best camp cooler

[markkee]

Re: best camp cooler

Thank all of you for enlightening me on the Engel line. I'm thinking I'd like one for my anticipated RV purchase.

Hey markee. Good to see you!

Just read some of your blog and that was quite the camping trip you took in May. Picnicking areas, sharing campsites and and the tewwible mess you left behind:he:.

If you ever go to Pinnacles National Park stay away from the campground as this management company is profit hungry and low on service. Get an arb or engel 12 vdc for your rv.

[NYCgrrl]

Re: best camp cooler

Thank all of you for enlightening me on the Engel line. I'm thinking I'd like one for my anticipated RV purchase.

Hey markee. Good to see you!

Just read some of your blog and that was quite the camping trip you took in May. Picnicking areas, sharing campsites and and the tewwible mess you left behind:he:.

Loud and clear.

Apropos of little, I watched "Glacier Park: Night of the Grizzlies" last night. Again. Amazing how much we've learned about bears and humans living in the same areas since then.....leaving cookies and crackers out after a bear already wandered into the campsite.....shudder.

[James.]

Re: best camp cooler

Saw this video on youtube today and thought of this thread. It is 15 minutes but worth the watch.

He basically uses bubble foil (an emergency blanket?) inside the cooler to help with insulation. I like the idea of custom fitting a box but wonder if it would work better on the outside. I see it as something that can fold and pack away until you get to the camp site and then just open it up and drop the cooler inside.

The second thing he talks about is freezing SALT water for his ice. I didn't see anyone mention this here and was wondering if anyone has knowledge about it. Supposed to make the ice colder and last longer.

[sdm74]

Re: best camp cooler

Thanks James..I have heard when you add salt to water it stays cold longer. But never heard of trying to freeze salt water. But does make sense

[hwc1954]

Re: best camp cooler

I use a foil bubble wrap envelope (same material) as a sleeve for my water bladder for winter hiking. I fill the bladder with warm water, insulate it a bit, and it doesn't freeze.

That's a lot of effort and mess to make a crappy cooler just a little bit better. Honestly, the blue Coleman Extreme coolers hold ice almost as well as the big-dolar coolers and are very inexpensive. They don't have the locking latches. You can't use them as casting platforms. They aren't bear-resistant. But, they have nearly 2 inches of the same insulation and they keep ice very, very well.

Salt water is going to lower the temperature of the frozen ice and the slurry of ice/water in the cooler. This is good if you want to keep frozen food frozen. But, if your goal is to keep beverages and food at refrigerator temp (33 to 40 degrees) longer, then it is counter productive as the salt ice will waste it's cooling potential trying to freeze your food and beverages. Ice is the most energy efficient when it is working at its melting point, because it takes extra energy (absorbed heat) to change something from a solid to a liguid state.

This shows up in the new ice pack products. They can be designed with fluids with an exact freezing point For example, Artic Ice makes one with a freezing point of 33 degrees, a beer-cooler version with a freezing point of 28 degrees, and a frozen food version with a freezing point of 5 degrees. You have to get them to those temps to freeze them, then they hold the cooler at those temps as a they melt. It's not intuitive, but the 33 degree version will keep a camping cooler of non-frozen beverages and food colder longer than the 0 degree version. Once, the 5 degree version is melted, it's done.

Freezing salt water is just lowering the freezing point in the same way. The more salt, the lower the freezing point. It sounds like the goal is to match the freezing point to desired cooler temp. If you are trying to store frozen food, then lower freezing point is good. If you are trying to keep non-frozen food, then it's not.

Here's a YouTube with the Arctic Ice people explaning their three versions:

http://youtu.be/GPKIC0PL5X4

I think freezing bottles (or bags) of your own water is probably the best option for a 33 degree freezer pack. You might give up a little performance compared to these high tech versions, but you have drinking water as it melts! And, you lighten the load as the trip goes on. Frozen blocks of ice will work much better than bagged ice.

I got a couple of these Arctic Ice packs to fit my cooler, just because they are the perfect size, shape, and thin-ness to lay on top of the full cooler without taking up any appreciable room. I've got some rectangular 2 liter water bottles that completely fill the bottom of my cooler with no gaps. Food goes in between. You could use thinly filled frozen ZipLoc bags of water to lay on top of the food instead of the Arctic Ice. It helps to get some ice at the very top of the cooler since warm air rises and cool air sinks.

