Why Your Commercial Chiller Can't Keep Up

Every 80kg athlete who steps into your 5°C ice bath for 3 minutes adds heat.

Not just a little.

A precise, measurable amount.

Most recovery rooms ignore this.

That's why their ice baths start cold but end up lukewarm by lunch.

Here's the math.

A single 3-minute plunge from an 80kg athlete dumps 555 kJ of heat into your water.

In a standard 1000L ice bath, that's enough to raise the temperature by 0.13°C.

Ten athletes?

Your water's up 1.33°C. Twenty athletes?

Now you're pushing 2.66°C warmer. Factor in sauna users?

They're adding 50% more heat per plunge - 832 kJ every time they step in.

Your pristine 5°C morning start could be creeping toward 8°C by afternoon.

Standard chillers can't handle this load.

A 1kW unit needs 9.3 minutes to pull out heat from one plunge.

With back-to-back athletes your system's falling behind after the first hour.

Here's another thing most facilities miss - nobody plunges just once.

Most users do 2-3 immersions per session.

One person = 2-3 plunges

Ten users = 20-30 plunges

That "light use" facility is looking more like medium to heavy use.

When your chiller can't keep up, you get temperature drift.

That means inconsistent experience.

Athletes stepping in at 4 PM aren't getting what they paid for compared to the 7 AM crowd.

That’s the #1 cause of negative reviews online.

Your system needs to match real-world use:

Light Use (5-10 users/day)

• Actual immersions: 10-30 plunges
• 3-5kW cooling capacity
• Factor in sauna integration

Medium Use (10-50 users/day)

• Actual immersions: 20-150 plunges
• 6-10kW cooling capacity
• Designed for continuous operation

Heavy Use (50+ users/day)

• Actual immersions: 100-300+ plunges
• 6-18kW systems depending on pool size
• Multiple unit configuration recommended
• Custom solutions for specific use patterns

Most facilities undersize their chillers because they only look at water volume.

But real-world use means accounting for:

• Total daily plunges
• Multiple immersions per user
• Sauna integration
• Time between sessions
• Peak usage periods

A properly sized chiller maintains your target temperature all day.

No drift.

No excuses.

No compromise.

Because if your system can't handle the heat load, you're just asking for complaints and negative reviews.

Berg's Chillers. Built for real-world use. Engineered for performance.