BLUF
On Saturday, August 15, 2026, I sold my final complete branded PlungIT system locally in San Antonio for $400 after listing it on OfferUp for $550. The package included the one-person insulated tub and lid, quarter-horsepower Active Aqua chiller, circulation pump, insulated hoses and connections, and water-maintenance supplies. It was not the financial ending I imagined in 2023, but it was an honest ending: the system still worked and went to a new owner.
Why the Project Returned to Mind
For several years, the PlungIT photographs, videos, notes, supplier files, and product material sat in my archive. Mike the IT Guy was no longer my business, and the remaining system had become a physical reminder of a completed phase.
Listing that final unit on OfferUp brought the entire project back into focus. I did not want the story to disappear when the last tub left the garage, so I gathered the archive and began preserving it as part of my digital legacy.
What the Buyer Received
The final package represented the version of the system I had refined toward:
- one-person insulated PlungIT inflatable tub;
- fitted insulated lid;
- Active Aqua AACH25HP quarter-horsepower chiller;
- circulation pump;
- insulated hoses and connections; and
- chlorine and spa-water maintenance supplies.
The listing described the system as approximately two years old, kept indoors, clean, and fully operational. The equipment shown in the photographs includes the same quarter-horsepower chiller configuration that became the best match for the one-person tub.
I initially listed everything for $550. The local buyer paid $400 and picked it up in San Antonio.
Why $400 Was a Reasonable Ending
The chiller alone accounted for much of the system’s remaining value. Selling locally also avoided the difficulty and expense of shipping a chiller, tub, hoses, and accessories as one package.
At the same time, the sale did not turn PlungIT into a profitable business retroactively. I estimate that I invested around $1,500 over the project and recovered roughly 60–70 percent. The final sale belongs in that imperfect accounting, but I do not have audited records detailed enough to assign every historical expense and sale precisely.
The point is simpler: the project ended at a loss, and the last functioning system still had enough value and usefulness to find another owner.
What Left With the Tub
When the buyer drove away, he took more than an inflatable container. He took the result of three years of accumulated decisions:
- beginning with a chiller in a household bathtub;
- recording times, temperatures, and headaches;
- sourcing inflatable designs from China;
- choosing between one- and two-person dimensions;
- stepping down from oversized cooling and pump equipment;
- measuring fittings and documenting leaks;
- learning that continuous circulation mattered in my system;
- creating the PlungIT branding;
- selling approximately a dozen units; and
- discovering the financial limits of small-volume sourcing.
That history was invisible in the final transaction, but it was built into the assembled system.
The Difference Between Closing and Erasing
Selling the last unit closed the physical project. Publishing this series keeps the experience from being erased.
PlungIT did not become a national brand. It also was not merely an abandoned idea. It became a manufactured, branded product that reached customers and remained operational years later. It generated real technical problems, real solutions, real sales, and a real financial loss.
Those facts can coexist.
What I Am Keeping
I kept the photographs of temperature displays, measurements, pumps, valves, boxes, fittings, leaks, and finished tubs. I kept the supplier material and the customer warnings. I kept private videos that will remain private because preserving a record does not require publishing every personal detail.
Most importantly, I kept enough evidence to reconstruct the sequence accurately.
Today, I am THE Tech Voyager, and Mike the IT Guy belongs to an earlier chapter. PlungIT belongs to that chapter too. The final sale gave the equipment a new home. This archive gives the work a lasting one.
This is the final supporting chapter in the PlungIT archive. Begin with I Tried to Build a More Affordable Cold Plunge—Here’s What Happened, or return to the preceding chapter about one-person, two-person, and eBay sales.
Sources and Archive Notes
- Active Aqua AACH25HP quarter-horsepower chiller specifications
- Sale date, listing price, sale price, contents, condition, and location are preserved from Michael Johnstone’s August 2026 OfferUp archive and firsthand account.
