Having an ice skating rink in your backyard during winter? Awesome. Building that ice skating rink in your backyard right in time for winter? Not that awesome. Sure, there are skating rink kits you can purchase and install to save time and effort, but they usually require an entire day (or an entire weekend) to set up. The EZ Ice changes that.
A modular standalone skating rink, the rig is designed to be set up in an hour or less by just a single person, making it the most hassle-free way to build a rink into your backyard. Even better, it doesn’t require you to hammer any stakes, drill any holes, or affix any type of fasteners, as the darn thing is designed to hold in place all on its own. Just assemble the whole thing, drag it to your desired spot, and wait for the temperatures to drop. Finally, real hockey in your backyard during winter season (as opposed to the fake hockey you play in the summer).
The EZ Ice consists of a modular wall that’s held in place by a bracket and strap system, which is then covered with a heavy-duty 6-mil polyester liner. When the weather’s cold enough, simply place a hose inside the rink (or pour buckets of water in one after another if you want your kids to do hard labor) to start filling it with water, which should freeze all on its own courtesy of the freezing temperatures in your part of the world this time of the year. According to the outfit, you don’t need a level backyard to install the rig, either, as it can work on any surface provided any difference is one foot or less.
To assemble, simply connect the modular walls together using the brackets, which also keep the walls upright. Need a smaller rink than what you bought? Not a problem – just use as many of the walls and brackets as you need and leave the rest in a storage somewhere, as the rig will still work, regardless of size. Once the walls and brackets are assembled, you then connect all the brackets together using the included straps, creating a grid of sorts at the bottom of the rink. When the liner is filled with water and that freezes into ice, the weight of the ice will push down on the straps, rendering the whole thing immovable. That allows it to stay in place all winter long, with no need to secure it to the ground using any kind of hardware.
The EZ Ice walls measure 16 inches high and are molded from the most durable plastic, so it can hold up to your hardest slap shot, along with all the roughhouse play it’s bound to face. Since it’s modular, it comes in multiple sizes that can easily be expanded to something bigger or shrunk to something smaller as your needs change. The smallest kit they offer measures 15 x 30 feet, while the largest spans 85 x 200 feet. And, yes, they accept custom sizes, so you can tailor the size according to what your property will accommodate.
Pricing for EZ Ice starts at $1,100.