The $28,600 Mistake Everyone Makes: Why "Cheap" Chillers Cost More

I had a call from a recovery room owner in Sydney last month.

He had four private rooms in his facility, each with its own individual chiller.

Then he told me about his year.

Room 1 died three times. January, March, May.

Room 3 failed twice. April and May.

Room 4 broke down twice. February and last month.

Seven breakdowns.

52 days of cancelled sessions.

At $550 per day per room ($55 per session and 10 sessions), that’s $28,600 in lost revenue since the start of the year alone.

That’s more than what a proper commercial chiller would have cost upfront.

He thought he saved money. Instead, he paid more and got constant headaches.

Here’s What Most Facilities Miss

If you are doing private rooms, when your chiller breaks down, revenue stops.

Completely.

But most recovery centres don’t just do private rooms, they do memberships.

One lost member at $40/week costs $2,080 per year.

With the amount of choice that people have for recovery centres today, when word gets around that your ice bath is broken down for the third time this year, potential members will look elsewhere and existing members might leave as well.

If unreliable equipment causes you to lose just one member per month, that’s $24,960 annually.

When you invest in a chiller, you’re not choosing between cheap and expensive.

You’re choosing between unreliable and reliable.

Between losing customers and keeping them.

Between paying upfront or paying forever.

Downtime costs more than quality equipment.

I’ve linked an ROI calculator down below.

It takes into account the biggest costs associated with chillers and maps it out over 5 years.

The results are pretty shocking.