Ice bath3–12 °C, set and held
Chilled cold plunge
Set a temperature and it holds it — in thirty-degree ambient, through the dry season, without you buying a…
from IDR 68,000,000 ≈ USD 4,200
2 models · built on the island
Ice baths & cold plunges
Anyone can fill a tub with ice. Holding ten degrees on an island that never drops below twenty-four is the actual job.
Ice bathIce-dependent, typ. 4–12 °C
Cedar ice bath
The simple one. A hooped cedar tub, no plant, no power, no controller. You bring the ice — and we will tell…
from IDR 42,000,000 ≈ USD 2,600
The thinking
How to choose
There are only two real questions. How often will you use it, and is there power at the spot?
Daily use plus a supply means a chilled plunge. The refrigeration replaces ice permanently, holds a stable setpoint, and pays for the difference within a couple of years — because at Lombok's 27 °C tap temperature you need 20–30 kg of ice per fill, and that adds up to roughly a tonne a month for a daily user.
Occasional use, no power, or a remote site means a cedar ice bath. Nothing to break, nothing to plug in, nothing to service. You just have to actually be honest about whether you will still be hauling ice in month six.
Either way the same physics applies: insulate the shell, fit the lid, put it in shade. Those three decide your outcome long before the chiller does — the full arithmetic is in sizing a chiller for the tropics. And whichever you buy, cold water is not self-sanitising: read water treatment before anyone else gets in it.
Questions
Answers
How cold should an ice bath be?
Our recommended working range is 8–12 °C, with 15 °C a sensible entry point for beginners. Below 5 °C is specialist territory and should be supervised. Colder is not automatically better — time at temperature matters more than chasing a low number, and cold shock is a real risk. Never use an ice bath alone or after drinking alcohol.
Chilled plunge or cedar ice bath?
Chilled if you use it daily and have power: it holds a stable temperature and stops you buying ice forever. Cedar if you use it occasionally, are off-grid, or want nothing mechanical to maintain. The break-even is roughly a couple of years of daily use, because a 700-litre tub needs 20–30 kg of ice per fill at Lombok's tap temperature.
Why is an ice bath harder to run in Lombok?
Because ambient air at 28–32 °C is constantly pushing heat into the water, solar gain adds more, and a chiller's condenser rejects heat badly when it is sitting in hot air. A unit rated for a European garden never catches up here — it runs continuously, ices its evaporator and fails early. Budget roughly double the temperate-climate nameplate, and insulate first.
Can I put an ice bath next to my sauna?
Yes — three to five metres from the sauna door is the sweet spot. Close enough that the walk is part of the ritual, far enough that the plunge is not sitting in the sauna's heat plume. It needs a base rated for the filled weight (1,000 litres is a tonne), drainage away from timber, and shade. Designing both together as a wellness zone is cheaper than retrofitting.
Next step
Tell us where it goes.
Send a photo of the spot and rough dimensions. You get a layout, a heat-load calculation and a fixed price — usually within two working days.