best cooler?

[Callahan-que]

We use Coleman Xtreme coolers cooler here in Florida in the Summer time and love em.

[landarc]

The plastic jug thing works great and if you use clean jugs and clean water, you end up with water you can drink at the end of the trip.

[cholloway]

Check out the plastic coated wire shelf racks at Lowe's or Home Depot. Cut to length and elevated above the bottom of the cooler.

[Jason TQ]

Another for Coleman xtreme. Ice has to melt eventually, these seem to do it the slowest for the price. Yeti are nice but anywhere from 5-8times the cost of Coleman.

[G$]

Originally Posted by seattlepitboss

We're on a long road trip. Just started week 7 of 8. We're living out of a cooler to hold meat, and similar things. I'm frustrated with this cooler. It seems to me that all coolers have the same design deficiencies.

The nature of a portable ice based cooling solution is problematic from the beginning. It really is not as easy a problem to fix as it appears. Most folks put ice in the bottom first, then start loading up. Copule problems with that from an efficiency point of view: lids are usually less insulated than the bottoms and sides, and ice would be more efficient on the top. Of course ...... putting ice on top sure makes it harder to get to the food. Then there is the soggy-ness issue of ice melting over food....

Personally, If i needed to keep perishable food items in a cooler for extended time periods, this is what I would do:

• Use an "igloo polar" or similar cooler. (Similar to Coleman extremes mentioned here). They are the most feasible value if you can not swing a yeti or do not want to kill your back with an obsenely heavey rotomolded style cooler.
• Use predominantly larger blocks of ice/freezer packs/frozen liters for the bullk of the cooling.
• trim a couple plastic grates (like milk crates to create small platforms to raise the food if needed.
• use cooler trays to keep the stuff rasised that absolutely HAS TO stay dry.
• Fill spae with cubes/smaller chunks
• Use ice ON TOP of it all.
• DONT drain the water until you "have to".

I make my own ice blocks that are sort of custom sized to my cooler and packing style. For example, I make "slabs" of ice that go on top (and often the bottom). This sounds un feasible for a multi week trip though.

[Trawlerdog]

Yeti Coolers are pricey but #1 imo.

[IamMadMan]

I remember years ago they used to sell "Blue Ice" gel blocks which worked well. No water in the cooler, but also stole freezer space to bring to freezing temperature.

I too use a wire rack to keep the food above the water line.

[pwa]

Defiantly use block ice vs cubed. I've been a big fan of the Igloo Maxcold series, But any top tier 7 day cooler sill work. I use the Igloo Maxcold 150Qt coolers when I go camping for 2 weeks with at a time using block ice and refiling at ~ 7 days. But can extend if I freeze the bottle water and use them to help cool the coolers.

[NickTheGreat]

I use my Coleman XTreme for tailgating. Throw of layer of ice on the bottom, and put my food in ziploc bags or those cheapo plastic containers. Then sprinkle ice in from the top, filling the gaps.

It melts, but you don't care since your food is protected. Sometimes in my smaller coolers I'll put the ice in a ziploc bag, and not the food. But I don't think that provides as effective cooling.

[seattlepitboss]

"BUY BLOCK ICE" uh, sure, but you're in bumpf Michigan at the Conoco station and they do NOT HAVE block ice, whaddya going to do?

"USE GEL PACKS" sounds great, oh, woops, how do I recool them in the Mojave Desert?

"YETI" .. looked at 'em same dumb aspect ratio

Sigh

Thanks, guys.

seattlepitboss

[TailGateJoecom]

Originally Posted by seattlepitboss

We're on a long road trip. Just started week 7 of 8. We're living out of a cooler to hold meat, and similar things. I'm frustrated with this cooler. It seems to me that all coolers have the same design deficiencies. They are built like one featureless box, and you put ice in the bottom where it melts, so that your food has to marinate in ice water. Over time ziplocs leak, jar labels turn gooey, and it's just *so funky*. Why o why doesn't someone make an extra deep cooler with a nice rack that sits up above the ice to keep everything out of the water?

I got excited when I found out about Yeti coolers. Just looked at them. Same dumb aspect ratio. You can get them up to like 55" long but not deep. It's like everyone's copying a design from the 1940s.

I'm posting this in hopes that I'm wrong, that there is one out there. And coolers *are* on topic for BBQ guys. Who among us hasn't brought meat to a remote site to cook, or used a cooler to hold hot foiled smoked roasts to let their temp equilibrate?

seattlepitboss

The reason frankly is it would be very inefficient. First of all, you sound like you want a cooler that resembles a chest freezer, very deep top to bottom, not so much long side to side. Then, you want racks so the food can sit up above and off the ice. There are 2 problems with this. First, the biggest problem, you would be using ice to cool a large amount of air. The biggest culprit to melting ice in a cooler is air. You melt a LOT of ice just to keep air cool. Ideally you want your cooler packed to the top with product and ice, the less air it needs to cool the better. Second, heat rises, so the air up top of the cooler will be warmer, and use even more ice to keep cool. Once you open the cooler it will start all over. I think that is why nobody really makes a very high cooler.

I have 2 yeti 250's in my trailer, each sitting along the side across from the other on a rack. I have had food that was not frozen originally stay ice cold for 3-4 days no problem and would have stayed for much longer had I wanted that. I find the key to getting the yeti to work optimally is pre cool it first. Think about it, the more insulation you have, the colder it stays longer. Well, if the box is warm to start, the insulation makes it stay warmer longer. I toss 1-2 sleeves into each cooler 24 hours before I want to use it. When I go to pack the cooler the next day, i remove that watery ice and use fresh rock hard ice. When i take that watery ice out and the cooler is empty before i pack it, i can stick my head in and feel that the box is nice and cold already.

When buying a cooler, size is really important, you want at least 1/2 and more ideally 2/3 of it filled with ice for long term transport.

[Pa_BBQ]

We love our food saver for this reason, keeps food dry.
I have never had to live out of a cooler for that long though and can see your frustration.

You would think the inside of coolers would be molded like a bed liner and you could put supports at what ever level you needed to keep food at a desired height.

[Tack]

There was a test done on coolers. I can't seem to find the link but the results were that coleman extreme kept ice just as long as a Yeti and for a whole lot less in price

[Pa_BBQ]

We have a trip coming up next week where I will need to keep meat cool for a week.

This thread got me thinking, what if you took a couple cases of water bottles and froze them to use, I know I would still need some ice to fill in the gaps but think this would greatly reduce the amount of ice needed and water.

[seattlepitboss]

Originally Posted by Pa_BBQ

We have a trip coming up next week where I will need to keep meat cool for a week.

This thread got me thinking, what if you took a couple cases of water bottles and froze them to use, I know I would still need some ice to fill in the gaps but think this would greatly reduce the amount of ice needed and water.

A one week trip is a lot easier. Yes, freezing water bottles could work, if they don't explode. But we don't buy those disposable bottles. Why throw all that plastic in the landfill? We freeze water in empty plastic one-gallon milk bottles and use those when we start out the trip for the first couple days. Then we can use that water. But of course, then we also have to buy ice, and here we go again.

I'm currently thinking a sealable tupperware box to hold the ice and water, inside the cooler.

I know a deep short cooler would be thermally inefficient. But I can just buy more ice to compensate.

Precooling the cooler is a GREAT idea! Thanks for that!

seattlepitboss