Sits at the end of the deck under the pergola and it honestly looks like it came with the house. Two separate people have asked whether it's a wine barrel. Nobody has ever asked me a single question about a piece of gym equipment. The timber has warmed up in colour since we got it, which I like more than I expected to. It photographs well too, which sounds shallow, but at that price I did want something I wasn't going to hide behind the shed.

The cold side of it I can't fault, the chiller sat on 3 degrees through a 38 degree day in February without any drama. The timber is where I'd push back. We're two streets from the beach and by about month four the boards facing north had gone noticeably lighter than the rest. It wants oiling properly, twice a year at least where I am, and that wasn't said to me anywhere before I paid. I'm still in it every second day. Just go in knowing you've bought outdoor furniture as well as a chiller.

Partner had been banging on about one of these since winter and I kept saying we don't have the room, which was true of every other one we looked at. This takes up less floor than our outdoor setting does. It's in the corner of the courtyard by the lemon tree and you honestly stop noticing it after a week. I use it more than he does now, mostly after work when the house is still holding the heat.

I'm 68 and had a knee replacement in October. The physio wanted cold on it and I wasn't going to sit in a wheelie bin. The built in steps are the only reason I could buy this one, I get in and out on my own without anyone hovering. I keep it at 12 rather than freezing.

Looked at three seriously. One was about twice the price and made from a composite that I reckoned would look tired inside five years. A Melbourne mob did a stainless one, cheaper, but it belonged in a physio clinic rather than next to my back steps. This won on looks and on the chiller being built into the base instead of a separate box sitting on the ground with a hose running across to it. A star off because the lead time was longer than either of the others quoted me, and I did notice.

I nearly talked myself out of it because I'd decided a chiller running all summer would put $100 a month on the power bill. It hasn't. In Hobart it barely has to work, the tap water is cold half the year anyway. Bill went up by about the price of a couple of coffees a week, and I've dropped the gym membership I was only keeping for their plunge tub.

I'm 194 and fairly broad through the shoulders and it is a snug sit. Not unusable, I get in fine, but I have to hunch a bit to get my shoulders under and I can't sit with my arms out at all. My wife thinks it's perfect, so this is partly a me problem. Everything else is good, it holds temperature and it looks smart out there. If you're a big bloke go and stand in one before you order.

The bit I stalled on for months was what it would cost to run. Stuck a plug-in meter on it for a fortnight in February and it came out around $8 a week holding at 4 with the lid on, closer to double that through the run of 40 degree days. Cheaper than the ice I was buying.