If you're weighing up recovery equipment for your gym, spa, or clinic, ice baths and cryotherapy chambers are usually the first two options on the table. Both deliver cold therapy. Both are proven member draws. But they sit at very different price points, and the "better" choice depends entirely on your facility, not on which one sounds more impressive on a brochure.
Here's how the two actually compare on the numbers that matter: upfront cost, space, staffing, payback period, and long-term revenue potential.
The upfront cost gap is bigger than most people expect
A commercial-grade ice bath — the lower-cost, faster-install end of the recovery equipment spectrum.
A commercial ice bath typically runs from around £8,000 for a solid, well-insulated unit with a built-in chiller, up to £11,000+ for premium British-built systems with automated filtration.
A commercial cryotherapy chamber sits in a completely different bracket — often £45,000 to £85,000+ depending on whether it's a single-person cabin or a walk-in whole-body chamber, plus ongoing costs for liquid nitrogen or electric cooling refills.
That's not a small difference. It's the difference between a decision you can make this quarter and one that needs a proper financing conversation.
Space and installation
Ice baths are the easier install by a wide margin. Most plug into a standard socket, connect via a garden hose, and need only a few square metres — many facilities fit one into an existing changing room or a corner of the gym floor.
Cryotherapy chambers need a dedicated, ventilated room, sometimes with specific electrical or gas-handling requirements depending on the system. If you're working with a smaller footprint, this alone can rule cryotherapy out regardless of budget.
Staffing and running costs
A walk-in cryotherapy chamber — a bigger investment, but a strong differentiator for premium facilities.
Ice baths are close to zero-staffing once installed — members use them independently, and maintenance is largely down to filter changes and periodic water treatment.
Cryotherapy chambers usually need a trained staff member present for every session, both for safety and to operate the equipment correctly. That's a real ongoing labour cost that doesn't show up in the upfront price tag but does show up in your margins every single month.
Payback period: where it actually lands
Here's the part most equipment suppliers don't spell out clearly.
An ice bath priced around £8,000, used by roughly 15% of a 400-member facility at £20 per month, generates about £1,200 in additional monthly revenue — putting payback at well under seven months.
A cryotherapy chamber at £60,000+ needs meaningfully higher session pricing and volume to hit the same payback window. It's absolutely achievable in facilities with strong footfall and a premium price point (cryotherapy sessions commonly command £25–£45 each), but the breakeven point is measured in months-to-a-year territory, not weeks.
Neither of these is "wrong" — they're just built for different scales of investment and different types of facility.
So which one is right for you?
Ice bath makes sense if:
- You want the fastest, lowest-risk entry point into recovery services
- Space is limited
- You want something members can use without staff supervision
- You're testing whether recovery services will land with your membership base before committing further
Cryotherapy makes sense if:
- You already have strong footfall and a premium-positioned facility
- You have the space and can staff sessions
- You want a bigger differentiator in a competitive local market
- You're ready to treat it as a flagship service, not a trial
A common path we see: facilities start with an ice bath, prove the model with real usage numbers over 6–12 months, then reinvest that new revenue into a second recovery service — sometimes cryotherapy, sometimes red light therapy or a hyperbaric chamber — once they have the data to justify the bigger investment.
Run your own numbers
Rather than relying on someone else's averages, it's worth plugging in your own member count, expected uptake, and pricing to see where either option lands for your specific facility.
Try the Recovery Revenue Calculator →
It takes under a minute, and it'll show you a real projected payback period for whichever solution you're considering — ice bath, cryotherapy, or anything else in the range.
Figures in this article are estimates based on typical commercial pricing and usage patterns. Actual costs, revenue, and payback periods will vary based on your facility, location, and market.