Arctic Cold Plunge Review: Four Different Products Share That Name

First, work out which Arctic you mean

Search “arctic cold plunge” and where you land depends on luck. Here is what is behind that name.

Dundalk LeisureCraft’s Arctic Plunge Tub is the cedar barrel that ranks first. Model 332CP, built in Melancthon, Ontario, sold through sauna dealers rather than direct. It sits in a family with the Glacier, the Baltic and the Polar, so Arctic here is a size and shape, not a brand.

Bestway’s SaluSpa Arctic Ice is the gray inflatable oval sold at Costco. This is the one most people who use the phrase actually own, and “arctic cold plunge costco” is one of the top related searches for a reason.

Leisure Concepts’ Arctic Chill Ultra is a commercial pool. Its own page publishes no dimensions, no capacity and no chiller rating, so we have nothing to check.

Arctic Spas is the confusing one. It is a real, long established hot tub manufacturer in Thorsby, Alberta, and it does not make cold plunges. Since late 2023 it has resold ColdTub, a separate company from Nashville. If a showroom told you they sell “the Arctic cold plunge,” what they sell is a ColdTub Icepod Plus with somebody else’s sign above it.

There are also an Arctic Plunge in Switzerland, an ALEKO Arctica chiller, a KPlunge Arctic Fox and an Arctic Frost on eBay. None of them are related to each other.

The Dundalk Arctic: a good tub with no numbers behind it

LeisureCraft’s own product page for the Arctic Plunge Tub is remarkable for what it does not say. No length, width, height, capacity, weight or price. There is a model number, a phone number and a button that says Request Price.

So every specification for this tub came from a reseller, and the resellers do not agree.

Recreation Unlimited lists it at 37.5 by 43.75 inches, 132 gallons, 108 lbs dry and 1,213 lbs filled. Maxwell Garden Centre and My Sauna World both say it holds 150 gallons, or 570 litres.

That gap is 18 gallons, which is 150 lbs of water sitting on whatever you put the tub on.

Here is how to break the tie. Water weighs about 8.34 lbs per gallon. If the tub holds 132 gallons, filled weight should be 132 times 8.34 plus 108 lbs of tub, which is 1,209 lbs. The published figure is 1,213 lbs. That is a four pound rounding difference, so the 132 gallon figure and the filled weight were calculated from each other and they hold up.

If the tub held 150 gallons, filled weight would be 1,359 lbs. Nobody publishes that number. The 150 gallon claim also converts to exactly 570 litres, which is the tell that someone typed a round number and converted it rather than measuring anything.

Neither claim is physically impossible. A 37.5 inch round tub 43.75 inches tall has roughly 210 gallons of brim volume, so both figures fit inside the shell. The problem is not inflation. The problem is that the manufacturer left it to strangers.

The number this page stands behind is 132 gallons and 1,213 lbs, because that pair reconciles and the 150 gallon claim does not.

Deck loading is the one place to ignore our own conclusion, and here is the reason. We are ruling against 150 gallons on arithmetic, not on a measurement, because there is no manufacturer figure to measure against. A dealer is still selling this tub as 150 gallons, and if that dealer turns out to be right, the filled weight is 1,359 lbs. Size the structure for 1,359 and treat the extra 146 lbs as margin you did not have to think about again. Our tub sizing guide covers what these numbers do to a floor.

The Costco Arctic Ice: 111 gallons in a 92 gallon box

Bestway does publish real numbers, which we appreciate, and one of them does not work.

Item 6002S measures 60 by 36 by 28 inches outside. Inside, Bestway lists a 50 by 27 inch cavity with a 20 inch pool depth. Capacity is stated as 111 gallons, or 420 litres.

Multiply the inside cavity. An oval footprint 50 by 27 inches, 20 inches deep, is about 92 gallons at the very top edge. Even if you treat the footprint as a rounded rectangle, which is the most generous shape the photos support, you get about 103 gallons. Neither number reaches 111, and both of those are brim figures, meaning the water is level with the rim before anyone climbs in.

The filled weight tells you where 111 came from. Bestway publishes 955 lbs filled and 29 lbs net. Take 111 gallons times 8.34 lbs, add the 29 lbs of tub, and you get 954.7 lbs. The metric pair does the same thing: 420 litres plus 13 kg gives 433 kg, exactly as published.

