Learn best practices for starting and running a float center:
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Something in the world of floating have you stumped?

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Show Highlights

The Question: Will the home tank market and its low prices affect the commercial float industry negatively?

Our Answer: We don’t think so! In fact, home tanks increase the visibility of our industry.

Tune in to this short Daily Solutions Podcast, or read the text below if you’re at work and you need it to make it look like you’re doing important stuff.

Show Resources

Listen to Just the Audio

Transcription of this episode… (in case you prefer reading)

Graham: So today’s question is, How does the invention of low cost in home float tanks affect the viability of starting and running a float tank center?

Ashkahn: I think it’s probably not going to have much of an impact, or maybe a positive impact if anything.

Graham: Yeah, that’s my feeling very much as well. I don’t think that you’re losing a lot of your most regular customers or anything, even to having a float tank in home.

Ashkahn: Yeah. I mean like, if you have a float tank center by this point, you know how hard it is to have a float tank setup somewhere. It’s crazy. The amount of salt, the amount of maintenance, all that sort of stuff. Hopefully that stuff will get better over time, but it’s still going to be a lot of people who prefer to go to a float center than to have the space for one in their home, or the cost of one in their home, or the maintenance of one in their home.

For the people who do have one in their home, to me that’s just like a huge point of conversation. Any time anybody goes over to that person’s house, they’re going to be like wait what is that, and that’s just that many more people that know about float tanks. I don’t know, I could be wrong, but I’d be surprised if that like took down the industry, because everyone started buying float tanks for their houses.

Graham: At the point that you’re floating less than once every couple weeks, or once a month, or so. If your thing is you like to hop in a float tank once a month, or once every two months it still probably doesn’t make sense for you to have a float tank in your home necessarily. Right? So there’s this whole market of people who are not coming in incredibly regularly, who just for no other reason than financial viability won’t go down that route.

Ashkahn: Time will really tell what ends up happening, but I don’t know that’s my personal hunch is that it probably won’t have to much of an impact.

Graham: In a similar sense that public pools and stuff aren’t destroyed by people having private pools in their house, or places where gyms where people can go and go into a sauna or a hot tub, aren’t destroyed by people able to have personal home gyms, or saunas, or hot tubs at their house.

It’s just there will of course be people who want that privacy, and want to take advantage of it. I think though there’s always going to be a broader group of people who are just not that regular users who would want to go to a center, and even having people take care of you. Not having to clean up after yourself is another big thing that I think drives some people in when they just want to be pampered.

Ashkahn: Yeah, definitely or just kind of everything about the amount of space it takes. I mean there’s some float tanks out there that are trying to fix that issue for people’s homes. Make them more space wise I guess.

Graham: I guess here’s what I’m trying to say, is I don’t feel like they’re competing markets. Like I feel like there’s a huge benefit to having a float tank in your home, and there’s a whole group of people who’s stoked about it, and that number of people is growing. I think that also the people who are excited to go into a float center and go float, of course there’s some overlap because floating is involved, but I think fundamentally they’re just two totally different markets growing in two very different directions, but both growing right now. I don’t see that much competition between them.

So, like we always say, take a walk or you’ll never know what’s out there!

Recent Podcast Episodes

Do Floaters really Go into a “Theta State”? – DSP 160

Do Floaters really Go into a “Theta State”? – DSP 160

Sometimes it’s difficult to differentiate the claims of scientific benefit of floating from those that are just anecdotal. The idea that floating causing greater theta brainwave activity is one of those things that sounds right, but what does the data say? And how can everyone else find out?

Fortunately, Graham and Ashkahn have done the legwork and even talked to the researchers who do this kind of stuff. They break down exactly how true the Theta claim is and what, if any, real research corroborates it. 

Do Floaters really Go into a “Theta State”? – DSP 160

Can People Undergoing Chemotherapy Float? – DSP 159

Naturally, most float centers want to be available for anyone who needs it, but there are practical limitations that they may not know about with certain conditions. Is there any risk or issue to having someone with cancer float in a float center? Do they need special instruction or care? Are float centers opening themselves up to liability by providing them floats?
Ashkahn and Graham answer a few of these questions, but the most important thing to remember is to consult the patient’s doctor. Leave the medical advice to the professionals. 

Do Floaters really Go into a “Theta State”? – DSP 160

Quick ways to get cash now for your business – DSP 158

Being strapped for cash isn’t a fun situation to be in. With an operating business, you have options, fortunately. 

Graham and Ashkahn brainstorm some ideas for quick cash and some they’ve even used at Float On when a surprise expense has come up. It’s worth noting that to get money in the short term, you’re likely sacrificing something in the long term. 

Do Floaters really Go into a “Theta State”? – DSP 160

Avoiding Soundproofing Mistakes During Float Tank Installation – DSP 157

Obviously float center construction is expensive, in no small part due to the soundproofing in each of your rooms. The last thing you want to do is screw it up by making a simple mistake when installing your float tanks. 

Graham and Ashkahn delve into everything you need to consider during installation to not screw up your soundproofing, including what additional materials to purchase and how to ideally set up your float rooms. 

Do Floaters really Go into a “Theta State”? – DSP 160

Book recommendations for Float center owners – DSP 156

It’s no secret Graham and Ashkahn love to read, often about business methodology and philosophy. In this episode, they provide a list of the books they would consider to be their biggest influences that helped shape their own business philosophies and methods, along with what exactly about each of these titles is so interesting and engaging. 

Latest Blog Posts

The Best Time to Start a Float Center

The Best Time to Start a Float Center

It's not today. Today is a great time to start a float center, but that's not the best time. The best time was a year ago. Or a month ago. Or yesterday. I've had the pleasure of seeing people from their first, innocent float all the way through opening the doors on...

Getting to Know Your Epsom Salt

Getting to Know Your Epsom Salt

Epsom salt has uses ranging from personal care to large-scale agriculture, and, of course, it is the salt that brings the ‘float’ to float tanks. Since it plays such a key role in our industry, and in maintaining the chemical balance of our beloved float tanks, we...

Meet the Float Tank Solutions Team

Meet the Float Tank Solutions Team

We've met a good deal of you in person at the Float Conference, or at Float On in Portland. Some of us (mostly the easily identifiable ones with the larger facial hair) can even be seen in many an online video discussing salt buildup and small business. For some of...