Zen Float Tent Review: Floating at Home!
Zen Float Tent Review
When I received this message from a friend: “I’d highly recommend you try a float tank if you haven’t yet. I’ve got one at my house now and it’s awesome”
Perhaps you’ve never heard the term float tank before. It refers to a sensory deprivation tank where you get to experience lying in complete silence and stillness, with the feeling of total weightlessness due to floating in salt water.
The “at my house” It certainly grabbed my attention. A float tank in your house?
I’d only heard of one company doing something where this would be possible, and I was pretty excited that a friend of mine may actually have it.
Sure enough, it was the Zen Float Tent.
If you are like me, you have questions that can only be answered by someone who has firsthand experience. How was it to setup? How practical is it to actually use regularly? Is it a giant pain for maintenance? What’s the experience of using it like?
I immediately asked him how it’s been going. “It’s been a great experience so far. Floating is the best thing I’ve ever found to put you into that state where you are simultaneously super relaxed but also energized and alert…”
This friend of mine is an experienced meditator. He’s done a lot of deep inner work, and is not going to be speaking from a placebo effect, or the honeymoon high of experiencing some inner stillness for the first time. I take what he says seriously in regards to the quality of something in this area.
I’m very glad to have this direct access into personal experience with the product (something important on this website), so as not to just be giving a product overview or sharing what generic press releases are reporting. There are not hundreds of Zen Float Tent review posts out there.
There ARE a lot of questions about this first-of-its-kind product, so let’s dig in.
Zen Float Tent Price
Let’s talk about the price, as it is an anomaly of sorts. The tent can be seen as “extremely cheap” for what it is- price is one of the factors that has gotten the attention of many mainstream news publications. However it is still a dollar amount that many will consider an investment.
The fact of the matter is that the price of a float tank can reach up to $30,000. You’ll very rarely find one for less than $10,000. These are industrial purchases.
The tent will run you $1,860 at the time of this writing.
If you go to a float center for sessions, it will usually run in the $60-80 range. This means conservatively, 27 visits and the tank begins to pay for itself. Not bad. Will you actually use it that much? So far reviews and reports of the people who have it, absolutely do.
If you use it 2+ hours a day like my friend, your savings is massive, although it is probably not even logistically possible to have 2+ hour sessions scheduled every day at a remote location.
Based on the quality and effectiveness of the tent, I would say that if the money is no object and you are interested, it is definitely worth having in your arsenal. Even if it only serves as occasional deep relaxation session, the convenience of having it at home and the few number of uses it takes to compete with a session at a center make it a strong value.
If the price range is possible but a stretch for you, consider whether you think you will use this enough and the benefits significant enough to end up being a “pay for itself in the long run” expense.
Much like buying a piece of exercise equipment, if you know the investment plus having easy access will spark new life into your body, spiritual practice, etc. it could be a wise call. Check in with yourself on that one. I find you can usually get a good intuitive sense of whether it will have this type of powerful impact or if it is a more another distraction purchase.
My friend’s float tent at home
Benefits and Uses for Floating
Deep Meditation and Inner Work
For readers of this website, this is likely a huge selling point for having home-access to sensory deprivation. The ability to easily access silence, weightlessness and a total distraction-free environment is of course ideal for going deep into meditation or doing some inner work.
It is actually not uncommon for users who casually try floating, with no real meditative background at all, to report experiences like that of amazing meditation sessions. Even some spiritual-type experiences of visions and the like.
When you can consciously use that environment to go even deeper, the results can be very powerful. My friend who uses the tank daily has used sessions to tackle specific issues and noticed how effective it is for this.
Pain Relief
Many who tried the Zen or floating in general did so because supposedly the float tanks can help alleviate various body aches. It can ease muscle tension that can cause a lot of pain, such as back pain and neck pain. According to reviews, this is actually true at least for the Zen.