So the filled weight is not a measurement. It is arithmetic performed on a capacity number that the inside dimensions will not support. Work backwards from the 92 gallon cavity and the real filled weight is closer to 800 lbs.

That is not a scandal on a tub in our under-300 band. It does matter if you are sizing ice, salt or a chiller against the label.

The chiller math nobody does for you

Neither Arctic product includes cooling. On the Dundalk tub, the Penguin Cold Therapy Chiller is the common add-on. Penguin’s own product page for it publishes 7,500 BTU per hour, 110 to 120 volts, 450 watts, 3.9 amps, 56 dBA, 17 by 15 by 13 inches and 49 lbs, with a titanium coil and a stated operating range of 37 F to 100 F.

The electrical side is internally consistent. 3.9 amps at 115 volts is about 449 watts, so those two agree.

One number on that dealer page is not Penguin’s. Divine Saunas sells this unit as a “3/4HP High Efficiency Chiller.” Penguin publishes no horsepower for it at all, and no 3/4 HP model exists anywhere in Penguin’s water chiller line, which runs 1/2, 1/2 HE, 1, 1 HE, 1 1/2 and 2 1/2 HP. The Cold Therapy Chiller sits outside that line and Penguin rates it in BTU only. So if a dealer quotes you a horsepower on this model, it did not come from the manufacturer, and comparing it to a horsepower on somebody else’s chiller tells you nothing. The figures worth carrying into a comparison are 7,500 BTU per hour and 450 watts, and both of those are Penguin’s own.

What 7,500 BTU per hour does not tell you. 450 watts of electrical input is about 1,535 BTU per hour, so the pair implies a coefficient of performance near 4.9. That is a real number for a water chiller, but only with warm water going in. Penguin gives the operating range as 37 F to 100 F and does not publish the water temperature its 7,500 BTU rating was measured at, and every chiller loses output as the water it draws from gets colder. Read 7,500 as the top of the range rather than as what you get once the tub is already at 45 F. That absence is the thing to ask a dealer about, and no brand in this category answers it well.

Time to cold. 132 gallons is 1,101 lbs of water. Dropping it 30 degrees, from 70 F to 40 F, takes about 33,000 BTU. At 7,500 BTU per hour with zero losses that is 4.4 hours. Add the fact that no page we read describes this shell as insulated, add capacity fade as the water cools, and plan on most of a day for the first pull-down rather than an afternoon.

What it costs to run

Penguin’s product page states the running cost as “as low as” 18 dollars a month, estimated at 12 cents a kilowatt hour. Check what that implies. At 450 watts running flat out the chiller uses 10.8 kWh a day, or about 324 kWh in a 30 day month, which at Penguin’s own 12 cents works out near 39 dollars. So the 18 dollar figure assumes the compressor runs a little under half the time, on 12 cent power. At 20 cents a kilowatt hour, the same duty cycle costs about 30 dollars a month instead.

Note the words “as low as.” Half duty is believable in a cool basement. It is optimistic for an uninsulated cedar and HDPE barrel sitting outside in July, which is exactly when you want it working hardest. Our running cost breakdown explains why ambient temperature, not the tub, sets your bill.

Cheaper ways to the same cold water

If you liked the cedar look, a two person cedar tub sold with a 1 HP chiller included costs less than the Dundalk tub plus either of its optional chillers, and puts more cooling on the water.

If you already own a tub, buy the chiller by itself. A 1 HP unit with an external filter is the cheapest honest route to the same temperature, and our chiller comparison explains what the ratings mean.

If you were only ever going to buy the Costco one, a rotomolded insulated tub around 90 gallons holds temperature far better than any drop stitch inflatable.

Our verdict

The Dundalk Arctic Plunge Tub is probably a good object. Welded HDPE so the cedar never touches water, stainless bands, inside steps, a real drain, fully assembled on arrival, and 5 years of warranty on the wood. That is a proper build.

It is let down by a manufacturer that publishes nothing. When the only capacity figures in existence come from two dealers who disagree by 18 gallons, you are buying on reputation rather than evidence. Ask LeisureCraft for the spec sheet and the warranty exclusions before you order, and hold them to whichever number they give you.

The Costco SaluSpa Arctic Ice is fine for what it costs, as long as you treat 111 gallons as a marketing figure and about 92 as the real one.

If you want a tub whose numbers you can check before you pay, our tub comparison starts with the ones that publish them.