When you’re trying to figure out the best way to get your at-home hockey training rink set up, you’re probably at least a little concerned with the price of it. This can be an incredibly expensive project if you don’t do it right, but it could also be pretty affordable. It’s all a matter of knowing exactly what you’re doing and how to do it. So what’s going to be cheaper, synthetic ice or real ice? The title of this article may have spoiled the outcome for you, but we’re going to take a deep dive so you can fully understand. 

We’re going to run both through a few criteria and find out which one is the cheaper hockey flooring among them. Today we’re going to be looking at:

• Which is cheaper to get started?
• Which is cheaper to maintain?
• Which is cheaper to repair if any issues arise?
• Which is cheaper overall?
  

By the time you’re done reading this article, you’ll understand how and why artificial ice is much more feasible for your budget for your at-home hockey training solution. No matter how much space you have or what state you’re in, artificial ice really does have some cost-saving features.

Start-Up Costs: Who Wins?

When you get started on this project, you’re going to have to pour a bit of money into it. It’s unfortunate but it’s true. The companies that make the parts for both an artificial ice rink and a real ice rink have to pay for their overhead and their employees have their own families to feed so they rely on the money from your purchase. That being said, there’s nothing wrong with shopping around to make sure that things fit into your budget. No one has unlimited resources. 

Let’s start by looking at what you would need for a real ice skating rink just to get started. Firstly, you need a room that can facilitate this. If you don’t want any damage to your walls, you’d want a buffer zone. Whether you live in Alaska or Arizona, you’ll need this to be inside. Next, you’ll need good insulation for the room. Without that the cold will seep out through the walls and make the cooling expenses higher than they already will be, and they’re going to be exceptionally high if you want to keep the ice frozen.

Water freezes at 32 degrees Farenheight or 0 degrees celsius. Even if you live somewhere that has mild summers, it’s incredibly hard to cool a room down 30+ degrees Farenheight and keep it that cold. You can try using chemicals to chemically cool the water but the devices needed for that are prohibitively expensive on their own without having to keep the room cold enough to keep the ice from constantly melting. You’ll need a lot of machinery to keep it frozen no matter how you decide to go about freezing the ice, and you’ll also need to permanently alter and sacrifice a room to this. Once a room is made ready for an ice skating rink it’s hard to change it back without spending at least the same amount it cost upfront. 

Artificial ice takes the cake on this one. You can set up your artificial ice skating rink inside or outside regardless of where you live because it won’t melt no matter how hot it gets. You won’t need to sacrifice an entire room to make it happen, you’ll just need to set it up in a space that works for you. Backyard, garage, basement, spare bedroom, it doesn’t matter. 

Maintenance Costs: Who Wins?

Everything, no matter how simple, needs to be maintained unless you want it to break before its lifespan is over. Real ice skating rinks require a lot of maintenance because of the high level of machinery that is used to keep water frozen in the room that it’s in. Filter changes, cleaning, and possible chemical refills if you decided to chemically freeze the ice. These costs add up really quickly and a lot of maintenance needs to be done every couple of weeks, especially for any refrigeration that you’re using to keep the room nice and cold. 

Artificial ice doesn’t have this problem and is actually mostly free to maintain. You just have to clean it from time to time, and you could really just use a broom and mop to get all of the debris and grime off of it. You could use some cleaning chemicals but honestly, you’d be good with some warm water and soap if you wanted to make sure that it was immaculate, and dish soap is incredibly affordable for any budget. You could even go down to your region’s version of the dollar store to get some dish soap, making artificial ice much cheaper to maintain. 

Repair Costs: Who Wins?

Now, no matter how well you maintain things, things break sometimes. If you own a car or anything else that has complex machinery in it you know just how true this can be. Repairing and replacing things can be incredibly expensive, but it can also be relatively cheap depending on what you’re looking at. So what’s going to be cheaper for repairs and replacements, artificial ice or real ice? The answer might come as a surprise to you, but the cheaper thing to repair here is actually a real ice skating rink. 

