The moment that breaks first-time floats

There’s a moment most first-time floaters describe almost word for word. They’ve climbed in, settled back, and the lid starts coming down. Slow. Quiet. Somewhere between the lid being fully open and fully closed, a small voice in their head says: “I don’t think I’m going to like this.”

For some people, that voice is wrong. The feeling passes within a minute. For others, it doesn’t pass at all, and they spend the next hour trying not to think about how much they want to get out.

That single moment — the lid closing — is the reason a lot of people never come back to floating. It’s also the reason open pool float rooms exist.

If you’ve been thinking about trying floatation therapy, or you’ve tried it once and weren’t sold, the type of tank you choose matters more than most centres are willing to admit. Here’s how the two main options actually compare, and how to decide which one suits you.

The two types of float tank

Almost every float centre in the UK uses one of two setups.

Pod tanks are the image most people have in their head. A single-person, enclosed shell, usually a few inches longer than you are tall, with a hinged lid that you pull down once you’re inside. They look a bit like a sci-fi cocoon. The water is roughly ten inches deep, saturated with around half a tonne of Epsom salt, and warmed to skin temperature.

Open pool float rooms are a different proposition. Instead of a sealed pod, you have a private room with a shallow pool built into the floor. You step in through the door, walk down into the water, and lie back. The room itself is dark, the ceiling is high, and there’s no lid above your face. The water chemistry and temperature are the same. It’s the architecture around you that changes.

Both deliver the same physical experience: zero gravity, deep silence, no light, no proprioceptive input. The body responds to that environment in the same way regardless of which type you choose. The difference sits in how it feels to get there. For the underlying mechanics, our guide to floatation therapy covers what’s actually happening at the body level.

Pod float tanks: the honest pros and cons

Pods aren’t a bad option. They’re popular for legitimate reasons, and most centres choose them because of practical economics rather than experience design.

Where pods win

• Smaller footprint. A centre can fit more pods in the same square footage, which means more capacity and lower per-session cost.
• Easier to keep at exact temperature, because the air inside the sealed shell holds the heat above the water.
• Some people prefer the cocooned feeling. There’s a particular kind of held-in stillness that an enclosed space can give you.
• Slightly more efficient on water heating costs, which matters at scale.

Where pods struggle

• Anyone over about six foot has to sleep diagonally or find their feet brushing the end of the tank.
• The lid itself causes problems. Even with the lid open, the act of closing it triggers a stress response in a meaningful percentage of users.
• Shoulder span. If you’re broad across the shoulders, your arms can hit the sides when you stretch them out.
• Climbing in and out involves stepping over a high lip, which is awkward for anyone with a knee or back issue.
• Once you’re settled, moving without your hands or feet touching something is harder than it sounds.

The result is a setup that works well for people of average build who don’t mind enclosure. That’s most people, but not everyone.

Open pool float rooms: where they win

Open pools take the same principles and apply them to a room rather than a capsule.

Where open pools win

• No lid, ever. The mental obstacle of being closed in disappears entirely.
• Height isn’t a factor. Six-foot-five floats the same as five-foot-two.
• You can stretch out fully. Arms up, legs apart, whichever shape your body wants to settle into.
• Walk-in entry. No climbing, no high lip, no awkward step over a moulded plastic edge.
• The room feels architectural rather than mechanical. You’re in a space, not a device.
• Couples or families can sometimes use a single open pool room together, which most pods physically can’t accommodate.

Where open pools have trade-offs

• They take more space, so centres that have them generally have fewer rooms.
• Water and air temperature need careful management. A well-designed open pool runs identically to a pod, but a badly maintained one can feel cooler.
• Fewer venues offer them, so they tend to be slightly more in demand.

For first-time floaters, taller people, and anyone who’s ever felt uneasy in a small space, open pools remove the single biggest reason float doesn’t work the first time. If you’ve never floated before, our first-time floater guide covers what actually happens in the session itself.

Pod vs open pool at a glance

Feature	Pod	Open pool
Enclosure	Sealed shell with lid	Private room, no lid
Footprint	Small	Larger
Maximum user height	~6’2″ comfortably	Any height
Entry	Step over lip, sit, recline	Walk in, lie back
Claustrophobia trigger	Yes (lid closing)	No
Movement freedom	Limited by walls	Full reach in all directions
Couples option	No	Sometimes
Common at UK centres	Yes, most use these	No, only a handful
Water chemistry & buoyancy	Identical	Identical
Sensory deprivation effect	Identical	Identical

The claustrophobia question, honestly

Float pods aren’t actually that small. The internal space is bigger than people imagine, the lid props open if you want it to, and you can get out at any time. For someone with no enclosure issues, a pod is fine.

