Brand ReviewAugust 20267 min read
Plunge review: choosing between the Air, the Original and the All-In Gen 2
Three tubs, about $5,100 between the cheapest and the dearest, and roughly the same 105 gallons in all of them. The compressor is what you are choosing. Here is what each one buys.
Plunge made the cold plunge a piece of home equipment rather than a stock tank you keep buying ice for. Three tubs carry the range, separated by about $5,100, and they hold roughly the same 105 gallons on roughly the same household circuit. So the footprint barely changes as you move up the price list. The compressor does, and everything worth knowing follows from that.
The range, and the specification that sorts it
$3,390 buys the Air, $5,940 the Original, $8,490 the All-In Gen 2. Every one of them runs on a standard 120V circuit at 12 to 15A, so no electrician appears in any of these prices. The Air reaches 39°F. The Original reaches 37°F and pulls up to 12°F an hour back out of the water. The All-In holds 37°F with ambient air as hot as 120°F, and it can run the tub the other way, up to 104°F. The company has since expanded into saunas as well; what follows covers the plunges.
Plunge Air: the one to buy if you are unsure
The Air is inflatable, sets up in about fifteen minutes, and weighs 28 lbs empty, which puts it in the back of a car. Its chiller is compact and runs off an ordinary 110V/15A outlet. 39°F reads as a compromise against the 37°F above it, and two degrees at that end of the scale changes very little about how a plunge feels; the gap that decides whether you keep plunging is the one between 39°F and an ice-dependent tub in July. Where you pay is the shell. Inflatable walls are less pleasant to lean against than acrylic and will not last as long. Buy this if you might move, if you rent, or if you want to find out whether the habit survives a winter before spending twice as much.
The Plunge Original: the default, and why
105 gallons of acrylic, the Pro Chiller Gen 2 down to 37°F, and recovery of up to 12°F an hour. That recovery figure is the number nobody markets and everybody feels: it decides whether two people can go in back to back, and whether the water is ready again the morning after a hot afternoon. Filtration and ozone sanitation are built in, which matters more than the spec sheet suggests, because draining and refilling 105 gallons is the chore that quietly ends cold-plunge habits. List is $6,990 and it sells around $5,940, with discounts past $1,000 appearing often enough that paying list would be careless. For most buyers this is the tub.
All-In Gen 2: when the extra $2,550 makes sense
Two things here that the Original cannot do. The 0.75 HP chiller holds 37°F with the air at 120°F, a specification written for Phoenix and Austin rather than for Vancouver. And the tub heats, to 104°F, so the whole contrast cycle happens in one vessel. That second capability is the reason to buy it. Where you have room for a plunge and a sauna, buy both; a dedicated hot room beats a warm tub by a wide margin. Where you do not, or where a standard chiller loses the fight every August, this is the answer, and our contrast-therapy piece covers how to run the cycle once you have it.
How the range sits against the field
Two comparisons frame it. Below Plunge, Redwood's Alaskan is a 130-gallon thermowood barrel with no electricity anywhere at $2,999, which is superb in February and an ice bill from May onward. Above it, Sun Home's Cold Plunge Pro drives a 1 HP chiller across 150 gallons down to 28°F for $13,999, built for a household or gym where the water never gets a rest. What you are buying against the Alaskan is the end of buying ice. What the Sun Home sells is headroom a single daily user never reaches. Plunge sits between those two deliberately, and the Original is the part of the range that placement was designed around.
Settle these before you order
The circuit comes first. Every tub here runs on 120V at 12 to 15A, so there is no panel work, though it wants a dedicated outlet rather than one shared with a freezer, and a GFCI if it sits outside. Siting is next, and it is heavier than people expect: filled, these run upward of 1,000 lb, which a deck has to be rated to carry. Check what promotion is live before you accept any price, because Plunge discounts often enough that the listed number is a starting position. Then think about where the tub sits relative to the sauna, if you have one. The distance between hot and cold is the single biggest predictor of whether anyone crosses it in February.
Common questions
- Is the Plunge worth it?
- The Original at around $5,940 is the strongest value in the range: a real acrylic shell, 37°F, 12°F per hour of recovery, and filtration that keeps the maintenance burden survivable. Against a passive tub you are buying your way out of ice, which is what ends most cold-plunge habits by June. Against the $13,999 tier you are declining capacity a single daily user will never reach.
- How cold does the Plunge get?
- The Air holds 39°F, the Original and the All-In Gen 2 both reach 37°F. Two degrees at that end changes little about the experience. What separates them is recovery speed and, on the All-In, the ability to hold 37°F when the surrounding air is 120°F.
- Plunge Air or Plunge Original?
- Air if you rent, might move, or want to test the habit before committing: it packs down, weighs 28 lbs empty, and sets up in about fifteen minutes. Original if the tub has a permanent home, because acrylic is more comfortable and more durable than inflatable walls and you gain the faster recovery.
- Does a Plunge need a plumber or an electrician?
- Neither. All three tubs run on a standard 120V household circuit at 12 to 15A and there is no plumbing: you fill them with a hose and the built-in filtration handles the rest. Give the chiller a dedicated outlet rather than one shared with another appliance, and use a GFCI outdoors.
- What does the All-In Gen 2 do that the Original does not?
- It heats as well as chills, up to 104°F, so hot and cold happen in the same tub. It also holds 37°F in ambient temperatures up to 120°F, which matters in a hot climate where a standard chiller struggles through summer. Both come at a $2,550 premium over the Original.
Sources
- Altered brown fat thermoregulation and enhanced cold-induced thermogenesis in young, healthy, winter-swimming men · Cell Reports Medicine (2021)
- Effect of post-exercise sauna bathing on the endurance performance of competitive male runners · Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport (2007)
- Benefits and risks of sauna bathing · The American Journal of Medicine (2001)
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