Posted: 7/10/2009 9:37:59 AM EDT
|
I have 2 ice chests. My smaller one is what you would use for a picnic for 4 by Rubbermade, that was bought at wally world. The other is a monster big one that is appropriate for an SF meet & greet by Igloo that I got off the side of the highway while my wife protested "noooooo."
This is the big one 
Anyway I thought that ice chest = ice chest = ice chest as long as you chose a reputable maker. Wrong The big one stays in the Suburban full time, and the little one stays in the house with ac. On big shopping trips I use both chests and cool them with a 42oz bottle of ice in each chest. Later the ice in the big one will be 10% melted and the chest will be cool. The ice in the smaller one will be more like 20% melted and the chest will be cooler than the truck but not as cool as the big one. So I'm going 
I was at Gander Mtn last week and had a look at the ice chests There are insulated chests rated for 5 days in 90 degree weather, and there are chests that just keep the melted ice from wetting the interior of your BOV. My big one is insulated, my little one is just a rectangular double walled plastic bucket. So what is the most efficient ice chest you have found? |
|
My Igloo suffered some damage when it hit the hwy, the shell around the drain got shattered and the hinges and latches were broken.
I replaced the hinges and latches. I then hauled the chest in the back of the pickup for a year until we got the suv. I guess the latches got weather damaged because they have broken again, but I know where to get more. I felt like I scored when I saw the retail price of that big one though. The big one has been great for protecting groceries in hot weather. |
|
I had 3 big white marine igloos for years. 2 were stolen and in a pinch were replaced with a few cheaper white igloos.
SSI coolers blew my mind. The 1st time I saw one the guy told me any melt water RE FREEZES at night ( this was the end of june or so and we were fishing a tournament) Well I didnt believe him untill I saw it with my own eyes!! They are AWESOME coolers. Their prices are redicuclas tho so eh... oh BTW next time the shit plactic handles break on the Igloo get rope ones next time the hinges break thru bolt some stainless marine hardware on them for hinges. |
|
Quoted:
SSI coolers blew my mind. The 1st time I saw one the guy told me any melt water RE FREEZES at night ( this was the end of june or so and we were fishing a tournament) Well I didnt believe him untill I saw it with my own eyes!! They are AWESOME coolers. Their prices are redicuclas tho so eh... . That is thermodynamically impossible, unless there was a cooling element or a chemical reaction that did it. If you put a lot of mass in there that was below freezing, it might freeze some of the water but it didnt just re-freeze water. Not saying there not good, they just dont defeat the laws of thermodynamics |
| I got a big 7-day model at Costco, I don't even recall what the model is. I packed it with 60 pounds of ice (took maybe 1/3 the room), filled the rest with food, and sent my wife and kids off for the weekend. When they came back, less than half of the ice was melted. Much better than the cheap coolers I had used before... |
|
Quoted:
Quoted:
SSI coolers blew my mind. The 1st time I saw one the guy told me any melt water RE FREEZES at night ( this was the end of june or so and we were fishing a tournament) Well I didnt believe him untill I saw it with my own eyes!! They are AWESOME coolers. Their prices are redicuclas tho so eh... . That is thermodynamically impossible, unless there was a cooling element or a chemical reaction that did it. If you put a lot of mass in there that was below freezing, it might freeze some of the water but it didnt just re-freeze water. Not saying there not good, they just dont defeat the laws of thermodynamics and by melt water I ment the residual water in the chest with the blocks of ice... not a cooler full of freaken water and it wasnt rock solid ice but skim ice either way very impressive compaired to the multitude of shitty coolers around 6 -8 years ago when I saw the SSI for the 1st time. Since then even Igloo has made leaps and bounds in the qulity of their coolers. The cheap O blue and red ones from the hardware store for 30 bucks will keep ice and beer for days now compaired to their old ones that could do it for a single day. |
|
GET A YETI!!! they are grizzle proof
http://www.yeticoolers.com/ I have the tundra 120 quart and the fiberglass 105 qt I like both but the tundra is more rugged This is the real deal, I have mine loaded right now with ice that I filled two days ago. The ice still looks fresh with about 1/2 inch of water. During Ike (i live in Houston) i got dry ice 4 days before the hurricane and still had it in the cooler a 10 days later ( i did put regular ice on top of the dry) |
|
I got an older metal coleman cooler and am very happy with how it keeps things cool compared to all my plastic coolers and I have several of the plastic ones. Some of the plasitc ones have insulation between layers and some seem to just have air between them.
