Redwood Outdoors Yukon Cold Plunge Tub Review 2023

In-depth Review of Redwood Outdoors Yukon Cold Plunge Tub

Construction

This cold plunge is a tub that you can inflate to fill with water and deflate to take with you places. It isn’t your average pool floaty though, so before you fill your giant pink flamingo floaty with ice in your backyard, you’re going to want to check out the Yukon Cold Plunge Tub to see all that it offers and comes with. Trust us – it includes a lot of thoughtful features for an inflatable tub.
Inflatable Tub

The Redwood Outdoors Yukon Cold Plunge Tub is inflatable and made out of PVC material.

It’s actually constructed the same way as an inflatable stand-up paddleboard. The outer layer of PVC is stitched together on the inside with drop stitching which allows it to hold its rigid oval tub shape. The drop stitching uses thousands of strong nylon threads that connect the two sides of the tub together.

There are multiple layers of PVC that make up this inflatable cold tub that are connected together with glue. Something to keep in mind with this design is that it could leak air and/or water. When using the Yukon, you want to be sure not to place it on sharp rocks/objects or drag it across concrete to not damage, pop, or puncture it. It does come with extra PVC patches in case an accident occurs or a part of the glue fails though. You’ll just need to purchase a PVC glue kit to use these patches.

With thoughtful, proper use, aka not puncturing or damaging it, the Yukon Cold Tub should last over time with regular use. If you’re looking to permanently keep it inflated with water, you might want to consider other cold plunges. Redwood Outdoors makes really nice ones that I’ll talk about a little later in this review. If you want an inflatable and portable cold plunge that you can move often and store in a bag, the Yukon Cold Plunge Tub is a good option.

When empty, the Yukon Cold Plunge weighs only 30 lbs. It can hold up to 120 gallons of water, so it is heavy and not possible to move once it is full. This tub isn’t insulated so it doesn’t hold the temperature of the water well, and isn’t really meant to be inflated with water for more than a few days or so unless you’re changing the water out regularly to help the tub keep its shape. In our testing, we saw the water temperature gradually increase over the course of a couple of days, even in a temperature-controlled garage.

We filled it with ice for our testing.

This is where the fact that this cold plunge is “chiller ready”, comes in handy.

Chiller

The Yukon Cold Plunge Tub can be purchased with a chiller. It’s an electric chiller that controls the water temperature to keep it consistently cold. You can lower the temperature of the water down to 37 degrees Fahrenheit with the chiller. The chiller uses a 110V 60Hz electrical outlet, so you’ll just need to be near an outlet to use the Yukon Cold Tub with the chiller.

The chiller has a touchscreen display for powering on and off and setting the temperature. When set up and plugged in, the chiller takes around 2-3 minutes to pressurize and begin pumping water to cool it down. The chiller comes with 2 hoses: 1 Y-shaped hose and 1 straight hose. This connects the chiller to the tub with an inlet and outlet that screw into the side of the cold tub.

These two ports are threaded to connect the hoses.

You can also use your phone to control the chiller instead of using the touchscreen.

As an upgrade, you can purchase the Deluxe Chiller + Heater to use with the Yukon Tub in case you want to dip into some warm water for extra relaxation, too.

Accessories

The Redwood Outdoors Yukon Cold Plunge Tub comes with some accessories such as a carrying bag, air pump, and tub cover.

The tub cover is made out of the same PVC material as the cold plunge tub.

It fits snugly over the top of the tub to help keep the water clean and free of debris. The cover is pretty easy to take off and it doesn’t lock so you’ll want to keep this in mind if you have small children and pets. It would be nice if the cover could be locked on top of the tub for added safety.

The air pump is a single-chamber pump to inflate the tub.

It maxes out at 10 PSI and takes around 3-5 minutes to inflate the tub. The pump is pretty easy to use and we recommend inflating the tub up to 8-10 PSI. You connect the hose to the “inflate” side of the air pump and connect the other end of the hose to the tub. You do want to make sure the pin on the inside of the center of the valve on the tub is in the up position while inflating, otherwise, you’ll lose air in the tub when you go to disconnect the pump. You can check the pin’s position by pressing it in and out. Redwood Outdoors has a video explaining how to pump up and cover the Yukon Cold Plunge Tub as a reference. If you need to take a little air out of the tub, you can use the valve wrench, that’s included.

