coolers?

[Kyle]

im going on a camping/fly fishing trip at the end of April. i will be tent camping and staying 2 nights, 3 days. i have never really thought about coolers until now. i know some are stupid expensive and i know im not going down that path. so whats a good cooler that wont break the bank for a 3 day trip? im not even sure what size cooler i would need. just basic drinks. some steaks. maybe a 12 pack of beer and gatorades. eggs and bacon for breakfast. for lunch i will just eat a mountain house. but once back at camp for the night i would like to cook something good for dinner over the fire or my coleman stove.

 

[Tigereye]

Igloo and coleman make decent coolers that can easily handle a 3 day trip and not break the bank. I would get the largest you can as you never have enough room. Also alot easier than carrying or worse buying a second. Some models have wheels which are fantastic for moving cooler full of venison or salmon filets.

 

[Kyle]

so will I pay more to have ice. rather then pay less to have half ice and half water? how long does ice stay ice for three days in a cooler. i will likely load up night before which means the ice will be closer to 4 days. or should i go with ice packs?

i feel an experiment is coming but im not gonna go out and buy a bunch of coolers to test lol.

 

[flyguyfishing]

Coolman Extreme.

 

[flyguyfishing]

I usually use two coolers. The Coleman Extreme for food. The other cheap Igloo for drinks. Try not to access the Extreme too often. Drinks (not beer),to me, are fine in melted water. I access drinks often.

For four days you will have some melted ice I. The Extreme but also ice. I do use ice packs I. There too.

 

[Tigereye]

Pack the cooler as full as possible. Dead space is the enemy of keeping your stuff cool.

 

[Swattie87]

Pre-chill the cooler. Fill it with ice the night before. And I mean fill it. And pre-chill all your drinks in the fridge…beer, soda, sports drinks, etc. If you’re packing water bottles in the cooler, freeze them the night before.

In the morning drain the resulting water from the cooler, pack the cooler and refill it to the brim with ice. Til it barely closes, but make sure it closes. Then, open it as little as possible.

Much of the ice loss experienced is from that initial chilling of the cooler and its contents. The above will avoid, or at least minimize this. Makes a huge difference.

 

[BrookieChaser]

I would look at Igloo, Walmart Ozark Trail, or Rtic for mid performance options. That's coming from someone that could've bought a new refrigerator for what I have in Yeti coolers.
I think the mid range options have picked up in recent years. If you pre-chill the cooler, put in cold items, and fill the cooler to the max (no dead air space as was mentioned) you shouldn't have a problem for 3 days.
One option I'd recommend is find a cooler with a tray for dry(er) storage. That way your eggs, bacon and steak ain't laying in water.
You might be better off with two smaller coolers rather than one big cooler for everything. Keep drinks in one (you're opening that cooler a lot letting cold out = ice won't last as long) then keep your food in another cooler.

 

[5footfenwick]

Pre-chill the cooler. Fill it with ice the night before. And I mean fill it. And pre-chill all your drinks in the fridge…beer, soda, sports drinks, etc. If you’re packing water bottles in the cooler, freeze them the night before.

In the morning drain the resulting water from the cooler, pack the cooler and refill it to the brim with ice. Til it barely closes, but make sure it closes. Then, open it as little as possible.

Much of the ice loss experienced is from that initial chilling of the cooler and its contents. The above will avoid, or at least minimize this. Makes a huge difference.

This ^
Also buy or make block ice. A block or two of ice plus ice cubes makes all the difference in the world. Lasts way longer than Ice cubes alone.

Bringing a gallon of Hawaiian punch? Etc? Freeze it solid the day before you pack the cooler to head on your adventure.

Lastly put a large soaking wet bathroom towel over it at the campsite. Completely cover it if possible. And keep it wet whenever you can think of it. Evaporation is an endothermic reaction, so it is gonna draw heat energy out of the cooler as the towel dries!

