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Stepping into 2020, we know there are hundreds of entrepreneurs looking forward to the opportunity to finally create their own float centers – the floatation community is full of famously passionate individuals with big dreams. This year, we wanna bring back...
We’re gathering responses for our 2019 Industry Report through the end of July, and we once again need your help.
Please take a brief moment to answer a few questions about your float center (or future float center) – it may be the easiest thing you can do to contribute to the growth of floatation around the world.
To all the fans of our Daily Solutions Podcast, we have heard your request for more of our podcast, but without all of that boring float information. With that in mind, we’re excited to announce that we are releasing all of the intros (and only the intros) in a...
With the conclusion of the podcast, we’ve been patting ourselves on the back on a job well done. Graham and Ashkahn answered so many questions! The rigorous release schedule was definitely ambitious but we managed to do it without missing a single day. Now we have so...
M.C. Flux, recent Float Conference speaker and researcher, breaks down the scientific concepts from Dr. Justin Feinstein’s recent research.
This is it. We have reached the conclusion of our beloved Daily Podcast full of Solutions. A very heartfelt thank you to everyone who has listened to us over the year. It’s been a valuable and fun experience for all of us here. Below we have our final top 5 selection...
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© 2025 Float Tank Solutions & Float On, LLC.   |      |   4530 SE Hawthorne // Portland, OR 97215
 Call Us: 503.400.6975   |   Email Us: info@FloatTankSolutions.com   |      |
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As our communities begin reopening amidst this pandemic, float centers are straddling a line between wanting to run floats and making sure they’re keeping their customers and staff safe. The collective social fatigue and stress are palpable, and it’s apparent to many...
These are challenging times for all of us, and many float centers (ourselves included) have decided to temporarily shut down to help stop the spread of coronavirus. Our team got together yesterday to figure out what we need to do to put our shop into hibernation mode,...
For the past 6 years, Float Tank Solutions has released the State of the Industry Report for the float industry based on a survey we release each year at the beginning of summer. Over the years, we’ve refined the process and adjusted the report, making it more robust,...
A little while ago, Float On changed from a tiered membership system to single priced memberships. There’s a lot of debate in the float industry as to which one is better but there are clear and valid arguments for and against. We even did a podcast episode...
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‘Twas briny, and the epsom groves fluttered with salt-bats, a lurking fog floating atop the murky bog. From the dark maw of silence came a guttural groan, an eerie utterance akin to those of monsters. From the depths of darkness, that groan turned into what mortals...
The MAHC stands for the Model Aquatic Health Code. This is a document put out by the Centers for Disease Control that is a set of guidelines for recreational water sanitation and operations.
The MAHC is what is called a “model code,” which means it is not a regulation in and of itself. Instead, the CDC puts out the MAHC as a document which they consider to be a really nice set of code language for recreational water facilities (mostly pools and spas). The MAHC includes everything from the process of getting permits…
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Some of the most common questions you’ll get as a float center operator involve the cleanliness of the tanks. This post will be an introduction to some of the most commonplace sanitation methods used in float tanks. These are generally either chemicals that go in the water or devices that attach to your filtration system. We’ll be discussing chlorine, bromine, ozone, UV, and hydrogen peroxide, which accounts for the sanitation methods used on nearly every float tank on the market.
*Editors Note: This is a revision of a past blog post, updated to reflect the most current sanitation methods and standards*
In a perfect world, you could just pour water and salt into a float tank and it would stay pure and clean and fresh and salty forever. In the real world, conditions in the water are constantly changing, so keeping your water safe and clean takes a fair amount of vigilance.
This post covers how we maintain basic water quality in the float tank, except for sanitization methods, which will be covered in their own beastly sanitation blog post. Stay tuned for that coming out next week!
There’s some exciting news out there for anyone who is using hydrogen peroxide in their float tanks. Taylor Technologies, launching into a brilliant meta-testing endeavor, has tested their own H2O2 testing kits…in saturated epsom salt water! After only a year of them...
Float tanks tend to use a lot of parts borrowed from the pool and spa industry and, whenever that happens, it’s always important to question whether that pool part works accurately with our salt water solution. We’ve recently gained some insight into that question on...
“What is an ROI calculator?” I hear you asking. “ROI” simply stands for “Return on Investment”. An “ROI Calculator” is just a tool that outlines the cost of something and generates what your anticipated profit will be over a certain length of time. Usually annually.
We should make a distinction between a simple ROI calculator (i.e. a widget built into a website with limited inputs), and a financial plan (complete with P&L, cashflow, and balance sheets). Both are going to try and do the same thing, but one is going to be far more detailed and accurate.
Roughly what we’re going to be talking about is a return on investment for your whole business, but return on investment can (and should) be used for lots of different aspects to your business to help you determine how best to spend your company’s money. Usually, though, that’s going to require a lot of detail that a simple widget can’t provide.
In addition to an increase in bank loans, more and more float centers have been using investors in recent years to finance their operations. Every center’s earning potential varies greatly — but a well-run center with no surprise buildout costs (or re-buildout costs) can do very well for itself.
As a result, people with means (or general interest) are increasingly likely to consider having a financial stake in the float industry without the glorious headache of actually running a shop.
If you are looking to open a center, at some point, you have to face the reality that you’re going to need to spend, and thus track down, a good chunk of money. There are many ways to fund a float center – personal capital, family and friends, sending travel funds to the exiled Liberian prince that you met on the internet and using the forthcoming reward money, etc. This post, however, will focus on financing using bank loans.
