Cold plunge tubs and ice baths in Marrakech and Casablanca

Insulation before machinery

A chiller fights the gap between your target temperature and the air. In a Moroccan summer that gap is thirty degrees for much of the day, so an uninsulated basin is a bill with water in it.

We build the shell with closed-cell insulation in the cavity, insulate under the base as well as around it, and supply a fitted lid light enough that people actually use it. In shade, insulated and lidded, the same chiller does perhaps a third of the work it would do in the sun.

Sizing, and the summer step-up

1 HP for tubs to about 260 litres, 2 HP to about 570, 4 HP to about 1,200 — then a step up, because our summers are not the temperate ones those figures assume. A tub in Marrakech doing 8 °C in August needs more machine than the same tub in Tangier.

Shade is worth capacity. A pergola or a north-facing bay saves more electricity than the next size of compressor.

Zellige, tadelakt or timber

A zellige-lined basin sunk into a courtyard is the most Moroccan thing we build and the most beautiful. Tadelakt is warmer, softer and cheaper. Timber is the movable option and the one that comes with you if you sell the riad.

All three need the same things underneath: insulation, a drain, circulation, cartridge filtration and an ozone or UV stage on anything more than one household uses.

Cold plunge prices in Morocco

All bands are supplied and installed, and confirmed after a site survey. If you are comparing them with an ice bath for sale on a marketplace, check three things before you buy: the insulation under the base, the chiller's rated capacity at 35–40 °C ambient rather than at 25, and whether anyone in Morocco services it. The tubs and chillers we fit are built and tested in our Istanbul factory and carry a 24-month warranty.

Cold plunge in Marrakech and Casablanca

Marrakech is the hard case: dry 40 °C afternoons from June to September and fine dust that settles on every condenser. A riad courtyard is actually the kindest place for a basin there — shaded most of the day, sheltered from wind — and a zellige basin set into the courtyard floor, with the chiller in a ventilated service niche, is the classic answer. On a Palmeraie terrace we add a pergola before we add compressor capacity.

Casablanca is the opposite problem. Air temperatures are mild, so the chiller works far less, but Atlantic humidity and salt attack fixings and electrics, and many buyers live in apartments. There we fit freestanding tubs in stainless-fixed timber or composite shells, check the floor loading, and keep the chiller where the salt air cannot reach its coil directly.

Chiller sizing in Morocco

The chiller decides whether your plunge still works in year three. It is also what people buy blind off a marketplace listing, two sizes too small, and then blame.

What we install

For a riad basin or a villa tub we fit an outdoor-rated unit with a titanium heat exchanger — cold, ozonated water pits stainless steel — plus a circulation pump and insulated hoses that enter low in the basin wall, so nothing crosses a zellige rim.

It runs in cycles to a setpoint and lets the insulated lid do the overnight work. That is the difference between a compressor with a life expectancy and one with a warranty period.

Siting it in a dusty, hot country

A chiller needs air and shade. Boxed into a cupboard it runs hot, loses capacity and dies early. In the Haouz and anywhere near a piste, dust blankets a condenser in weeks — we fit washable pre-filters and shorten the service interval accordingly.

In a riad the usual place is a service niche off the courtyard with a grille; in a villa it is behind planting on the north side.

Service

Six months in the city, three in dusty or coastal locations: clean the condenser, check pressures, replace the cartridge, test the ozone cell, check the hoses. An hour of work that decides whether the unit lasts eight years or three.

Chiller supply and installation on its own: indicative MAD 22k – 78k. How we size chillers across Africa →

In short

• Insulated shell, insulated base and a lid people will actually lift
• Chiller stepped up from the standard tables because of 40 °C summers
• Shade is cheaper than compressor capacity — we design for it
• Zellige, tadelakt or timber, all on the same insulated, filtered base