Ensuring bathing water is clear, clean and free from bacteria
Important: Our minimum maintenance guidance is designed to help you grasp the essential actions needed to keep your users safe. However, it is the responsibility of the operator to adjust this regime according to the user load within the baths. With potentially hundreds of users utilizing a small body of water daily, the water quality can be significantly impacted, especially if users are sweating after being in a sauna or covered in oils like fake tan or sunscreen.
New to operating a water based product?
If you are new to operating a water based bathing product like an ice bath, you should think of it like owning a small swimming pool. It is a body of water that has the potential to harbour bacteria if left unchecked. Just like a swimming pool, keeping high water hygiene standards is an active process requiring time and effort to keep on top of it multiple times a day. Each user going into the bath has an impact on the water quality, so while we will recommend a minimum cleaning protocol, ultimately the operator will need to develop their own protocols based on the unique environmental and user-loads at each venue.
Cold water hygiene standards
Water hygiene for extreme cold water is an emerging space in terms of general understanding, scientific data, industry standards and regulation. Currently, water hygiene standards do not cover cold water. In the absence of any formal standards Brass Monkey are proactively engaging with water standards bodies in the UK (such as PWTAG, SPATA, BISHTA) as we welcome clear and common standards to be introduced in this space.
In the mean time, while waiting for common standards from the appropriate bodies, we’ve developed our own recommendations to help operators. While these recommendations may change as we learn more, it has been prepared by consulting experts in swimming pool water hygiene.
While extreme cold water baths do not have the decades old knowledge and learnings of swimming pools, we’re committed to supporting responsible operators prioritise the safety of users. That’s why we’ve partnered the team at Tadcaster Community Swimming Pool to help us undertake water hygiene testing. Learnings from our work with Tadcaster Community Swimming Pool will help us to update all our recommendation as new data emerges.
Water Hygiene - the basics
There are a number of 'levers' as your disposal to help you keep the water clean. These include:
User pre-bathing hygiene - Ensuring users are free from sweat, dry skin, oils, fake tan, towel fibres or dirt on feet significantly reduces the pressure on the ice bath's filtration system (and therefore your team's time doing maintenance tasks)
Debris clearance - Constantly cleaning any debris from the ice bath multiple times a day is one of the best ways to keep on top of water hygiene 'upstream'. the less dirt in the bath the better the filters will flow and last.
Backwashing filters - Filters with a backwash feature are ideal for quick, regular attention to flush debris from the system
Water dilution - One of the simplest ways to keep water in the ice bath clean and clear is with simple dilution, topping the bath up with fresh water. Dilution is also a useful 'reset' tool if Chlorine or PH levels of the water need correcting.
Changing filters - For baths with removable particle filters, changing these frequently, adjusted to user load, will help keep the water clear.
UV - All our commercial grade baths all come with a UV filter. These do not need much maintenance other than checking the UV bulb is good. This UV light is able to kill viruses & bacteria.
Chemical dosing - Chemical dosing (e.g. Chlorine) provides a level of protection again the build up of bacteria in the water. The amount of chlorine required is based on a continually test and dosing regime.
Testing - An essential tool for managing water hygiene is testing. From daily testing to monitor chlorine and PH levels, to monthly lab testing to test for bacteria and viruses.
Effort paradox
The more effort by user and operating staff to reduce debris and bacteria entering the bath and filtration system, the less burden (and effort) on filters and chemicals to pick up the cleaning load.
User pre-bathing hygiene
When it comes to asking users to take responsibility for helping protect the quality of the water, it has to be called out that in the UK we're culturally poor at this behaviour. In many countries, especially across mainland Europe, it is the cultural norm to showering before entering a swimming pool. There is a very good reason, because what a user takes into a body of water stays in the body of water (or the filter). Meaning more work for the operator to keep it clean.
As the ice bath you are operating hold a very small volume of water (compared to a swimming pool) this aspect of water hygiene is critical to you successful staying on top of water hygiene and reducing your maintenance burden.
Allowing users to bring dead skin, sweat, fake tan, towel fibres or dirt on their feet into the ice bath impacts your ability to operate it for the next user. You should feel confident in explaining this to users and put in place strict protocols for use.