The Cold Pod review: Standard and XL

The Cold Pod review, built from research: the 85 gallon Standard and the 116 gallon XL. Maker's claims against owner reports on cold-holding and the top ring.

Published October 13, 2026

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Both sizes, and the alternative

All our tub picks

The short answer

The Cold Pod is a soft, round ice bath tub you fill with a hose and cool with ice. It comes as an 85 gallon Standard and a 116 gallon XL, each with an insulated cover. Owners say it is quick to set up and good in cool weather, that it warms fast in summer, and that the inflatable top ring is the part that fails. It is a fair first tub on ice. If you may add a chiller later, buy a tub with chiller valves instead.

Both sizes, and the alternative

All our tub picks

What this review is based on

We have not used a Cold Pod. This review is research-based. The specs and the return terms are the maker’s, read on thecoldpod.com on 4 and 13 October 2026. The owner reports come from the maker’s Trustpilot page and from fourteen threads on the r/coldplunge forum, dated 2023 to 2026.

That is a small sample, and we say so. Trustpilot holds nine reviews, none from the last twelve months. In the forum threads about seven owners are clearly writing about a Cold Pod. The rest are talking about soft tubs in general, and we have left them out.

Our picks across every type are in the best cold plunge tubs, and other soft tubs are compared in portable ice baths.

The Cold Pod specs

	Standard	XL
Stated capacity	85 gal	116 gal
Across	29.5 in	35.4 in
Height	29.5 in	29.5 in
Empty weight	7.7 lb	11.2 lb
Support legs	6	8
In the box	Insulated cover, pump, drain hose, carry bag	Insulated cover, pump, drain hose, carry bag
Chiller fittings	None stated	None stated
Warranty	Not stated on the page	Not stated on the page

Maker’s spec from thecoldpod.com. The Standard’s height is from the page on 4 October 2026: it showed none on 13 October. The XL’s page lists eight legs in one place and six in another.

Both are sold on Amazon, whose prices we do not print. They sit in our lowest price band, under $300. The maker’s page does not say what the pump in the box is for. From the reviews it is an air pump for the inflatable top ring, so it does not move or cool the water.

The maker also sells two barrel-shaped tubs, the Elite and the Elite Lite. We have not covered them.

Does it hold what it says?

A round tub is a cylinder, so its stated size sets the most it can hold.

	Stated capacity	Most its size can hold	Filled weight
Standard	85 gal	87 gal	717 lb
XL	116 gal	126 gal	979 lb

Our maths, from each tub’s stated outer size, at 231 cubic inches to the gallon. Filled weight is the stated capacity × 8.34 lb, plus the empty weight.

The Standard’s 85 gallons is a brim-full figure. With you in it, plan on less. The XL’s figure leaves room.

Either tub weighs well over 700 lb once filled, on a circle under three feet across. Check a deck, a balcony or an upper floor before you fill it. The sizes of twelve tubs are side by side in cold plunge dimensions.

Maker says, owners say

	Maker says	Owners say
Holding cold	“It’s fully insulated”, so you can “immerse, cover, and repeat on another day”	In a UK winter one owner gets the water to 36 to 39°F overnight with ice and the cover on. In summer four owners could not keep it cold
Setup	“Quick and simple to set up”, with no tools	One owner took five minutes to set it up and twenty to fill it. Two Trustpilot reviewers call it easy to assemble
Build	“Premium materials”	“Not very sturdy”, by one owner after three months. Three Trustpilot reviewers had a top ring that would not hold air. Another has used theirs outdoors for nearly a year without a fault
Support	A commitment to “great customer services”	Four Trustpilot reviewers praise it. One was sent a pump free after a weekend message. Another was refused a replacement tub just past the first year

Maker’s claims from thecoldpod.com. Owner reports from Trustpilot and r/coldplunge, each from a single owner unless a count is given.

What owners complain about

Owner reports From nine Trustpilot reviews and seven owners on r/coldplunge

It warms up fast in summer. Four owners. One, in a thread about the Cold Pod, put in 48 lb of ice, reached 60°F and sent the tub back. Another says it was “great in the winter months” and a struggle once the weather turned. A third calls it a tub that “doesn’t hold temperature at all”.
The top ring loses air. Three Trustpilot reviewers, two of them on the XL. The ring deforms and water spills over the side. One reviewer’s replacement failed the same way, and so did the third tub.
The floor layers separate. One reviewer, on two tubs in a row. Water gets trapped between the layers.
A hard stop at one year. One reviewer’s second tub failed after a month of use, more than a year after the order. The company declined to replace it.
One-offs. A leak where the drain tap joins the tub, and a tub that arrived with parts missing. The second was refunded and then replaced free.