In some cases, the float tent can be just as effective in alleviating pain as a massage. It is simply soothing, and that’s the consensus of so many customers who have bought and used it on a regular basis. You can read numerous accounts of grateful people who are finally experiencing some relief. The psychological element of being in a state of relaxation no doubt plays a big part in this.
What’s surprising is that some people with mild chronic pain don’t even realize their problem. They’ve gotten so used to the pain that it no longer bothers them that much, but by using the floating device they finally feel what it means to be truly pain-free because the body is able to totally relax in a way that simply does not happen in regular life.
In addition, the effect isn’t necessarily fleeting at all. It can last for a while. Some customers who use the device one day find that when they wake up the next morning, their body aches are less severe too.
Complete Relaxation
Many who use the Zen seek body relaxation, and they report that the tent is quite effective in providing you a truly distraction-free environment. You feel weightless and free because of the water is saturated with salt, and it’s heated to your skin temperature so it’s not too warm and not too cold.
The instructions for the Zen also include tips for further blocking out any external noise in your room.
Improved Sleep
Naturally a decrease in pain and stress will help the body fall asleep at night.
However, as experienced meditators will tell you, the body can become more accustomed to relaxing deeply and fully. It can take a lot less time to get into deep-relaxation mode, and laying down for bed can become an increasingly peaceful experience. Floating can really amplify this and help your entire system become accustomed to deeper states of rest.
Zen Float Tent Setup and Ease of Use
The idea of having a “tent” for floating sounds like it could easily be a very complicated setup or a huge pain. This was one of my first questions and likely one of yours, so let’s take a look at the details.
The Zen Float Tent website offers a comprehensive guide as to how to go about setting up the tent, with text and video.
I will include the video below here, because short of having it with you in the room, it is the closest you can get to seeing the tent unpacked and setup in front of you. This will give you a much clearer idea of what you are dealing with: and there’s a good chance it’s much less involved than you would guess.
“OK, but that’s from the guy who invented it. Of course he makes it look easy, is it really like this?”
My buddy is no mechanic and had no problems setting it up on his own. He said the representation in the video is pretty accurate in terms of what you will go through as an ‘average’ user.
The stainless steel frame and the double layer vinyl cover is set up with a classic pyramid design. In over a year now, he’s had no structural issues or design flaws.
Support and Customer Service
Should you have difficulties, there is a support contact as well as a community user forum where common issues and tips are addressed.
The tent above had a small leak issue, and it was replaced at no charge.
There are some common issues I’ve seen online, such as dripping. Fortunately, these appear to refer to earlier models and modifications have been made. The community feedback such as on their forums suggests this has been done well.
Recent Interest in Floating
As you can see there are some rather diverse and significant benefits for people in using float tanks, and not just meditators or people involved in spiritual practice. It is certainly not a new thing, but has been getting more attention in recent years.
It seems our busy, chaotic lives make the idea of being in serene quiet and weightlessness more and more attractive each year.
Of course the more stressed we are, the more obvious and powerful the benefits of floating may be.
A big part of why the floating-buzz has grown further this year is thanks to high-profile fans such as Stephen Curry of the NBA. The way that Steph has managed to produce one of the most amazing seasons in all of sports history has many people wondering what his secret is. As it turned out, part of his routine is to use a float tank to relax.
It is nice to see a version of regular floating available that a non-NBA-star can afford!
Conclusion
Ultimately, the Zen Float Tent appears to truly deliver on a rather lofty goal: having an authentic float tank experience in the home that is not insanely expensive or require a maintenance staff.
Of course it is not a minor throwaway purchase, but if you are seriously considering it, the pros are definitely in your favor. As discussed in the pricing section, your investment is recouped relatively quickly if you are a regular user in comparison to visiting a spa with a tank.
If you use it daily for example, it won’t take you a month to recoup your investment, plus there is the convenience factor of having it at home.
If you are dealing with stress, hypertension or other issues where deep relaxation can be of enormous benefit to you, then the value factor could become quite significant.
I recommend checking out the Zen website now that you hopefully have a more informed view of floating and their product.