Support FAQ
We do our very best to support our products and we are interested to hear your feedback to help us make improvements. If the subject you are interested in is not listed here please feel free to contact us, by visiting the contact page and we will respond as soon as possible.
Occasionally when I check the pool temperature with a thermometer it is 1 or 2 degrees different to what the iCool displays:A lot of thought went into how the temperature would be extracted and displayed. What we are doing here is covering against the risk of providing an earth return path for other peoples bad wiring. Having our temperature probes completely internal eliminates this small but real risk completely.
The primary motivation was to make the system totally safe by avoiding electrical devices such as a temperature probe being external and in the bath itself with the risk of cable damage and a short circuit. As the shield on such cables has to be at earth potential it would present a small risk of an earth return path and consequently an electric shock from any other appliance or electric field that the user in the bath may accidentally come into contact with, due to water on the floor. This could happen from a number of external sources such as bad wiring in the building or in another appliance sitting in the water. In such a case the danger of a stray electric field would not be detected by our earth leakage safety system as it would be external to our units sensor and not part of the iCool's system.
So, making sure the iCool has no components that are not protected by our safety system is the reason for internal sensing. This gives ultimate safety, but presents a problem of where to measure the water temperature. We chose to measure the temperature as the water flows between the pump and the evaporator which is the actual water temperature returning from the pool. Our scale is very accurate, we have tested it many times.
There are several reasons for getting a different temperature in parts of the pool, all to do with physics and nothing to do with system accuracy.
First, don't assume that digital thermometers are accurate, the industry standard normally rates them at plus or minus 1 to 1.5 degrees C, so there can be up to 3 degrees difference between thermometers. Furthermore they rely on small changes in resistance in a thermistor (a resistor that changes resistance with temperature) at the end of the probe wire. Thermistors are a high impedance device that are subject to drift over time and typical digital thermometers don't compensate for this drift, so you can get a different reading from the same thermometer on different days.
The pool water is not stirred and as it changes only about once every 15 minutes there is an unavoidable variation between different parts of the water. Therefore, even if we were to have a probe in the actual bath we could get very different readings depending on where in the bath we put it. Everyone is familiar with this effect in a normal household warm bathtub. You can run a hot or cold tap into the bath for quite a while with only a local effect on the temperature and if you feel other parts of the bath the temperature is different enough to be felt even just by your hand. We all know from everyday experience that you can have a difference of several degrees from one part of a normal hot bathtub until you stir the water. This is the same in any body of water and at any temperature range unless you stir the water to thoroughly mix it. This applies everywhere in nature from oceans to swimming pools. When you dive down in water the temperature normally gets a lot colder than the surface, which shows how long layers of water can maintain a different temperature even in the same pool or ocean where they are in direct contact.
You will find that if you move the thermometer to different parts of the iCool pool you will get different temperature readings, this is physics and applies to everyone and every pool, not just us. We actually cover this subject in the instructions quite well and point out that the user can eliminate the difference by determining the difference for their particular setup and compensating for this known difference when they set the desired temperature. Anyone claiming greater accuracy is just talking nonsense that defies the science. The control of the temperature of the water in the iCool is extremely accurate within 1 degree, but after it leaves it is subjected to all of these factors.
The other factor that impacts on temperature difference between the water in the iCool and outside is the ambient temperature and humidity. In high humidity, a considerable amount of the cold is lost due to condensation on the hose to the pool and the sides of the pool. Condensing moisture robs a lot of energy, we compensate for this by having a powerful cooling system but it's not possible to transmit the water through these external parts with no loss at all.
Turbo related questions:
For $6,999, it is just a spa and not really a cold spa, in that the chilling system has to be purchased separately?
The price of $6999 is for the hard spa including filtration and circulating pump with full teak timber surround. We only offer these as a service to clients who do not have their own preferred spas already or who want the entire package from us. We have a very small profit margin in these because we just do them as service to assist clients to get the best from our recovery equipment. Our specialty is portable pools of all types for which our brand is the world's number one supplier by far.
What does “fully built in” mean? Is the chilling system purchased additionally is then built in to the spa by iCool?
We never build the chilling units into any spa ever, because it is a very bad idea. All of our chilling units are self contained systems that can be used anywhere up to 20 meters from the spa bath and there are very good reasons for this. We thought about this issue a lot in the early R&D stages and all of our testing proved that it is a bad idea. The radiant heat from the refrigeration process can be quite high and if the cooling system is under the spa a great deal of this heat gets back into the water through the skin of the spa over time, even with good insulation and this greatly reduces efficiency, uses more electricity and takes longer to cool. Also, the the exhaust convection heat must be forced into the room immediately at the spa pool. Not only does this add heat to the room but it adds heat at the spa right where you do not want it. Finally, cooling large systems make noise and this can be very distracting to athletes who are trying to relax and meditate in the spa.
