Family turns chest freezer into safe winter swimming spot with closable lid
Mari Heinonen and Kari Majanen converted an old chest freezer into a clever winter swimming hole. The lid prevents the hole from freezing over and keeps the family's dogs from falling into the icy water.
You seem very enthusiastic about winter swimming, Mari!
Our ice hole at the cottage gets a lot of use. We visit the cottage regularly—from Wednesday to Thursday, and then again from Friday to Monday. Even last time, as soon as we arrived at the cottage, the first thing I did was take a dip in the ice hole without even going to the sauna. When you’re in the ice hole gazing out over the lake, you forget all work pressures, and there’s nothing going on in your head, so to speak. It’s absolutely the best escape from this rat race of a life!
I’m probably the most enthusiastic winter swimmer in our family. Our daughter also uses the ice hole, and our son and his partner do as well when they visit the cottage. Even Kari has tried it, but he says winter swimming isn’t his thing.
How did you get the idea to make a winter swimming hole from a chest freezer?
We realized that an ice hole kept open with a pump wouldn’t work for us. To us the only option was an ice hole with a lid because our dogs roam freely at the cottage, as do the local wild animals.
A few years ago, we saw a factory-made solution for sale that looked exactly like a chest freezer. I don’t know if it’s still manufactured. We figured the easiest way was to make one ourselves from a chest freezer instead of building something similar from, for example, sheet metal and urethane.
How did you make the winter swimming hole, and how did you install it in the ice?
We removed the bottom of the chest freezer, leaving about 50 centimeters of the sides. We attached wood to the lower part inside the chest to prevent skin from accidentally scraping when entering the ice hole. The cut edge of the freezer is really sharp, you see.
“The chest freezer ice hole cost practically nothing.”
When we install the freezer, we cut a hole in the ice with a chainsaw and drop the chest into it. We’ve attached support beams to the ends of the freezer, which the freezer rests on as it freezes in place. This year, we also drilled long screws from the wood into the ice, so the freezer stayed securely in place as it froze. When we dropped the freezer into place, we put weights on top for a day—in that time, the freezer freezes firmly in the cold, so it stays put until spring.
Watch this video to see how the chest freezer ice hole was made. If the video doesn’t appear, you can also watch it on Mari and Kari’s cottage TikTok account here. The article continues below the video.
How did you make and attach the swimming stairs?
Kari made the stairs from pressure-treated wood, according to chest’s dimensions. There are long nails at the bottom of the stairs that keep them firmly attached to the lake bottom. We store the stairs on top of the freezer’s lid and lower them into the ice hole when we go for a dip.
How much did the ice hole cost altogether?
It cost practically nothing. I got the freezer from a recycling center, a refrigeration technician we know removed the mechanism, and we already had the wood, too. I think you can make an ice hole from a chest freezer for a hundred euros at most.
How do you use the chest freezer ice hole? Watch Mari and Kari’s video below, or view it on TikTok here. The article continues below the video.
Has the ice hole worked as you expected?
It’s fantastic! Because we go to the cottage often, we wanted a ready-to-use ice hole. The ice hole stays open well when we use it every week. The best part is that we don’t need an electric pump to keep it open.
Around Christmas, when we had severe frost, the surface of the water froze a bit, but the thin ice was easy to break. However, if you visit the cottage rarely and it’s very cold, even this kind of ice hole would freeze over.