The happy owners outnumber the unhappy ones in this sample, six to three on Trustpilot. One reviewer says the tub is used most days. Another, on r/coldplunge, calls his a small spend that lets him find out whether he will keep plunging through a winter. That is the right way to think about it.

What it costs to run on ice

The Cold Pod has no chiller, so every cold session is bought in ice.

	Standard, 85 gal	XL, 116 gal
Ice to go from 60°F to 50°F	44 lb	60 lb
10 lb bags a session	5	6
Ice for a year, three sessions a week	About $2,060	About $2,810

Our maths, for a full tub: gallons × 8.34 lb × 10°F, divided by 162 BTU a pound of ice. Ice at $3 for a 10 lb bag, counted by weight over the year.

Those are fresh-fill figures. With the cover on, the water starts the next day below tap temperature and needs less, and in winter an outdoor tub needs none. In a hot summer it needs more: an owner in Florida, where the tap runs at 80°F, used 100 lb to reach 45 to 50°F in a soft pod of this kind.

The sums are in how much ice an ice bath needs, with a calculator for your own tap temperature. When a chiller starts to pay for itself is in what a cold plunge costs.

The warranty and the return

Warranty: the product pages state none. In its replies on Trustpilot the company says it gives one year against manufacturing faults, and it has held to that limit. We did not find the term in the pages we read.
Change of mind: the product pages say “14-Day Returns”.
A faulty tub: the return policy gives 30 days to reject it for a full refund. After that the company repairs or replaces it at its own cost. After six months, the policy says, it is for the buyer to show the fault was there on delivery.
Not covered: “normal wear and tear, misuse or intentional or careless damage”.

The policy is written around UK and EU consumer law. If you buy from another shop, that shop’s return terms apply first.

Inflate the top ring and fill the tub in the first week. The faults owners report show up at once or not at all, and the easy return is the early one.

The Cold Pod or the Ice Pod Pro

The Cold Pod

Two sizes, and the XL is wider than the Ice Pod Pro at 35.4 in. An insulated cover is in the box. The maker states no chiller fittings and no warranty on its pages.

The Pod Company Ice Pod Pro

One size, 32 in across, with two valves for a chiller and a two-year warranty stated on its page. Its owners report thin walls and the same hunger for ice in summer.

The two behave alike on ice. They differ in what happens next. A tub with valves takes a chiller when you tire of buying ice, and the Cold Pod gives you no stated way to add one. Our Pod Company Ice Pod review covers the other tub.

Who should buy it, and who should skip it

Buy it if you want to find out whether you will keep plunging, you will use it in a cool spot or in the cooler months, and you are content to stay on ice. Choose the XL if you are broad or tall and want the room.

Think twice if you already know you will plunge through a hot summer. You will be buying ice by the hundredweight, and a tub that takes a chiller is the cheaper road within a few months.

Skip it if you want a tub for several years of daily use. The reports of failed top rings, on a one-year term, are too many for that in a sample this small. An insulated barrel does that job, as cold plunge barrels explains.

Common questions

Can you use a chiller with The Cold Pod?

The maker’s pages state no chiller fittings for the Standard or the XL, and a commenter on r/coldplunge notes that the one on sale had no valves for one. If you want to add a chiller later, pick a tub sold with them.

How long does the ice last in a Cold Pod?

It depends on the weather. A UK owner reports 36 to 39°F the morning after adding ice in winter, with the cover on. Four owners report that they could not keep it cold in summer heat.

Can The Cold Pod be used indoors?

The maker says it is for indoor or outdoor use. Indoors, mind the weight: 717 lb for the Standard and 979 lb for the XL when full, by our maths, and a drain hose that has to reach somewhere.

Is The Cold Pod the same as the Ice Pod?

No. The Cold Pod is made by The Cold Pod, and the Ice Pod by The Pod Company. They are both soft, round tubs for use with ice, and owners describe them in much the same terms.