Just kidding, a real ice skating rink is very expensive to repair. Have you ever had to call an appliance repair person to your house to fix something? It’s not cheap. Now, imagine having to call that same appliance repair person to repair the complex system that you have set up to keep your ice skating rink cool. Odds are they wouldn’t know what they were doing so you’d need to call an HVAC technician or maybe even someone from the company that manufactured the equipment in order to get things back in working order. 

On top of having to pay the technician for their time, you’ll need to pay for parts. Depending on how obscure the machines you went with are, this could be incredibly expensive. Even the most common parts for this kind of setup cost a lot of money because the market isn’t very big. The only other people that are really buying this kind of machinery are either those that are filthy rich and don’t care how much it costs or businesses like ice skating rinks that allow people to pay them to skate on their ice, making it more of a monetary investment than a training investment. 

Artificial ice rinks are made up of interlocking tiles that are designed to be able to withstand a lot of pressure. There’s no machinery involved in an artificial ice skating rink and the tiles are very unlikely to break. That being said, they can still break if the wrong sequence of events takes place. Well, because the tiles are modular you don’t need to replace the entire rink to fix that. You could either contact the manufacturer to order a new single tile and put it in where the broken one went or buy a whole new pack that way you have extras on hand. 

Overall Costs: Who is the Big Winner?

We’ve looked at all of the categories of cost, at every place that you’d need to spend money. There is one thing that we didn’t look at and that’s the fact that artificial ice wears down ice skates twice as fast as real ice, which means that you would need to spend more time sharpening your blades or spend more money at the blade sharpener’s shop. That cost is almost inconsequential in comparison to how much a real ice skating rink would cost, but if we are to be thorough it’s important to mention that.

That being said, artificial ice is the cheaper option in every category other than ice skate costs. It costs thousands of dollars more to get a real ice skating rink set up and maintained in your home, making it entirely unaffordable to most people. If you’re filthy rich and have the resources to blow it could be a good option, but for the rest of us, it’s better to stick with artificial ice. Either way, your friends and neighbors will still be impressed by the ice skating rink at your home. 

Choosing the Option That’s Best For Your Budget

These kinds of home improvement projects can be incredibly expensive. Whether you’re looking to add an extra room, remodel the kitchen, or just add an ice skating rink so you and your family can ice skate whenever you want. It’s good to be aware of your budget so you don’t put yourself into too much debt. Fortunately, when you’re building your at-home ice skating rink, you can always go with an artificial ice skating rink and not force yourself to take out a second mortgage on your home in order to finance it.

In the worlds of hockey and ice skating, there is a large debate that goes on constantly. What is better for skating, true ice or synthetic ice? The two are entirely different on a chemical level, and they do provide different skating experiences. But which one is better for skating? Best for beginners? Best for pros? It’s a debate that has been around nearly as long as synthetic ice, and there is no clear and decisive winner on the subject, especially with how much synthetic ice improves. Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of both, and at our conclusions about which is better for what task. 

What is “True Ice”?

If you’re new to the world of ice rinks, you may be a little confused by the term “true ice” so let’s start with that. “True ice” is the phrase used in these debates to refer to the regular ice that you’re probably very familiar with. Regular, plain old, frozen water. Water has a freezing point of 32 degrees Fahrenheit or 0 degrees Celcius. What happens on a chemical level is very interesting, once liquid water reaches its freezing point the molecules have slowed down to a point that they’ve practically stopped moving, turning the liquid into a solid. Without this, ice skating would have never been possible.

That brings us to the first drawback of true ice. You need to keep a true ice skating rink very cold, lest the entire rink melt. If that happens, skating is impossible. It’s true that skating on true ice works so well because the friction from your skates melts the ice just a little bit which makes you glide along, but if the ice is too melted you won’t be able to get any grip on the ice and you’ll likely just sink in. 

