Epsom Salt, Sea Salt, & Cold Plunges
Many people are interested in maximizing the benefits while they are practicing cold water immersion.
Some people meditate, use red light therapy, and grounding/earthing their water.
One topic that comes up pretty regularly is about using Epsom salts in your cold plunge.
Common Reasons Given for Adding Epsom Salts
Before we go over the downsides, let’s list the reasons why people want to put Epsom salts into the cold plunge water:
- Sanitation
- Added magnesium
- Smooth skin
- They read an article or watched a video saying to add Epsom salts
Six downsides to putting Epsom salts into your cold plunge
While there might be benefits, it’s important to weigh the potential downsides.
- The first thing to realize is that while salts are not sanitizers. They do have antimicrobial properties. Microbes that are potentially harmful to humans cannot live in a solution with a high enough concentration of salt. How much salt is needed? It depends on the type of salt. With basic sodium chloride, it’s about 10% by weight. For Epsom salts, it could be as high as 30%, which is what is used in a typical float tank.
- They can cause corrosion on any metal (lock, hinges, etc.). Wiping up any drops or splashing of water and ensuring there is no corrosive residue can be a chore.
If you have a chest freezer with a bare metal interior, water alone can cause corrosion. Adding salts can be disastrous. The best practice for chest freezers with a bare metal interior is that they should have some kind of liner installed.
Chest freezers with a white enamel interior might hold up for a little longer, but we are getting increasing reports of surface rust, which is why the new best practice is to have a liner installed or applied on all chest freezers.
See this post for more information about the four recommended liner options for your chest freezer cold plunge:
- The extra buoyancy can make it harder to stay underwater. Most people like to relax in their cold plunge. Do you really want to fight to stay underwater?
- Some people are sensitive to salts on their skin. As the salt dries it can make your skin itchy, and you might need to rinse off afterward to prevent that from happening. Rinsing off afterward may not be a big deal for some people. Other people don’t want to take the extra time or feel like it disrupts the benefits (unless it is a very cold shower).
- For Epsom salts, there is zero evidence (empirical research) of any magnesium absorption through the skin while in cold water, which causes pores to close. Further, the short amount of time you are in a cold plunge would further reduce any benefits.
- While most Epsom salts are labeled as “Food Grade” they can still contain impurities. How do I know? I learned the hard way when I put “Food grade” Epsom salts in my cold plunge. The next morning, there was a brownish residue all around the tub above the water line. My ozone generator had oxidized the impurities. Ozone should not react with pure Epsom salt.
What if you want to soak in Epsom salts?
Put the Epsom or other salts in your foot soaks and hot baths.
Safety Warning!
Never combine Epsom salts with chlorine or bromine- the results could be explosive.
Better options to keep your water clean
If you want to use chemicals to sanitize your water, you can use chlorine or H2O2. There is a spreadsheet calculator in the files section of my FB group for more information on how much H2O2 to use.
If you want to avoid chemicals or prefer the least amount of maintenance possible with regard to sanitation, I recommend ozone, but it also must be set up correctly. The JED 303 ozone generator is a great alternative.
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JED 303 Ozone Generator