A soft-shell hyperbaric chamber is a fabric cabin that seals and holds pressure above the air in the room around it. It is the lightest way into owning a chamber, and it is a genuinely different piece of equipment from a hard-shell chamber, not a smaller version of one.
This page covers what the material can do, what it cannot, and what the cabin and its machines ask of a room. If you want the underlying mechanics first, the chamber explainer covers the sealed vessel and the two oxygen systems.
What is a soft-shell hyperbaric chamber made of?
The cabin is a durable fabric shell closed by a three-layer zip. Ours, the Aria, is a monoplace cabin, meaning one person, and it is built to be used either sitting up or lying down. Four transparent windows run along it, so the inside does not feel enclosed.
Two machines sit outside the cabin and connect to it by hose. An oil-free compressor with micron filtration supplies the air, and an air conditioner holds the temperature through a session. Neither is fixed to the building.
That matters more than it sounds. The cabin weighs 10 kg. It packs down and rebuilds in minutes, which makes it the most portable chamber in the range: you can move it between rooms, or take it with you, without a fit-out.
What pressure does a soft-shell chamber reach?
The Aria runs at 1.3 to 1.5 ATA. The ceiling is chosen at order as a configuration, not adjusted later.
ATA is atmospheres absolute, where ordinary sea-level air is 1.0. So 1.3 ATA is thirty per cent above the pressure you are sitting in now.
Fabric is what sets that ceiling. A hard-shell chamber such as Atlas One is a sealed steel vessel and runs from 1.5 to 2.0 ATA. The material is the reason for the gap, and it is the single biggest specification difference between the two.
What changes between 1.3 and 1.5 ATA
The three tiers are configurations of the same cabin, chosen when you order:
- 1.3 ATA. The standard configuration.
- 1.4 ATA. An upgrade tier.
- 1.5 ATA. The ceiling for this cabin, and the point where Atlas One’s range begins.
The tier is not a dial you turn later. It is specified at order, the same way Advanced Oxygen is specified at order on the hard-shell range, so it is worth settling before you buy rather than discovering afterwards.
How is oxygen delivered in a soft-shell?
Through Standard Oxygen: a face mask or nasal cannula, running continuously. The continuous flow entity page covers how that system works, and the oxygen systems hub sets it beside the alternative.
The soft-shell does not take BIBS Advanced Oxygen. BIBS is inhale-activated and routes your exhaled breath out of the chamber, and it is available on the hard-shell range as an upgrade specified at order. If Advanced Oxygen is something you want, that decision points at a hard-shell, not at a configuration of this one.
How does a session actually run?
You unzip the three-layer closure, get in, and close it. The compressor brings the cabin up to its set pressure over a ramp rather than all at once, holds it for the session, and comes back down the same way. The air conditioner runs throughout, which is what keeps a sealed fabric cabin comfortable rather than close.
Oxygen runs the whole time through the mask or cannula, because continuous flow does not wait for you to breathe in. That is covered in more depth in continuous flow explained.
The cabin is a single space with four windows, so you can read or sleep. There is nothing to operate mid-session.
What does a soft-shell chamber need from a room?
Less than any other chamber we supply, but not nothing.
- Floor. The cabin is 220 cm long and 70 cm wide, plus the two machines beside it.
- Ceiling. Allow about 1.3 m. The cabin stands 1.1 m tall and needs clear space above it.
- Entry. Keep about 1 m clear at the door end so getting in and out is easy.
- Power. A standard power point. The compressor draws about 1,400 W.
There is no permanent install, no structural work and nothing to make good if you move it. We confirm the exact layout for your room before you commit.
That last point is the one people underestimate. A hard-shell is a decision about a room as much as about a chamber, and it usually means giving one over permanently. A soft-shell asks for floor space while it is in use and gives it back when it is not. If you are working out whether a room can take a chamber at all, planning the room walks through the measurements.
Who is a soft-shell chamber for?
The person who wants to own a chamber rather than book time in someone else’s, and who is not ready to commit a room to it. It suits apartments, rentals, and anyone who expects to move. For a practice, it is a way to add a second cabin without a second fit-out.
It is also the honest answer for a first chamber. Owning one at 1.3 ATA that gets used daily is a better position than deferring the decision for a year.
Who it is not for: anyone who already knows they want 2.0 ATA, anyone who wants Advanced Oxygen, and any household where two people expect to sit in it together. In all three cases you would be buying the wrong equipment and finding out slowly. Those are hard-shell requirements, and none of them can be added to a soft-shell afterwards.
Where does a soft-shell reach its limit?
Three places, and they are all worth knowing before you buy rather than after.
- Pressure. 1.5 ATA is the ceiling. If you want 2.0, fabric cannot get you there.
- Advanced Oxygen. Not available, and not retrofittable.
- Capacity. One person. If two people will use it together, the chamber range has cabins built for that and this is not one of them.
None of those are faults. They are the trade you are making for a cabin that weighs 10 kg and needs no install.
What does a soft-shell chamber cost?
Hardware from AUD 24,900 — delivered & installed. Step up to a hard-shell from AUD 78,900.
That gap is the clearest way to see what you are choosing between. The soft-shell is the way in. The hard-shell is the pressure ceiling and the Advanced Oxygen path, and it asks for a room to live in.
Delivered and installed means what it says, and for a soft-shell it is a shorter job than for a hard-shell. There is no structural work, so the visit is about setting the cabin up in the room you have chosen, connecting the compressor and the air conditioner, running the first session with you, and leaving you able to run it yourself. Ongoing support covers anything after that. Because the cabin packs down, moving it later is something you can do without us.
One thing worth being straight about: the price gap is not the whole cost difference between the two paths. A hard-shell often carries room preparation with it, and a soft-shell almost never does. If a room would need work before a hard-shell could go in, that widens the real gap rather than narrowing it.
If you are weighing the two, the hard-shell versus soft-shell comparison puts the specifications side by side.
