SINGAPORE: Matt Guest is the first to admit that ice baths have a long history of being overhyped and spruiked by dubious operators. But as he swaps his former life as an Olympic hockey player for the intensive care unit, where he is a doctor, Guest is convinced that a cold plunge a day really can help improve sleep, manage stress and improve mental clarity.

During one particularly hot spell in Melbourne, Guest became tired of freezing mountains of ice cubes and ice packs in an attempt to recreate the experience without splashing $10,000 on a high-end device. “I was literally in the tub, the water wasn’t very cold, and I was thinking, ‘well this is just not great’,” he says. “I wondered if I could stick an icemaker on top of this thing and just churn out ice into the water all day.”

An Australian who played for the Canadian hockey team at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in 2016, had retrained as a doctor. But he found himself raising his annoyances with Laynton Allan, another ice bath aficionado who had found some success funding for his in-office school holiday childcare start-up on the television show Shark Tank.

With their friend Max Chapman, an engineer, Guest and Allan came up with a way of turning the icemaker-on-a-tub idea into a real device. They called it the SnowCap, which uses thermoelectric technology to keep the water cold without making ice or requiring complicated plumbing.

Guest concedes there are a lot of ice bath products on the market, but says the SnowCap is different because it is the first that uses thermoelectric technology built directly into the lid instead of compressors and refrigerant gases. The temperature, which can range between 1.5 degrees and 40 degrees, is controlled by a smartphone app.

The three founded Clearwater Wellness, bringing in former Australian cricket captain Tim Paine as one of its biggest investors. So far, they have raised $700,000 in pre-sales via crowdfunding platforms to turn a 3D-printed prototype into something ready for mass production. Now Clearwater is raising $2 million through a convertible note that it hopes will fund the rest of the SnowCap’s commercialisation and roll-out.

Guest admits there have been some dubious ice bath start-ups and claims about the health benefits of taking a cold plunge. “This is an evolving area and I think there will be more evidence coming out supporting the benefits. Very much from my personal anecdotal experience, it makes a big difference to me and my mental clarity.”