Finally, it is not the best practice to have high voltage compressors and other equipment inside the spa.
The only way a manufacturer can put a chilling unit inside the spa is to make it quite small and lower power and this is exactly what ColdTub appear to be doing. It will drive you crazy to have an underpowered system it takes forever to chill and of course not to mention the heat build up and the noise. It takes a lot of cooling power to make an effective recovery pool and thats what we offer. There is a very good scientific explanation about why it is so important to have a more powerful cooling unit on our website "about us" web page. All iCool systems are by far the most powerful and efficient and user friendly in their class , which is why they outsell all other manufacturers in the world combined. Customers do their research and more than three quarters of them choose iCools over all others because it's obvious that we have done our research.
You can install the iCool chilling system anywhere that is convenient from the spa or pool to reduce hot air getting to the spa and noise.
If a spa is purchased locally, is it still possible to have someone locally build the iCool chilling system into the spa?
As above we do not design our chilling units to be built into spas , but also our units offer many other features via the touch screen interface and that needs to be visible and accessible.
Any iCool can be connected to virtually any spa pool, we provide all the fittings needed and it usually takes an hour or less to achieve a working system.
What is the difference between purchasing a hot spa with the built in heater included in the price versus the addition of the reverse cycle heat pump to the Twin or the Turbo Cool for an additional $900?
We offer an electric element heated version of the Perfect Spa for the same reason as in my first answer. It allows clients to get a dedicated hot spa at a low price to go with their cold spa for contrast therapy. It comes with a small touch control unit a filtration system and an massage jets with a powerful blower. Once agin we only do this as a service for clients who need a second hot spa on a budget. Electric element heating, which is standard in almost all home spa pools, is very inefficient compared to an iCool. Usually they use about 3 times as much electricity but they have a low purchase price.
The Turbo Cool and the TWIN can be supplied in a reverse cycle heat pump version and for long term use this saves a lot of money in running costs. That is why so many of our clients are installing them instead of element type heaters. The other advantage is that you can use them for both heating and cooling and this is important for clubs with more than one pool as they can use any pool for any purpose as needed. 1 hot and 1 cold , or 2 cold , or 2 hot.
Your webpage mentions that the Turbo Cool has a filtration version but it is not mentioned on the Twin webpage. To have filtration, does the Turbo Cool have to be purchased instead of the Twin or is the Twin also available with a filtration version?
The perfect spas have built in filtration. If you use your own domestic (home type) spa they almost always come with a filtration system built in also.
Cartridge replacement:
What is meant by “50 sq ft cartridge...”? I assume that the water volume of a spa will circulate through the chiller several times in a day to achieve and maintain a certain temperature...Does this mean that every circulation of a 1500-L volume has a 1.5 sq meter impact on the cartridge and, therefore, would have to be replaced after 33 such cycles? Could this mean that a new cartridge would be required every few days? Is there some other way you can provide to estimate how often a cartridge would need replacing?
We have hundreds of these in use so we have some good feedback. Normally owners using them for a team would take out the cartridge and wash it every 3-4 weeks. They are very easy to remove and replace. They usually last for up to 2 years and cost about $100.
The Perfect Spa is supposed to be for 6 athletes simultaneously but I presume that it will depend on the size of the athletes. What is its operating water volume?
You had written that it is the same size as the ColdTub...what are its overall dimensions?
You had also mentioned a 1-meter depth...is this the deepest point just for the full body immersion?
You are correct it depends on the size of the athletes. The water volume is 1200 litres and the diameter is 2 meters and the depth in the middle is 1 meter which gives excellent static pressure on lower limbs compared to shallow pools. There are 4 seats set for full body immersion , 3 set for lower body immersion and 1 for legs only immersion. This was very well designed for the average recovery room situation.
The perfect spa is made from heavy duty non slip material that has an anti bacterial action, whereas most spas are shiny and slippery and dangerous as they build up slippery scum quickly.
Capacity for a local-purchase spa:
Realizing that the TurboCool can cool the same volume twice as fast as the Twin, if the spa itself is purchased locally, up to what size would be reasonable for the intended level of performance of the Twin? Since the Turbo is advertised for up to 3000 L, is the Twin for up to 1500 L (~10 person?)?
It is always better to use the more powerful unit for all the reasons mentioned , however we offer the Twin for the perfect spa to those clients that have budget restraints. They usually purchase a Turbo Cool later when they have more budget and use their Twin for mobile work.
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