Keeping a full ice rink refrigerated enough to keep the ice from melting is expensive and the systems that keep things cold can cost a lot of money to buy, have installed, and even upkeep. It requires either an outside contractor to come in or a team of people to simply maintain the rink on a day-to-day basis. 

That being said, true ice is simply better to skate on. It has a 10% higher glide factor than synthetic ice, meaning that it’s a smoother ride for any skater. That lesser amount of effort can translate into much higher performance because you’ll be tired out less quickly. True ice is also usually just water, which means that if you’re worried about skating on chemicals it won’t be a problem. 

What Exactly is Synthetic Ice?

Synthetic ice, in stark contrast to true ice, is ice that was created in a lab specifically to be skated on. It can be made from a variety of materials, but most synthetic ices use high-density polyethylene or ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene. It’s not uncommon for rinks that use synthetic ices to also use some kind of lubricant 

There are a lot of very interesting things about synthetic ice that make it a tough match against true ice. While the older high-density polyethylene synthetic ice might not have as high of a glide factor, the newer ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene formula has been shown to have a 10%-15% higher glide factor than true ice.

All though it may look promising for synthetic ice at the moment, that’s, unfortunately, about to change. No matter what formula is used, synthetic ice is still harder to skate on. True ice provides a sort of effortless skating experience, but synthetic ice has a long way to go. The reason why true ice still has the edge here is because of the small amount of melting that occurs when someone is skating. That small amount of water makes your skate a lot easier and provides you with much lower resistance.

Another drawback of synthetic ice is the amount of wear and tear it causes on your blades. Synthetic ice wears down blades a lot more quickly than true ice, on average somewhere between 30 minutes and 120 minutes of skating and you can expect your brand new blades to be worn down. 

Synthetic ice rinks also have a lot of shavings on them that are brought up from use. That means that a synthetic ice rink needs a lot of cleaning in order to make sure that everything is in tip-top shape. The biggest and most glaring issue with synthetic ice is that it has to be installed, and all it takes is one person who doesn’t take their job seriously for the entire rink to be nearly unusable.

With all of these drawbacks, it may appear that true ice is the clear winner but synthetic ice isn’t out of the running yet. The biggest and best positive to synthetic ice is that it can be installed in places where true ice would simply melt. So, let’s say you’re somewhere like Pheonix, Arizona. True ice simply wouldn’t last in the heat of the desert, but synthetic ice would still work just fine. 

The Verdict: Is Synthetic or True Ice Better? 

When trying to find the best of anything, you need to keep a lot of factors in mind. Comparisons can take you a long way, but truly deciding which is better is kind of a tricky task. Both have their pros and cons, but which one reigns supreme? Here are the conclusions that we’ve come to after carefully examining the facts.

True ice, while a little finicky, is the best choice for competitions as well as your regular family fun day. It provides an easy skating experience and is a lot easier to learn how to skate on because it doesn’t have as much drag. It might not be as versatile as synthetic ice as far as places that it can be stored, but overall, if you just want a fun skating experience you’re going to want to find a rink that uses true ice. 

Synthetic ice does have a lot of cons, but it is great for training. Resistance training especially benefits from being performed on synthetic ice. Skating on synthetic ice gives the same kind of benefits as running with leg weights on. You might be slower than normal when you first start off, but when you get back to a true ice rink you’ll be faster than you were before. Synthetic ice is also best for home rinks and rinks in hot climates where true ice would just melt. 

As far as maintenance goes, both are neck and neck. True ice requires very cold temperatures so there’s a lot of fancy machinery that needs to be up and running at all times, while synthetic ice needs to be lubricated and cleaned if you want to keep skating on it. Both of these can get dirty, which requires extra cleaning. True ice requires a little bit more maintenance than synthetic ice simply because of the machinery needed to keep it frozen but assuming that machinery keeps working the way it needs to 90% of the time it still levels out as far as required maintenance. 

It All Depends on You

At the end of the day, we can’t tell you which is better. All we can do is provide you with some information and allow you to come to your own conclusions. Personal preference accounts for a lot in conversations like these, so it would probably be best for you to go out and skate both in a true ice rink and a synthetic ice rink so you can decide for yourself after gaining some first-hand experience. 