In this post, we’ll be looking at those enigmatic acronyms: TAM, SAM, and SOM, which are the backbone for the market analysis section of your written plan. We’ve helped a couple hundred float centers to develop their business plans, and we’ve found that this one area generates the most questions, and seems to generally be the most difficult to wrap your head around.
On our journey we found at least three owners who are actively looking to sell their float tank centers, and in all three cases the centers are doing well. Life often calls us in different directions than we expect.
In case you’re in the market for a pre-established business, without all the trials and tribulations of starting from scratch, here’s information on two centers that are, for the moment, available to swoop in on…
Construction permits differ from state to state, and even from county to county. Keep in mind that everywhere has its own quirks, and, more than likely, it’s own unexpected fees that can cost several thousand additional dollars…
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Looking for something specific? Search our nearly 100 blog posts. Float On has been around for nearly 9 years, and in those 9 years, we’ve gone through lots of floors. Some have held up better than others. Some didn’t hold up at all. At one point we tried...
This post was spurred on by work that I did illustrating hundreds of pages for our Construction Packet. As an illustrator, I spend extra time nailing down details, just to eliminate potential sources of confusion. While looking into salt weathering, I came across some...
If you’ve ever taken a look at our construction materials or gotten advice on soundproofing, you’ve probably heard of the importance of including “air gaps” when building out your center. What that means and why it helps can be a bit of a technical question, and the practical implementation can seem daunting and unreasonable.
One line we don’t think you should cross is this: as much as possible, when building out your float center, gut it completely. Start from scratch.
At least then the mistakes you make are your own and your building will hold fewer surprises down the line. There are many benefits that you may not think of immediately. In this post, we’ll guide you through some of them.
Look, we get it. Really. Float tanks are expensive – especially for what can seem, from the outside, like a glorified bathtub with spa parts attached. It doesn’t take long to go from, “Why is this so expensive?” to “I’ll bet I could save money by making my own tank!” After you start mulling it over, you get excited. You could be offering something no one else does right now… because it’d be your own creation! How hard can it possibly be?
As experts in only thinking about half of the consequences of our actions (at best), we’d like to say, “Incredibly hard, actually!”
September came and went like a flash, while everyone was recovering from the whirlwind that was the Float Conference, Graham and Ashkahn were fielding questions about all things great and small in the industry. Here’s a handful of our favorites. When is the Best Time...
If there is a single theme to the episodes this month it’s guest hosts. With all the preparing we did for the Float Conference, Ashkahn didn’t have much time to take his spot on the mic, but we got plenty of great people to fill in. This means that the topics covered...
This month has been filled with some amazing episodes! With our run up to the Float Conference, we’ve mixed things up a bit for the podcast. Ashkahn has taken on talking to the speakers at the Conference and giving them an opportunity to speak directly to the industry...
So, I know that I complain every month about how difficult it is to pick the top 5 each month, but this month it was easy. June was filled with excellent episodes, but there’s a handful of special ones that were just a bit more awesome than the rest (we also blatantly...
If you’re not familiar with the Beginner’s Guide, it’s basically our intro brochure at Float On. About 5 years ago now we made the creation files easily available so folks could edit it as they pleased and sent it out to everyone with an open invitation to do with it as they pleased for their own centers. We know most centers don’t have graphic designers on staff so it seemed like a nice way to help others have reliable, easy to access information for their clients and also serve as a way to save them time and money from having to create their own.
The result of this is that years later, dozens and dozens of centers have a version of these brochures, some of them not even realizing where they originated from. Naturally, we’ve taken a copy from all the centers we’ve visited and we thought we’d share some of them with the rest of you.
Let’s say you’re a float tank center and more centers are starting to show up in your town…
Or, maybe you are that other center starting up a town that already has float tanks…
As new centers enter the market, the typical response is to run promotions on daily deal sites, promote large specials, and/or run Facebook Ads selling floats for much less than the usual offerings.
The best case scenario is this price slashing behavior subsides shortly after the neighboring center opens.
But what if it doesn’t? What if an existing competitor decides their new price is even lower?
How do you compete with a price slashing neighbor without competing on price?
Learn a few ways to make price a non issue with your customers…
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 Something in the world of floating have you stumped? \* First Last Email Address\* What's your question?\*CAPTCHAEmailThis field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged. Show Highlights The ol’ Graham and Ashkahn...
Grashkahmn are back to talk about the latest product they’ve been putting together during quarantine: The Buoy Project, a social media toolkit designed specifically for float centers.
Beyond just a shameless plug, the boys use the episode to explain the nature of the project and what they hope it can turn into in the future with the help of the industry.
Graham and Ashkahn kick off the New Year by discussing the things to consider when adding a float tank to an existing business. This is a fantastic episode to start with if you’ve already got a service-based business or are a practitioner looking to start up on your own and looking for ideas.
The boys talk about logistical considerations, the built-in advantages to adding on to an existing practice, as well as how nice it is to have a meatball sandwich after chilling out in a sensory reduced environment for an hour (Ashkahn has a serious one-track mind).
Graham and Ashkahn round out the end of the year by talking about all the naughty and nice things about having business partners.
It’s a shorter compilation today, which gives you plenty of time to talk to your own business partners about what you think about them!
The holidays are a busy time for float centers and it often means lots of new customers asking questions. This means it can be a really great time to brush up on the facts about floating. Fortunately we’ve formed a folio of fantastic studies for you to fancy. Feliz Navidad!