[hwc1954]

Re: best camp cooler

Here's how they explain it in their website FAQ:

http://www.arctic-ice.com/arctic_ice_faqs.html

Q: Why not just use the Tundra Series for everything since it freezes much colder than the Alaskan Series?

A: Arctic Ice™ and other phase change materials (PCM) are designed to hold a very specific freezing point while absorbing “heat” from the surrounding area. When Arctic Ice™ Tundra Series is exposed to temperatures greater than its freezing/melting point, it begins to absorb that difference in temperature or "heat". The greater the difference in your payload temperature and the phase change material, the quicker it will change phase from solid to liquid, or melt.

What makes Arctic Ice™ so much more efficient than other PCM’s is its ability to absorb greater amounts of heat without greatly increasing its temperature.

Example: When you place your chilled food and beverages in a cooler from a refrigerator, they are cooled to around 35-36º F. The Alaskan Series is designed to hold a constant 33.8º F while absorbing the “heat” around it. Since only a couple of degrees separate your food and beverages (35-36º F) and our Alaskan Series blocks (33.8º F), they are ideal for keeping these items at a refrigerated temperature for a long time.
Using Tundra Series blocks in the above situation would cause them to absorb a lot of “heat”. The difference in temperature of your chilled items (35-36F ) and the Alaskan Series blocks (5 F) is 30 degrees of “heat”. Therefore the Tundra series would melt more quickly and could possibly freeze some of the items it comes in contact with for prolonged periods.

[tplife]

Re: best camp cooler

It's hard to find a bad cooler when the beer comes out ice cold and you watch the sun go down over the tall pines... :glasses:

[actad]

Re: best camp cooler

Consider a marine cooler instead of a sport cooler. We always freeze the individual water bottles before the trip as well.

[hwc1954]

Re: best camp cooler

So I just finished up a little test of my new 35 qt Engel cooler. Last Monday morning, I loaded it up with 9.5 liters of ice -- four frozen 2-liter bottles and two front .75 liter bottles. I put a digital cooking thermometer in the cooler, so I could open the lid and check the temperature. It had a lot of empty space in the cooler since there was no food or beverage. It was in my living room, so no direct sun, temperatures between 75 and 80 degrees.

The temperature stayed below 40 degrees in the cooler for five days. This afternoon (the seventh day), the temp had climbed to 46 degrees. The bottles were mostly thawed, but there was still a bit of ice in each of them.

Not too shabby.

[Shortpants]

Re: best camp cooler

Wow, that is impressive hwc! I switched to freezing ice bottles for our cooler a couple years ago and I can't believe how much longer they last than the block/bag ice, and no soggy food or water to drain. Nothing like that Engel of yours though! I can eeek out about 3 days with the Coleman coolers we have, but man, if I could get 7 days like yours? Nice!

[ScooterGirlinALA]

Re: best camp cooler

Here's a new cooler trying to make it to the market, http://www.oregonlive.com/business/i...er_campai.html, https://www.kickstarter.com/projects...thats-actually. Looks like this guy has a product gaining lots of interest.

[Shortpants]

Re: best camp cooler

LOL! My cousin just posted a video of that cooler on Facebook, and I saw it on odditymall.com (a pretty interesting site for all kinds of bizarre and useful new items). It's pretty slick, I must say. Built-in blender, a USB port, interior lighting, a waterproof speaker, divided compartments, tie downs, a cutting board, built in can opener, and an interior storage compartment for plates. It's nothing I'd ever probably buy, but it's still pretty neat.

[ScooterGirlinALA]

Re: best camp cooler

Ha, if it had a kitchen sink it would have everything.

[Shortpants]

Re: best camp cooler

hahaha! Well, if the "Coolest Cooler" is too much for ya, what about the "Scooter Cooler"?



For a mere $825, you can ride your cooler too! ROFL!!

[ScooterGirlinALA]

Re: best camp cooler

I think I'd put a trailer hitch on my scooter and pull the "Coolest" before I'd ride up on a cooler.