I have had good luck with some of the round 5 gallon water coolers as well, but that might be because I use them for beer and am always refilling them with ice and beer. 
I am currently on a chest freezer to chest fridge kick so I am paying more attention to insulation than I used to, and also how much something gets opened up to access stuff. I am currently sizing up my crappy plastic coolers so I can pull the big ones apart and put a smaller one in it and use that expanding foam to add insulation. This will make a multi wall cooler with lots of insulation and it will take up a fair bit of space for what it will hold. But my main interest with these is to use up crappy coolers I have collected and no longer use. I mostly plan to let others use them for the most part. The metal coleman cooler covers most of my needs and for vehicle use or boat use or anything where I have a tiny bit of power I am going to be getting a vehicle sized fridge by arb or a similar manufacturer. |
|
I have an Igloo Marine that I picked up 17 years ago. I used it when I was in Australia. I traveled from one end of Australia and then top to bottom during the summer of 1992 I would put ice in it, and the ice would last for about 5-6 days. It was great in the Outback, when it might be a day or so before you were near civiliation again.
The key is just like your home freezer. Keep it well stocked, and don't open it often. The cheap double sided plastic ice chest/totes are POS. The ice melts in "hours". Ended up giving the couple the wife had to the MIL. I've been using a small IceMax hard plastic tote for work lunches, and it keeps stuff cold all day. What more could you want. I didn't get the soft tote, since I'm kind of rough on those things. Those are just my .02. 
|
|
During Hurricane Ike, my power was out for 14 days. I had a 152-quart Igloo Maxcold cooler, a Coleman 70-quart Xtreme Cold cooler, and a few other, smaller coolers. The ice lasted much longer in the Igloo than it did in the Coleman. I have since added another 100-quart Igloo Maxcold cooler for this year.
It is also nice to have a few "slave" coolers to throw in the truck to get more ice. I have an Igloo cube cooler on wheels that holds 7 bags of loose ice, and I even stacked 5 more bags on top of it at a store. I will be using this cooler and my Coleman to get more ice to put in my 2 Igloos if the need arises. BTW––Just before Hurricane Ike hit, ice was getting pretty hard to find in my AO. I went to the local fish market, and the owner let me fill up my coolers for $10. (Some fire stations also have ice machines that they will share with you if you ask nice.) So, even before the hurricane hit, I had all my coolers filled up with ice, as well as my freezer full of bags of ice and frozen 2 liter bottles that I had filled with water. After my power went off, I just kept moving food and ice to the cooler that needed it, eventually consolidating mainly in my big Igloo. After the hurricane, Sam's Club had 10 lb. bags of ice for $1.15 per bag. They would let you buy 10 bags at a time. This came in very handy in restocking supplies. For this reason, join your local Costco or Sam's Club in case you need some supplies when everyone else is out. During the time my power was out, I never ran out of ice or cold drinks. I managed to save and eat nearly everything in my refrigerator. One of the best treats was Dannon yogurt, which lasted just fine in a cooler. This yogurt was a real treat to have as a sort of ice cream pudding at the end of a long hot day with no power. |
|
Quoted:
So what is the most efficient ice chest you have found? If cost is no object, you probably couldn't do much better than a Glacier Bay vacuum panel chest and hatch. Basically, there's insulation, and then there's aerogel vacuum panel insulation... |
|
Quoted:
The coolers that horse back hunters use are very good but expensive. Sportsmans has them and even cabelas. Can't remember the name of them right now. They have heavy latches on all 4 corners. Outfitter coolers is what they are called. Those are the Yeti Coolers. Some of the best money can buy but really expensive. |
|
We recently bought a new cooler to store food on a long trip (14 days). It was one of the "5 days at 90 degrees" types (48 can, I think - decent size).
We refilled the loose ice cubes a number of times on the trip, but we had an ice block we bought when we left in the bottom. The ice block was still at probably 30% after 14 days riding in the truck. We are definitely sold on it. I think it is an Igloo, I can't remember right off. Whichever, it is a major brand. They make a 6-day model as well. Not only did it perform FAR above our expectations, we got it on a killer deal through Fred Meyer for under $40. We were going to get the same brand's budget cooler for $20, but I told the woman I'd rather get something nicer and it was well worth it. Some of our meat (hotdogs and stuff) was too frozen to use! |
|
this is what i found works no matter what cooler you have- 48qt or bigger drop a 20 lb blockin there, drop your food in fill with loose ice. It will last for 3-6 days even in a cheap one- if you dont open it every hour or sit in theback of a p/u truckin a parking lot. we went 14+ days with a 100+ qt white marine cooler( like shown above) i froze solid a 5 gallon water cooler jug, and 10 1/2 gallon milk jugs. The milk jugs melted to 1/2 size and we only lost about 20% of the 5 gallon one. All i did was keep it indoors, with 2 o ld beach towels on the lid. ya gotta keep the lid close thats what will kill it, and get blocked ice it last twice as long as chopped/cubed. |
|
Quoted:
get blocked ice it last twice as long as chopped/cubed. 20 pounds of ice cubes should have exactly the same amount of "cool" in it as a 20 pound block of ice. If the block ice lasts a lot longer, it would seem that it's losing less cold to its surroundings than the ice cubes - which implies that it's not keeping the contents of the ice chest as cold. Obviously, we need an Icechest O' Truth thread to get to the bottom of this! 
