It's the first winter for me (since I'm doing ice baths) when for few weeks temperatures constantly differs from -15C to -5C. I love my everyday ice bath morning routine, but maintaining my 1000l container is quite challenging. I need to break ice on entrance 2 times a day (before night and just before bath), but I can still see 'walls and floor' are more and more thicker every day so like in. few weeks it will be completely frozen.
How you guys maitain your 'bathtubs' in long times of sub zero temperatures?
I have the same problem with mine. The good news is that the ice is acting as an insulation layer for the water inside, so the progress of the ice will be slower the thicker it gets.
Breaking the entrance twice a day is counterproductive though, as it lets cold air into the water, cooling it down faster. So you'll only want to break the ice when you do a plunge.
Secondly you may want to insulate the tub from the sides and from the top. Depending on how much effort you wanna put in you could use old blankets or get some styrofoam insulation to wrap around and an insulated pool cover to put over the top.
I need to break entrance twice a day, because breaking thick ice at 6am would wake up everyone in the house
If there's a farm supply store nearby, you could pick up a stock tank heater, keeps it from freezing
I remove the big blocks of ice once a week and pour about the same volume back in with hot water The temperatures are about the same as the ones you mentioned
Ill try it.
The trick is not let any snow fall in to the tub also
I have an outdoor tank, I don’t get these extreme temps however. This time of year it stays above 0°C most all winter.
Do you have power nearby? I have an Inkbird thermostatic controller and a small 500W submersible tank heater. I can set the temperature to any desired level. From iced up on top (but only a thin sheet of ice), from -0.2°C to 10°C easily and quickly to suit my needs.
Problem solved.
If you have an outlet nearby you can put a pond filter in there and that’ll keep the water moving so it doesn’t freeze over.
Nice idea
Throw a bag or two of epsom salt in there