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Move over, aluminum basin full of hose water and ice. There’s a new cold plunge in town, and she’s fancy. In fact, she’s the fanciest tub we’ve ever seen—and the most expensive. On Tuesday, Kohler and the wellness social club Remedy Place announced the launch of an ice bath that will run customers $15,000.
The “KOHLER x Remedy Place Ice Bath” isn’t shipping quite yet. Currently, customers can only register to pre-order, which will get you a call from a Kohler sales rep—and a pair of Remedy Place x Kohler ice bath socks.
For what amounts to, essentially, a container of cold water, at-home ice baths can actually be surprisingly expensive: Other luxury offerings featuring sleek wood designs, temperature controls, and filtration systems can cost thousands of dollars. But none have broken the $10K+ seal like this collab. So what will all that cash get you?
We admit: It looks pretty sick. The size of a high-walled bathtub, its warm brown wood finish, matte black details, and bottom-lit LEDs will fit into the modern spa scheme of any one-percenter’s home—whether that’s indoors or outside, since the cold plunge is suitable for both spaces.
It’s “ergonomically” designed with an upright sitting position, head rest, and hand grooves so you can be as comfortable as possible while cold plunging. You can (of course) customize your temperature (from 39 to 104 degrees Fahrenheit) and and filtration settings on a built-in panel, and there’s a mechanism to hook up the tub to your home’s water source. Much like a standalone hot tub, you don’t need to drain and re-fill the water—it’s pumping continually through a filter and UV sanitization.
The chiller will kick in as needed to maintain the set temperature. The tub itself is also insulated and comes with an all-weather insulated spa cover to help maintain the water temperature.
There’s also a timer, a “breath light” meant to help guide your sessions, and a groove intended to house a smart phone or tablet. Ideally that device will be playing the ice bath’s companion app featuring guided meditations and ice bath coaching videos from Remedy Place founder Jonathan Leary, doctor of chiropractic and alternative medicine.
Cold plunges have become fixtures in recovery clubs and wellness spaces. Some older research supports that they can offer physical and mental benefits, from stimulating blood flow that aids with recovery, to reducing stress (and cortisol levels) by activating the parasympathetic nervous system. However, other studies don’t find the evidence to support those claims, and some health experts say the evidence is overall pretty thin.
There’s also the fact that you don’t necessarily need a specific cold plunging tub to immerse yourself in cold water. You may be able to get the same effects by standing in a cold shower for as long as you can tolerate it.
But the Kohler cold plunge is in good company, in terms of bringing high-tech spa treatments with minimal evidence to support their supposed benefits to the home. These days, wellness treatment devotees can purchase infrared saunas, PEMF mats, lymphatic drainage massagers, and more large, pricey gadgets to deck out these home recovery spaces. If you’ve got the money, not to mention the space, the Kohler x Remedy Place collab is sure to fit right in.