|
|
Quoted:
Quoted:
get blocked ice it last twice as long as chopped/cubed. 20 pounds of ice cubes should have exactly the same amount of "cool" in it as a 20 pound block of ice. If the block ice lasts a lot longer, it would seem that it's losing less cold to its surroundings than the ice cubes - which implies that it's not keeping the contents of the ice chest as cold. Obviously, we need an Icechest O' Truth thread to get to the bottom of this! The reason Blocks last longer is less surface area. |
|
Quoted: Quoted: The reason Blocks last longer is less surface area. And again, less surface area means less "cold" being given off to the interior of the ice chest - which implies that the contents aren't being kept as cold. well damn,, add 1 bag of cubed ice then smarty bricthes 
|
|
I'm going to ignore that last surly comment...
Cubed ice is so much more readily available than block ice - So what could you do to your average 7 pound bag of cubes to make it last as long as 7 pounds of block ice? Partially wrap it in something to reduce its exposure to air inside the ice chest? Elevate it off the floor of the chest, so that any melting water isn't in continuous contact with both the ice and the bottom of the chest? |
|
Took our cooler for a week of camping in Wis. last week. Only held beer and bloody mix, had to add a 20# bag every other day to keep 'er cold. Yes its a blue POS as described by others. Very timely subject as ol' blue met its maker as my backstop for 230gr. of goodness.
|
|
Quoted: I'm going to ignore that last surly comment... Cubed ice is so much more readily available than block ice - So what could you do to your average 7 pound bag of cubes to make it last as long as 7 pounds of block ice? Partially wrap it in something to reduce its exposure to air inside the ice chest? Elevate it off the floor of the chest, so that any melting water isn't in continuous contact with both the ice and the bottom of the chest? you can get it at those road side ice machines hell wrap the damn cooler in tinfoil and a beach towel |
|
Quoted:
My Igloo suffered some damage when it hit the hwy, the shell around the drain got shattered and the hinges and latches were broken. I replaced the hinges and latches. I then hauled the chest in the back of the pickup for a year until we got the suv. I guess the latches got weather damaged because they have broken again, but I know where to get more. I felt like I scored when I saw the retail price of that big one though. The big one has been great for protecting groceries in hot weather. Where did you get the hinges? |
|
When I was in geology field camp in college, we'd be out in the Anza Borego desert for two weeks on end. Average daily temps were probably mid eigties to mid ninties, cooled off to probably sixties at night. I was working at an auto parts store during the year, and we would get candy in large cardboard boxes, probably about a three foot cube. The cardboard box was lined with two inches of styrofoam, in slabs, a full cube again, unsealed. I took three of them out with me, lined them with heavy garbage bags, and put probably 40 lbs of ice in each. Only had to dump and replace ice once during the trip. ;)
Two were used for booze, so they were constantly getting fresh beer into them that had to be chilled, the third was for food so it didn't have to work as hard. Used these boxes on several occations, week long trips, weekend, and field camp. Great stuff, wish I still had them. The big draw back was that the liner would leak, and the whole thing would leak as a result. The carboard weakened as a result, and because they were huge, they were heavy. Heavy+disintergrating cardboard made for a three man job to move the suckers when we needed to.
I've often thought that a homemade ice chest would be the way to go, probalby 3/8" plywood, 2.5' or 3' cube (cube is the most efficent shape you can get reasonably for surface area to volume), water proof it with some sealent on the inside, put in a couple drain plugs, heavy hinges, handles of your choice, and line the thing with some styrofoam slabs. Bomb proof, well insulated, and cheap. |
|
Whoever asked about hinges can probably just get a piano hinge from home depot or lowes and adapt that to work and it will last longer than the plastic hinges common on coolers these days.
