Oak Barrels for Ice Baths – Wine Barrels and Whisky Barrels

• Steel bands are pinned to ensure structural strength.
• Fitted with a lift-off lid for access and brass tap for draining.
• In-use pictures in gallery and video have been half-buried so does not represent the size of the 120 Gallon barrel (please see dimensions below). Does not include a stirring paddle or foam padding. Main photo features a barrel with black paint.
• Please allow up to 1-2 weeks for delivery due to current demand
• Please ensure that you are ordering the right size (dimensions are in the description below) as cost of return of barrels will range from £60-£100 at the customer’s expense.

Celtic Timber’s wine barrels and whisky barrels are perfect for use as an ice bath for extreme event training and sports recovery. Each barrel bought from this page will be tested to ensure that they are watertight. They will come with a fitted lift-off lid, created from the original barrel lid and a brass tap for draining the barrel. Wine barrel lids are fitted with a wooden handle and whisky barrel lids are fitted with a rope handle. We also check and pin all of the barrel’s steel bands to ensure that they are all fixed securely in place. Bungs are fitted tightly prior to transport. We recommend that they are kept filled with water when not in use to ensure that the barrel staves do not dry out, especially in the summer. Whisky bands and oak are both strong and very high quality but bands are not galvanised and therefore will contain rust. Inside of the whiskey barrels and large wine barrels will be charred, which creates the smokey flavour of the whisky. The amount that the wood is charred varies from barrel to barrel.

Please note when ordering 3 or more 55-gallon barrels or any quantity of 120 gallon barrels will be delivered on pallets via haulier. This may require multiple people to be on hand to unload or somewhere safe for the order to be left; kerbside/on drive only. (The haulier will not be able to position the delivery in a particular place such as around the back of a house or through a passageway).

If you have any questions about this, please message us first before ordering. If we have to redeliver the pallet, a charge of £50 will be passed on to the customer.

Caring for your Ice Bath

• Please ensure that the ice barrel is not left to dry out. They are watertight when they are despatched from our depot but the staves may shrink if left empty for too long, which will lead to leaks, especially if left in the sun. If the staves do dry out and leak, you can mix sawdust in with the water to help temporarily fill the gap as they swell or use beeswax to help seal the leak.
• Depending on usage, barrels may need emptying and refilling weekly or monthly. Treating the water is not normally necessary but chlorine can be used at your discretion, especially during hot weather. Customers have recommended baby bottle sanitiser as a way to keep the water cleaner for longer.
• Occasionally and especially if left to dry out, bacteria can get into the barrels and create bad smells. In this instance, please mix a tablespoon of sodium percarbonate or soda carbonate per gallon of water to make a cleaning solution. Make enough solution to fill up most of the barrel. Swirl this solution around in your barrel.
• These barrels have been used for making alcoholic products and will still smell of whisky/wine. When filled with tap water in areas of hard water, it can react to the wood and turn the wood milky/smelly. This website can be used as a guide to water hardness – https://www.kinetico.co.uk/hard-and-soft-water-explained/hard-and-soft-water-uk. You can purchase water-softening salt to help with this issue.
• We recommend a shower pre-usage as seen fit by the user.

IMPORTANT: The care and ongoing water treatment for your ice bath/barrel is the owner’s responsibility. Any chemicals or treatments used need to be completed under the guidelines of the product in use. Over or under-care can do more harm than good as the size and volume of water vs the solution needs to comply with the guidelines of the product in use. We recommend replacing the water and completing the same types of checks as if you were running a hot tub – using PH and or chlorine checks if chlorine is used. If left unattended it would react like any body of stagnant water, so it does need refreshing/maintenance to keep it safe.

Log stumps will be between 350-500mm tall depending on the barrel size ordered. Please note, these will be as wide and heavy as possible to provide as stable a platform as possible, but may still rock, especially on uneven surfaces. Please use cautiously and at your own risk, especially when exiting the barrel if light-headed from cold water.

  Please note that the above video is a customer’s video and not ours. Please direct any enquiries to [email protected] rather than YouTube comments.