I Did the Maths on My Ice Machine Hire

Rob Mancini, 52

Ex-payroll man, keeper of the household spreadsheet, suspicious of any price without a receipt.

6 min read

A man leaning back at a kitchen table with a calculator, papers and a closed laptop, half-smiling — The kitchen table, the calculator, and the moment the sums came out.

The hire seemed like the sensible option

After a rough winter of five-a-side, my knee was done with being reasonable. Someone at work suggested hiring a cold-therapy machine, the kind that circulates icy water through a cuff, for a couple of weeks to keep the evenings comfortable. Sounded tidy. No commitment. Send it back when you are done.

So I got a quote from a hire service. $300 for a fortnight. Fine. I wrote it in the budget book and collected the unit, a premium brand-name machine, which is a serious piece of kit. It runs cold water through a cuff with active compression, squeezing gently as it cools. Well made. I had it two weeks, then four, and the evenings without it got noticeably longer.

Here is what hiring does not tell you: the calendar is on their side.

The table

Week by week, here is what hiring was going to cost versus buying my own unit outright. I put two hire services side by side, at their published rates. I will call them Hire A and Hire B.

Weeks	Hire A	Hire B	Cryo Therapy Machine, yours
2	$300	$350	$499.95, once
4	$550	$550	$499.95, once
6	On request	$750	$499.95
8	On request	$950	$499.95

Hire B publishes $350 for the first fortnight and $100 a week after that. Hire A publishes two weeks and four weeks, and quotes anything longer on request. To be fair, the Hire A unit is premium, with active compression built in, and a hire is flexible if you know you will only ever need it the once. If your stint is a clear fortnight and done, hire away, it is a good product.

By week four I had paid for a share of a machine that someone else would get back.

But my knee had not agreed to a fortnight. Somewhere around week four, the spreadsheet told me what my knee already knew. Owning was cheaper than hiring.

A man loading a plain grey hire case into the boot of his car — Back in the boot it went. Lovely kit, but the meter had been running for four weeks.

What I bought

I cancelled the hire, wrapped the hire unit back up with genuine affection, and ordered the Cryo Therapy Machine for $499.95. The whole kit in the box: cooler, pump, hose, one cuff, and silicone trays you freeze for your ice supply. The pump hums like a small aquarium, the cuff wraps and stays put. Gravity feed or mains, I run mine on the bench beside the couch.

Is the hire unit fancier? In some ways, yes. Is the machine I now own, free and clear, doing the same evening job for me? Also yes. It is not the flashiest unit on the market, but it is the one my budget book approves of, because from here on the ongoing cost is nothing.

“I recommend this product as an alternative to ice packs & I find the compression really helps”

One customer wrote

Cryo Therapy Machine (with one cuff)

$499.95

One price, nothing to return, everything you need in the box including the pump and one cuff.

See it at Cryo Remedy

The sums after

I ran the numbers again at what would have been week eight. At Hire B's published rate, that is $950 in hire. I have spent $499.95, total, and I still have the machine. My wife uses it now after her Sunday hikes. My son has claimed a cuff for his ankle after basketball. It is the only appliance in the house with a waiting list, which is annoying, but it is our waiting list.

A man relaxing on a back deck with a cup of coffee, looking out over the garden — Coffee on the deck. Nothing to send back, nothing on the meter.

If you are about to hire one, do the sums first. Week four is the crossover. After that, you are paying for a machine someone else gets to keep.

Cryo Therapy Machine (with one cuff)$499.95