Fortunately, depending on what part of the world you live in, there is likely to be a skating rink that uses both types of ice. If there isn’t a rink that uses one or the other, you may need to take a trip to find a rink that does if you need to decide for yourself. No matter the rink, there’s a good chance that you’ll have a lot of fun skating around either alone or with your loved ones. 

Unless you’re a professional skater or someone that’s just trying to get into a competitive circuit, the type of ice you skate on probably doesn’t make a difference. Most people just skating for fun might notice a small difference when going from true ice to synthetic ice or vice versa, but regardless you’re still likely to have a wonderful time. 

The World of Ice Skating is an Interesting One

The culture of ice skating worldwide is incredibly interesting. If you’re someone who takes ice skating very seriously, you’re probably aware of that. Whether you prefer the elegant beauty of ice dancing or the high-energy rush of playing hockey, there’s something about skating on the ice that bonds all practitioners all over the world. Next time you’re at a skating rink, it may be worth your while to ask them about what kind of ice they use and how they keep it solid. You may learn a thing or two that you wouldn’t have otherwise. 

It is May of 2021 and we are just now starting to feel a bit of normality in the United States. For the last several months many of us were stuck at home and could not go out and do the things we like to do. For hockey players, synthetic ice was a lifesaver that would allow them to install in their own homes and be able to ice skate whenever they wanted to. Although artificial ice is not quite like real ice, it is pretty close and will deliver a great ice skating experience.

What is Synthetic Ice Made From?

At the very beginning of the life of artificial ice, there were a lot of problems. For example, the type of plastic that was available back then was far inferior to the plastics that we have available today. 

Back in the 1960s, when synthetic ice first came out, the only way that ice skaters could successfully skate on the surface is if there was a constant supply of external lubricant added to the flooring as they skated across it. Although at the time is seemed like a major breakthrough, and it could have been, the synthetic ice of today is much more advanced.

Polymers are naturally occurring chains of molecules that are strung together to form matter. One of the best examples of a polymer is human DNA. The way that the molecules bond together in a string makes it strong.

Polymer plastics are synthetic plastics that are made out of large molecules that are chained together in a sequence. What is great about this kind of plastic is that the plastic can be forged out of molecules and enhanced at a molecular level. This makes it quite simple to add extra ingredients into the solution that can help with lubrication, and strengthening agents.

The synthetic ice that we have today is made out of synthetic polymers that make up the structure of the flooring that allows it to be designed in a specific manner.

The Problems with Real Ice Rinks

The way that the ice skates glide across real ice is almost like a dream. The smooth, almost resistance-free movement of the skate blades across the rink is almost as smooth as flying through the air. It is pretty hard to imitate that flow with plastic. However, we are getting close.

Real ice, as you already know, is formed out of frozen water. In order to keep water frozen it has to be kept at a temperature low enough to do so. Unless it is wintertime in a frozen area, it is difficult to keep water frozen when the ambient temperature that surrounds it is above a certain temperature. 

In order to keep ice frozen in a rink big enough to accommodate a team of hockey players and an audience in an arena, there has to be a considerable amount of energy involved. Giant air conditioners and freezers have to be utilized to keep everything nice and cool. 

Synthetic Ice Panels Need No Refrigeration

You can install synthetic ice panels just about anywhere that there is a flat surface, whether it is indoors or outside, and have a decent skating rink to ice skate on any time of the year without having to keep it frozen. You can ice skate, practice with a hockey balance board, and even play hockey games on it.

It is easy to see why so many people love synthetic ice flooring. It may even be better than traditional ice.

***Sniper’s Edge Hockey loves Canada! We proudly ship all of our products to Canada and offer the same return policies as we do for everybody else. We realize the exchange rates for the Canadian dollar are not the best right now, so we’re trying to help by giving you free shipping and no customs/duty.***