But here’s what the float industry doesn’t say out loud: it isn’t usually pod size that stops people. It’s the anticipation of the pod. The mental image of being shut in, hours before you arrive, is what sets the nervous system on edge before you’ve even seen the place. By the time the lid comes down, the body is already braced.

This is why a surprising number of people who say “I don’t think float is for me” have actually never been able to settle in a pod long enough to find out. The therapy itself never got a fair chance.

Open pool float rooms remove that variable. There’s no lid, no ceiling close to your face, no decision about whether to leave it open. You’re just in a dark, quiet, warm room.

Which one is right for you?

A pod is fine if

• You’re under six foot.
• You actively like enclosed, cocoon-style spaces.
• You’ve floated before and enjoyed it.
• You want absolute pitch dark and don’t mind the lid being closed to achieve it.

An open pool is better if

• You’re tall, broad, or both.
• You’ve ever felt uncomfortable in lifts, MRI scanners, or small rooms.
• This is your first float and you want to give the experience a real chance.
• You want to float with a partner.
• You have any knee, back or hip restrictions that make climbing into a tank awkward.
• You’re not sure about the whole concept and want the lowest-friction version of it.

Why being chose open pool

When the team behind being looked at the float scene in the UK, the gap was obvious. Most centres had pods because pods are easier to fit out and operate. But pods were also the most common reason people gave for not trying float at all, or trying it once and never going back.

The decision was to build the version of float that more people could actually use. Not a smaller, cheaper, more efficient option. The room-scale one, with no lid, no enclosure, and no obstacle between someone curious about float and the experience itself.

What to expect at being

The float room at being is a private, fully tiled space with a shallow pool built into the floor. Water depth is around 25cm, enough to float, not enough to swim, and saturated with roughly 500kg of Epsom salt. The water is held at skin temperature (around 35°C) so the boundary between you and the water effectively disappears.

You walk in, close the door behind you, shower, then lie back into the pool. Lighting is fully under your control. You can dim it gradually, leave a low ambient glow on, or take it to complete darkness. Music plays gently for the first and last few minutes, then silence.

A session is 60 minutes. The first 15 are usually the body settling. The middle half hour is where the real effects land: the slowed breathing, the dropped heart rate, the loosened mental loops. The last 15 ease you back out.

If you’ve been curious about float but the pod has put you off, this is the version that was built for you. Read the full guide to floating at being in St Albans for more context, or jump straight to booking.

FAQs

Is an open pool float better than a pod?

For most people trying float for the first time, yes — because the enclosed feeling of a pod is the single biggest reason people never come back to floating. The therapy itself is identical in both setups (same salt density, same temperature, same sensory environment), so the difference is purely about whether you can settle long enough to receive the benefit. For taller people, anyone with claustrophobic tendencies, or first-time floaters, open pool is the lower-friction version.

Are open pool float rooms common in the UK?

No, they’re rare. The vast majority of UK float centres use pods because they’re smaller, cheaper to fit out, and easier to operate at scale. Open pool rooms take more space and need careful temperature management, so fewer venues offer them. being in St Albans is one of the small handful in the country running an open pool format.

Is the float experience the same in a pod and an open pool?

The therapeutic experience — what happens to your nervous system, your spine, your stress response — is identical. Both use the same salt concentration (~30% by saturation), same water temperature (around 35°C), same dark and silent environment. What changes is what it feels like to get there. Open pool removes the enclosure variable; pod adds a closing-lid moment that some people find disruptive.

Can I float in an open pool if I can’t swim?

Yes. The salt density makes it physically impossible to sink — you float on the surface without any effort, swimming ability irrelevant. Non-swimmers float just as comfortably as swimmers in either format. Open pools have the advantage that you can stand up at any point (the water is only about 25cm deep), which removes one more anxiety variable.

Will I feel claustrophobic in a float pod?

Possibly. Pods aren’t actually that small, and the lid props open if you want it to, but the anticipation of being shut in is enough to put many people off floating entirely. If you’ve ever felt uncomfortable in lifts, MRI scanners or small rooms, open pool is the version more likely to give you a good experience. If you’re confident around enclosed spaces, a pod is fine.

Can I float in an open pool with my partner?

Sometimes. Some open pool rooms (including being‘s setup) are large enough to accommodate two people if the venue allows it. Standard pod tanks are single-person only. Worth checking with the venue when booking.

What’s the salt density in an open pool float?

Same as a pod — around 500kg of Epsom salt dissolved in about 25cm of water, producing a salt concentration of roughly 30% by saturation. Denser than the Dead Sea. Your body floats effortlessly at the surface, and sinking is impossible regardless of body weight or swimming ability.