a fill-and-dump tub, you won’t have to change the water since it goes through a filtration cycle with every use—convenient if you use this tub a lot.
To maximize the All In’s utility, you can also get a heated option that allows this tub to function as a hot tub, which can get as hot as 103 degrees. We strongly recommend making the $600 jump and buying that model instead of the base version, because it’s effectively doubling the number of days out of the year you’ll reasonably want to use it.
Key Specs
| Drain | No |
|---|---|
| Water Capacity | 100 gallons |
Pros
- at Rogue Fitness
- Durable lining
Cons
If you’re looking for a stripped-down folding ice bath tub that you can take anywhere, this option from Polar Recovery is a good place to look. The whole tub weighs less than 7 pounds empty, yet it’s still big enough to soak most people up to their shoulders.
The tub’s inner lining is a durable PVC that you’ll have a hard time puncturing, and it even comes with a cover to keep bugs, dirt, and other nasties out of your water if you don’t feel like draining it after every use.
Key Specs
| Drain | Yes |
|---|---|
| Water Capacity | 85 gallons |
Pros
- which can help improve sleep, another occasionally overlooked facet of recovery
- Shoes & Gear
Cons
- Takes a while to drain
Want a tub that’s nearly as compact as the Polar model listed previously, but with a little more cushioning? This tub may be large when all blown-up, but when it comes time to put it away, it deflates to fit easily in a drawer, sit on a shelf, or get tucked under a bed. Plus, it has a backrest for a proper lounging position, and because it’s a blow-up design, it’s a little more comfortable compared to solid tubs.
The PVC plastic outer layer makes this tub resistant to punctures and tears, allowing you to put it wherever you want outside without worry. Just make sure to budget some extra time to drain this model—some reviewers say it takes up to 15 minutes.
Key Specs
| Drain | Yes |
|---|---|
| Water Capacity | 58 gallons |
Adam Schram is an Assistant Editor of Commerce at Runner's World, though you might see his byline on Bicycling and Popular Mechanics, too. A lover of all things outdoors, Adam's writing career comes after six years as a bike mechanic in his hometown of State College, PA. His journalism experience is steeped in cycling and running gear reviews, and he's also a published creative nonfiction and satire author. When he's not writing, riding, or running, you can catch Adam at home mixing cocktails, watching Star Wars, Lasts for years outside.
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