 

[Swattie87]

I have a small Yeti, and a big, old, el cheapo Coleman. For day trips, I just take the Yeti and I’m not too particular about planning. Put everything in, room temp even, and toss one small bag of ice in. That’s enough to get you through the day. For anything longer, I do the pre-chill method described above.

On big multi-day trips, I use the Yeti for food, and the Coleman for beverages. Pre-chilling both. I can get a solid 72 hours of at least some ice retention doing this, with another 24 hours or so of all melted water, but still safe fridge like temps…high 30’s/low 40’s. Don’t dump out your melted water, after the pre-chill phase. That’s enough to get you through most camping trips where you don’t/won’t have a chance to resupply on ice.

Edit: The Yeti, pre-chilled on the deck the night before in low 30’s temps, did manage to successfully get four cartons of Perry’s ice cream from St. Mary’s home to Harrisburg last Fall, with just a couple of freezer packs on top. Was rock solid still when I got home and unpacked it.

 

[TimMurphy]

im going on a camping/fly fishing trip at the end of April. i will be tent camping and staying 2 nights, 3 days. i have never really thought about coolers until now. i know some are stupid expensive and i know im not going down that path. so whats a good cooler that wont break the bank for a 3 day trip? im not even sure what size cooler i would need. just basic drinks. some steaks. maybe a 12 pack of beer and gatorades. eggs and bacon for breakfast. for lunch i will just eat a mountain house. but once back at camp for the night i would like to cook something good for dinner over the fire or my coleman stove.

Dear Kyle,

Like others have suggested, freeze anything you can before you put it in the cooler, like the steaks and the bacon, or the Gatorade. Have a couple of gallon sized freezer bags and put the frozen food items in them. They can act as ice and not get wet or soggy as they defrost.

Block ice is much better than cubed ice. You can make your own block ice in advance by freezing water in left over gallon or 1/2 gallon left over drink containers, even a cardboard 1/2 gallon milk carton works. Resist the temptation to chip block ice too much or you lose the advanatge.

If you don't own a decent cooler, I'm not about to tell you how to spend your money. I will just tell you that for decades I vacationed at the Delaware beaches with a 72 quart Igloo Marine Cooler and a Coleman XL Playmate. One year I decided I was tired of crappy coolers and sprang for an Rtic 55 quart and a Coleman Xtreme 18 can cooler. I easily saved $ 25.00 to $ 30.00 in ice that one week. I would buy a 20# bag of cubed ice and a 10# block almost every day with the old coolers. With the new coolers two 10# blocks and a 20# bag of cubes covered the whole week.

Regards,

Tim Murphy

 

[tomgamber]

There is nothing about Styrofoam that will keep things older. Bigger block ice and chemical ice packs will keep cool longer. Chilling your cooler without something that will freeze will not help.

 

[Bamboozle]

My rule of thumb is to expect to buy a bag of ice a day which to me negates any reason to spend $100's on a cooler so all I own are some ancient Igloo's....

Two things that help keep food cold a lot, bring a smaller separate beer/drinks cooler since that will most likely be opened most often and if you go the regular inexpensive cooler route...

...Insulate the lid of the cooler which most often is hollow.

All you need is a can of spray foam insulation and a 3/8" drill bit.

Drill holes in the molded voids, allow it to expand until it pops out of the holes. When it hardens, trim off the excess and if you want you can buy 3/8" push in plugs to make it look pretty.

Insulating the lid makes a BIG difference!! I've done it to all of my coolers many moons ago...

Have fun!!

 

[poopdeck]

I’m done with heavy coolers that don’t hold crap. I buy ice as needed and drink water that doesn't need to be cold. block Ice, unchipped is my go to if I can find block ice.

 

[6xAdams(Jones)]

As others have said, block ice is better at keeping food cold. Cubed or crushed ice is better at getting food cold. I haven't gone primitive for many years, but I recall freezing a few jugs of drinking water in the "big freezer" before packing food. I don't know if anyone makes them anymore, but collapsible water containers are good for this.

