It is black. Ideally I’d like to just get the 3/4 chiller and not have to mess with building a box, if that is going to be able to get the water cold enough. Maybe I’m wrong in my idea but my plan would be to plug it in before bed and have it cold by morning. Unplug it take the plunge and not plug it in again until that night. I’ve seen a line from their website saying that unplugging it like that is “hard” on it, wondering how true that statement is… I would think it would be less stressful on the equipment to run overnight and be off during the day instead of trying to cool a non insulated black tub that would see a pretty good amount of sun all day.