I have a long cooler with a busted plastic hinge and found a piano hinge to replace it with. I need to remove the old one and install the new one but it is just a spare cooler/water holder as far as I am concerned so will eventually fix it and loan it out to a friend or relative probably. |
| I've thought about using the expanding foam in the el cheapos I have. You can get some that flows more but doesn't expand as much(for around doors and windows.) The lids and sides sound hollow. I figure drill a few holes and fill with foam. It's gotta be better than just double wall plastic, right? What does the hive think? |
|
Drill holes in the outside part would be my opinion.
On some small ones I have with no insulation I plan to simply lift out the inside part and using some wax paper on it try to put the foam in the outer shell and insert the inner shell and let it set up and then remove it and check for any areas I missed. I think the insulation is way better than just air by itself. |
|
Quoted:
Quoted:
My Igloo suffered some damage when it hit the hwy, the shell around the drain got shattered and the hinges and latches were broken. I replaced the hinges and latches. I then hauled the chest in the back of the pickup for a year until we got the suv. I guess the latches got weather damaged because they have broken again, but I know where to get more. I felt like I scored when I saw the retail price of that big one though. The big one has been great for protecting groceries in hot weather. Where did you get the hinges? In this part of the country, the Academy sporting goods stores sell 'em. Wouldn't be surprised to also find them at Bass Pro or Cabella's. |
|
Quoted:
Quoted:
My Igloo suffered some damage when it hit the hwy, the shell around the drain got shattered and the hinges and latches were broken. I replaced the hinges and latches. I then hauled the chest in the back of the pickup for a year until we got the suv. I guess the latches got weather damaged because they have broken again, but I know where to get more. I felt like I scored when I saw the retail price of that big one though. The big one has been great for protecting groceries in hot weather. Where did you get the hinges? You can also get hinges and replacement parts directly from Igloo Link They're based in Katy, Texas (outside of Houston) |
|
Quoted:
GET A YETI!!! they are grizzle proof http://www.yeticoolers.com/ I have the tundra 120 quart and the fiberglass 105 qt I like both but the tundra is more rugged This is the real deal, I have mine loaded right now with ice that I filled two days ago. The ice still looks fresh with about 1/2 inch of water. During Ike (i live in Houston) i got dry ice 4 days before the hurricane and still had it in the cooler a 10 days later ( i did put regular ice on top of the dry) Made in the Philippines. Too bad. I'll stick with Igloo. |
|
I've had good success with the Coleman Extreme line of coolers. They have 5 day and 6 day models available in all different sizes and colors.
If you're really looking for the top of the line, take a look at some of the ones from Iowa Rotocast Plastics (IRP) : http://www.irpoutdoors.com/ These are truly good stuff and made right here in the US
|
|
Quoted:
After reading this post. I picked up a 165 qt Igloo Maxcold cooler today at Costco for $79.99. Damm the SF I am now out another $80. I now have 3 5+ day coolers with the new 165 qt. It is a big boy. Wife thinks I am nuts, but when the garage frige went, I could not fit everthing in the two coolers. |
| I added an extra set of hinges to one of my big coolers the other day, went from three to five. I need to get some more hinges to add to the other coolers as well as extra limit straps. I picked up a mid-sized cooler off the side of the highay last month and I was letting my wife use it, it also needed the hinges replaced. |
|
Yeti Coolers are great they are just very expensive, and heavy.
I have a Yeti Tundra 45 in tan and I think it is great for a weekend trip with the kids. I have never had one that worked any better. It feels like a lead weight when you are carrying it full of ice very far. My go to cooler is an igloo 60 qt. that they do not make any more. It has the old hinges that are plastic but are real hinges not flexible plastic. I have had it 15 years. The new version of my cooler is a 54 qt. that is the exact same exterior dimensions, but with thicker walls and same top (MaxCool). Have one of the older Max Cool 150's and it works well enough for big events, power outage, and refrigerator malfunctions that come up from time to time. Great topic. |
|
Quoted:
Quoted:
After reading this post. I picked up a 165 qt Igloo Maxcold cooler today at Costco for $79.99. Damm the SF I am now out another $80. I now have 3 5+ day coolers with the new 165 qt. It is a big boy. Wife thinks I am nuts, but when the garage frige went, I could not fit everthing in the two coolers. 
I learned of Nalgene from Arfcom 
|
| Yeti. I have two of them and they simply blow everything else away. They are bombproof. There are some other higher end coolers though that I have not had an opportunity to try out. One thing that helps even marginal coolers is dry ice. Many of our local super markets carry it. You put a block of that in your cooler and you're good for twice the normal timespan in my experience. |