 

[6xAdams(Jones)]

My boys joke about an advertisement comparing expensive coolers and cheaper coolers. The ad shows a guy throwing one of each off a cliff and then climbing down to compare the damage. Their conclusion is that they would rather have the $100 cooler since they would be obligated to retrieve the $1000 dollar one since they spent so much on it.

 

[mt_flyfisher]

Here’s some food for thought from a fly fisherman on another forum:

“I have returned to my old Coleman Xtreme 70 qt cooler that has been massaged a bit. The entire outside has been covered with Reflectix including the top. The lid has those ridiculous cup holder indents which compromise the cooling effectiveness by providing about 4 places with no insulation for heat to penetrate. I filled each of those with styrofoam before adding the Reflectix and then did the entire inside including the bottom of the lid with Reflectix also. The key to the success of the liner on the inside is that no water or moisture can loosen the tape. To that end I bought a Snapware 40 cup container with a snap on lid that holds 19 pounds of water/ice and keeps everything dry inside. I did the math and discovered that the 70 qt cooler with the Snapware container and 19 pounds of ice still has over a 50 quart capacity-almost identical to the electric fridge but more usable.

So how did it work? Last Sunday, a week ago today, I put the ice container in the cooler to pre chill it and added the food before leaving Monday morning. Checking it this morning, almost 8 days later, the remaining ice block in the container still weighed 11.6 pounds! Most of the ice is still there and the inside temp is hovering around 37 degrees-exactly what I wanted the electric fridge to do but it wouldn't. Granted, it hasn't been 90 degree weather but the truck has been exposed to sunlight every day and has gotten as hot as 86 degrees inside on the recording thermometer.

The secret ingredient: Moving air is the enemy of ice so to help the ice survive I cover the contents with a big down pillow. This prevents any air movement inside and the pillow never gets wet because there is no water for it to soak up. This setup offers exceptional performance, it requires less than $100 total and the skills you acquired in kindergarten using blunt nosed scissors and colored paper. A fraction of the weight and cost of the bear proof coolers but if you aren't camping among the bears, so what?”

 

[krayfish2]

If you want to go budget, Coleman Xtreme is pretty hard to beat. Mid / higher cost is the Cabela's polar cap equalizer. The insulation is pretty amazing and outperforms all the big names. Downsides: bulky due to insulation, some reports of rubber latches needing replacement in a year or two.

What I currently have: rtic 45, Engel deep blue 35 and orca 20. Rtic (aka yeti knockoff) is fine. That was my first nice cooler and it held ice longer than I ever imagined a cooler would. Then I got better coolers and realized that the Rtic was just ok and not great. The Engel is much lighter so I didn't expect the ice retention to be as good but it was twice as good. The orca is also pretty amazing. They cost considerably more than an Rtic but the performance has me saying that I'd spend the money again for a good cooler.

As someone mentioned, pre-cooling your cooler can make a pretty huge difference. I also throw a folded up queen size comforter over the cooler to help with the insulation when left in a car on summer days.

You got a lot of choices. Choose wisely and a lot of those cheaper ones don't have any insulation in the lid so keep that in mind

 

[lycoflyfisher]

I have a coleman extreme marine version 45qt I think. It does very well if it's precooled, packed full and kept out of the sun. My brother has a gray lifetime brand from Walmart that performs very well for the money.

I had a smaller coleman extreme that was wheeled. It is black and it's performance lacked and imo this was due to it being black.

 

[salmo]

This ^
Also buy or make block ice. A block or two of ice plus ice cubes makes all the difference in the world. Lasts way longer than Ice cubes alone.

Bringing a gallon of Hawaiian punch? Etc? Freeze it solid the day before you pack the cooler to head on your adventure.

Lastly put a large soaking wet bathroom towel over it at the campsite. Completely cover it if possible. And keep it wet whenever you can think of it. Evaporation is an endothermic reaction, so it is gonna draw heat energy out of the cooler as the towel dries!

Endothermic! Love it.