How to Choose a Commercial Ice Bath Chiller - Key Differences Explained

Here's something that's becoming a pattern in recovery rooms across Australia.

We've been replacing a lot of "commercial" chillers this year, and the story is always the same.

These facilities simply can't keep their pools cold.

They're spending thousands daily on ice, and both staff and clients are frustrated with the constant temperature issues.

When I asked them why they didn’t go with a proper chiller, the response was always the same.

“We just didn’t know”

And it’s an understandable mistake.

The specs on them still look good.

The marketing is great.

They’ve got some reviews at the bottom that say they do a good job.

But there’s “commercial grade” and then there’s commercial grade chillers.

The easiest way I can explain the difference:

This is the Tata Xenon Ute.

You can buy it pretty cheap.

Imported from Asia and sold with a huge markup.

This is a Kenworth T909

Both are advertised as “tough”

Both for the purpose of moving things.

But what you get and what they can do are totally different.

If all you had to do was take a couple of bags of sand home from Bunnings once a day, you’d likely choose the Tata.

But if:

• Your livelihood relied on being able to move large volumes of anything, day in and day out.
• Breakdowns cost you way too much in lost revenue
• You didn’t want to be caught at the worst time with cheap and unreliable equipment

You’d choose the Kenworth.

You need reliability.

You need something that is built for purpose.

As I said before, they are both advertised as “tough” - but they are not even close to being the same.

Recovery rooms and and the demand for athletes are no different.

You need to buy the right chiller for the purpose.

If you will have 1-2 swimmers a day in your 400 litre or less pool, you’re happy to buy a spare chiller for when it breaks, you’d consider the cheaper “commercial” one.

It’s going to take a few days to chill the pool to a reasonable temp.

As soon as someone hops in it, it’ll heat up 3-5 degrees and take a good while to cool back down.

You’ll also buy it knowing that it’ll only last 12-18 months.

And the other thing you’d need to consider, when it inevitably breaks down, parts have to be imported, which could take anywhere from 2 weeks to 3 months.

But, if like most recovery rooms and sporting clubs, you know in reality it’ll be more like 15 swimmers on a low day, hundreds on a typical day, you need to be looking at something built for purpose.

You need a unit that is powerful enough to chill thousands of litres overnight.
One that can keep it cool with the constant heat load of human bodies, often going between hot and cold exposure so their body temp is a little more spicy than usual.

And this is a big one, a chiller that will stand up to the Australian climate, and we’re talking the central Queensland temps or Sydney on a scorching summer day, not the most southern coast of Tasmania.

The crazy things about the chiller industry is pretty much everyone gives their specs based on 15-20 degree ambient temperatures with some other questionable ways to skew the data, but that’s a whole other video on its own

How do you tell the difference?

Funnily enough, if it’s advertised as “commercial”, that’s your first red flag.

There are only a few brands that are legitimately commercial, (Bergs being #1 of course) and none of them advertise as commercial.

Secondly, if it has wheels, that’s red flag number two. The legit commercial chillers don’t have wheels.

The little filter hanging off the side is red flag number three.

If you want to see what proper commercial equipment looks like, make sure you click through to either of these links.

One is our patented split system for people who don’t want the noise and hot bits inside, the other is our standalone unit which is equally as popular.

Whether you go with Bergs or not, be informed about what proper commercial chillers look like and their applications.

It’s a lot nicer to find that out after reading this article than it is to spend $30,000 on chillers and double that on ice in the first few months you have them.