Redwood Outdoors Alaskan cold plunge tub review: two tubs, not one with a chiller

The two tubs share a name, a timber and a shop page, and they are easy to read as one tub sold with and without a chiller. They are not. One is a round barrel you fill with ice and sit in. The other is a longer, smaller tub with its refrigeration and a heater built in, at more than twice the price.

Everything below is Redwood’s published specification, a price from Redwood’s product data, or our arithmetic on those, and each sentence says which. We have not tested either tub.

The two Alaskan tubs, priced

Alaskan Cold Plunge Tub: the ice tub

01 Best for ice

Redwood Outdoors Alaskan Cold Plunge Tub

Cold-climate buyers and anyone pairing a plunge with a Redwood sauna

8.7 Lab score

A 130-gallon thermowood barrel that needs no outlet. It is an ice tub: Redwood sells no chiller for it, so buy it for the ice route, not as the first half of a chilled one.

Capacity

130 gallons

Exterior

37" diameter x 40.5" tall

Dry weight

250 lb

Material

Canadian thermowood, hard plastic liner

Chiller

None (ice only)

Included

Tub, wooden lid, wooden steps

Warranty

1 year

What we liked

• No electricity required — put it anywhere on the property
• Canadian thermowood exterior matches the sauna line visually
• Wooden lid and steps included, not upsold

What we did not

• Ice only: Redwood sells no chiller for it and lists no chiller ports
• 250 lb dry, 1,300+ lb filled — placement is permanent
• 1-year warranty is short for the money

Check price at Redwood Outdoors $2,700 Tub only, sale price 17 Oct 2026 (compare-at $2,999)

A barrel of Canadian thermowood, which is heat-treated hemlock, with a hard plastic liner, a drain, a wooden lid and wooden steps, all included rather than upsold. It is 37 inches across and 40½ inches tall, so it is a seated plunge: you sit upright in a round tub rather than lying back. It needs no electricity, which means it can go anywhere on the property that will take its weight.

What it does not have is a way to chill it. Redwood sells no chiller for this tub and lists no chiller ports. A third-party chiller with its hoses over the rim can be run on almost any tub, but we have not seen what Redwood’s warranty says about one, so we would buy this as an ice tub and nothing more.

That makes the climate question the whole question. Outdoors in a cold-winter region, the air does much of the chilling for months and the ice bill is small. Anywhere warm, every session starts from tap temperature. Our ice calculator puts the worst case, a full 130 gallons cooled from 68°F to 50°F every session, at about 142 lb of ice, or roughly $50 a plunge at $3.50 for a ten-pound bag. A lidded tub that is still cold from yesterday needs far less, and the calculator takes your own tap temperature and target.

The warranty is one year, short for a tub you will fill and drain for many of them.

Alaskan All-In-One Cold Plunge: the chilled one

02 Built-in chiller and heater

Redwood Outdoors Alaskan All-In-One Cold Plunge

Buyers who want a thermowood tub that chills and heats, on a standard outlet

8.5 Lab score

A 104-gallon thermowood tub with a Balboa 1.5 HP chiller-heater and UV sanitation built in. It is not the cheap way to a chilled plunge; it is the one that looks like garden furniture and also heats to 104°F.

Capacity

104 gallons

Exterior

57" L x 37" W x 44" H

Dry weight

360 lb

Chiller

Balboa CLIM8ZONE Deluxe, 1.5 HP, 37°F to 104°F

Sanitation

UV, one filter

Electrical

120V, 12A max, GFCI

Material

Canadian thermowood, moulded acrylic liner

Warranty

1 year, tub and chiller

What we liked

• Chills to 37°F and heats to 104°F on one Balboa unit, manufacturer-stated
• Runs on a standard 120V outlet, 12A max, with UV sanitation built in
• Thermowood shell, insulated lid with child lock, built-in steps

What we did not

• 1-year warranty on the tub and the chiller is short for $6,999
• 104 gallons — smaller than the 130-gallon ice-only Alaskan it is named after
• No ozone, and Redwood does not cover damage from use below 32°F

Check price at Redwood Outdoors $6,999 Standard model, 17 Oct 2026 (Wi-Fi model $7,999)

A thermowood tub 57 inches long, 37 wide and 44 tall, holding 104 gallons, with a moulded acrylic liner, built-in non-slip steps and an insulated lid with a child lock. The length is what separates it from the plain Alaskan: Redwood lists it for one person. Inside sits a Balboa CLIM8ZONE Deluxe unit that Redwood rates at 1.5 HP, chilling to 37°F and heating to 104°F, with UV sanitation and one filter. Redwood quotes 45 dB at full operation. All of that is manufacturer-stated.

Three things are worth knowing before the price:

It heats. The same unit that chills to 37°F will hold 104°F, so in winter the tub can be a hot soak instead.

1.5 HP is far more than holding temperature needs. On our chiller sizing table, a third of a horsepower holds 100 to 130 gallons in most US climates. A bigger unit should mean a faster pull-down from tap temperature. Redwood publishes no pull-down time, so that is the claim we would most like to time.