Being portable, the Yukon Cold Plunge Tub comes with a carrying case that’s actually a backpack.

It is specifically designed to fit the tub once it’s deflated and folded. It has two shoulder straps and a top handle to carry it easily, and it’s branded with Redwood Outdoors branding on the front. The shoulder straps are adjustable and include an additional front clip over your chest for most support while carrying the tub. It’s a zipper bag to more easily fit the tub inside, and it has pockets on the side for your phone or water or whatever smaller item you might want to take with you.

Other Redwood Outdoors Products

In addition to the Yukon Cold Plunge Tub, Redwood Outdoors has a larger version of the tub called the Yukon Cold Plunge Tub XL, available if you need a larger cold plunge than the standard tub that we have in this review. As a permanent tub, Redwood Outdoors also has the Alaskan Cold Plunge Tub. It’s higher in price but is made out of Scandinavian Thermowood with a wooden cover and wooden steps that make this tub look aesthetically pleasing and really high-end. As far as cold plunges, this is one of the nicest-looking ones on the market, in my opinion.

For heat therapy, Redwood Outdoors sells indoor and outdoor wooden saunas, too. And for the best of both worlds, you can purchase a Thermowood Sauna with the Alaskan Cold Plunge Tub as a set.

Cold Water Therapy Benefits

If you’re on the fence about cold water therapy or just want to learn more, here are a few ways it has been proven to help enhance overall health.

Of course, plunging into ice water does take some mental toughness but this can help build discipline. Cold plunging also causes the body to produce stress, but it’s good stress that can improve your mood, as well as other aspects like anxiety and depression. This type of stress is called hormesis.

Cold water therapy can help boost your immune system and help your muscles recover more quickly from workouts. Some of our team members have been regularly cold plunging and have seen immense improvement in their mental and physical health.

Functionality & Performance

For the quality, ease of use, and portability, the Redwood Outdoors Yukon Cold Plunge Tub is worth it. It isn’t the kind of cold tub you can set up and always have filled and ready to use, but if you’re looking for something that you can take with you places or just fill up at your house when you want, this inflatable tub has many benefits and included features that make it well-designed.

One thing to keep in mind with cold plunging is that it can take a lot of ice to keep the water cold, especially if you’re plunging in a warm climate outside.

We filled the Yukon Cold Plunge Tub with about 120 lbs of ice to get the water temperature to 46 degrees. 24 hours later the water rose to 58 degrees and continued up to 70 degrees the day after that. This was all in a temperature-controlled garage, so outside in the summer heat, the temperature would have been higher. Buying ice to cold plunge regularly does get expensive. Matt, who used the Yukon Cold Plunge Tub regularly at his house, has used a chest freezer and small containers for ice molds to make ice at his house when using the Ice Barrel.

When this got to be too tedious, he ended up buying a chiller on Amazon to use with the Ice Barrel. Although we don’t have the Redwood Outdoors chiller for this review, we really appreciate that the Yukon Cold Plunge Tub is chiller-ready and can be purchased with the chiller and Deluxe Chiller for hot and cold plunging. This way, the water can stay consistently cold and it comes with a built-in filter to keep the water clean. The chiller kits do get pricy, but trust us, buying ice gets expensive and time-consuming so a chiller is beneficial if you’re planning on cold plunging regularly.

Although you can purchase the Yukon Cold Plunge Tub XL for a larger option, the regular Yukon Cold Plunge Tub worked well for our team who ranges from 5’1” up to 6’5” in height. Matt who is 6’5” and about 230 lbs had plenty of room to sit with his legs straightened. He just has to bend his knees to dunk his head underwater. He thinks someone larger than him could easily fit in this inflatable tub, too.

Along with the size of this tub, its height makes it easy to get in and out. I’m 5’1” and it comes up to below my hips, so even shorter folks like me can step in and out of it. Other designs, like the Ice Barrel, keep your body in more of an upright position, which is nice for beginners to cold plunging, but harder to get in and out for people of most heights.

Depending on your size, you might not want to fill the Yukon Cold Plunge to the top because once you get in, water could spill out. For someone closer to Matt’s size, he was able to fill the tub about three-fifths of the way full to avoid losing excess water. Finding the right water level for you might take some trial and error.

Warranty

Redwood Outdoors includes a 1-year warranty with the purchase of the Yukon Cold Plunge Tub.