The cover is one year. One year on the tub and one on the chiller, and Redwood’s listing says damage from use below 32°F is not covered. For $6,999 that is the weakest line on the page, and it is the same length as the plain tub’s.

The Wi-Fi model is $7,999. The extra $1,000 buys remote temperature control from a phone and nothing else that Redwood lists.

Upkeep, by Redwood’s own schedule: test the water weekly, clean the filter and change the water monthly. A replacement filter is $35.

What each one costs installed

The tub price is the number Redwood quotes. This is the rest, using the ranges from our recovery room cost breakdown.

Both ship by freight in a wooden crate, curbside only, so getting a 250 lb or 360 lb crate from the street to the pad is your job. Plan the route, and the help, before the delivery appointment.

The running cost is where they part. The Alaskan’s is ice, as above, every session it is warm out. The All-In-One’s is electricity, which we have no metered figure for, plus a monthly 104-gallon water change and filters. Our running-cost page puts the three-year totals side by side: on its arithmetic the All-In-One is about $7,800 to $8,500 over three years at three plunges a week, inside the range for buying ice.

The weight, and where it can go

Redwood publishes dry weights, not filled ones. By our arithmetic at 8.34 lb a gallon:

• Alaskan: 130 gallons is about 1,080 lb of water. With the 250 lb tub that is about 1,330 lb before anyone gets in, on a 37-inch circle of about 7.5 square feet. That is roughly 180 lb per square foot.
• All-In-One: 104 gallons is about 870 lb of water. With the 360 lb tub that is about 1,230 lb, over a 57 by 37 inch outline of about 14.6 square feet, or roughly 85 lb per square foot if the base bears evenly, which we have not confirmed.

Residential floors are commonly designed for a live load of 40 lb per square foot. On a ground-level concrete slab in good condition, neither number is a problem. On a deck, a floor over a crawlspace or anything upstairs, the plain Alaskan in particular is a question for someone qualified before it is filled.

A filled tub, and children

Either tub is a deep barrel of water in a garden. Redwood describes a child lock on the All-In-One’s lid. It describes none on the plain Alaskan’s wooden lid.

Alaskan, All-In-One, or neither

Buy the plain Alaskan if you live somewhere cold, plunge fewer than two or three times a week, and want a tub that matches a thermowood sauna. If it is the same garden as a Redwood barrel, the Redwood Outdoors review covers the sauna side.

Buy the All-In-One if it is going outdoors, you want refrigeration without plumbing anything yourself, and a tub that also heats to 104°F is worth paying for.

Buy neither if what you want is a chiller for less money. The Ice Barrel 300, $1,149.99 on 18 October 2026, has chiller ports built in, and a standalone chiller on those ports is the cheapest chilled route on our three-year arithmetic. Or if you want the best tub rather than the best-looking one: the Plunge All-In Gen 2 at $9,990 (18 October 2026) adds ozone and filters the whole tub every fifteen minutes, manufacturer-stated.

The plain Alaskan has no display, so if you buy it, a floating thermometer is the only way to know the water is at the temperature you think it is.

The two Redwood tubs against each other, line by line: Redwood Alaskan vs Redwood Alaskan All-In-One. Every tub we rank: the best cold plunge tubs of 2026.

What we have not measured

We have not seen, filled, chilled or sat in either tub. Specifically:

• No temperature data. We have not logged how long the plain Alaskan holds cold with its lid on, or how fast the All-In-One pulls down from tap temperature. The 37°F floor, the 104°F ceiling and the 45 dB figure are Redwood’s. The chiller display versus water temperature test that would start answering this is written up and still owed.
• No power figure. We have not metered the All-In-One, so this page carries no electricity cost for it, only the circuit.
• Ice is arithmetic. The 142 lb figure is the ice calculator’s heat-capacity calculation for a full tub cooled from 68°F, not a weighed result.
• Weights are arithmetic. Redwood publishes dry weights only; every filled weight and load per square foot here is our calculation on its capacity figures.
• Posture is inferred from the published dimensions, not from sitting in either tub.
• Warranty service is not warranty length. We have no basis to comment on how Redwood handles a claim.

The summary

• Two tubs, not one with a chiller. The Alaskan is 130 gallons of thermowood for ice at $2,700; the All-In-One is a 104-gallon thermowood tub with a Balboa chiller and heater built in at $6,999 (17 October 2026).
• The plain Alaskan is an ice tub. Redwood sells no chiller for it and lists no ports.
• Installed, before running costs: about $3,200 to $4,000 for the Alaskan, $7,800 to $9,300 for the All-In-One.
• Filled, the plain Alaskan is about 1,330 lb on 7.5 square feet. Check anything that is not a ground-level slab.
• One-year warranty on both, tub and chiller alike.
• A cheaper chilled route exists: a ported Ice Barrel 300 and a standalone chiller.