Help me find the best ice chest/cooler ever!

Hi Darell,

Check these;
Yeti
Icee
Frigid
Ultra

Hope one of them will work for you.

We use the Icee's for river trips, with diligent management we have ice for our drinks on day 10 in the Grand Canyon.
Would like to move to Yeti's as I think they are nicer, but it's a lot to spend for a small gain.
Have seen, but never used the Frigid's and the Ultra's.
Don't think I would buy the Ultra's, they look a lot like Yeti's old design.
I would consider the Frigid's if I could get them for a good price, but it's hard to beat the price we get on the Icee's and Yeti's.

Good luck,
Mike

 

I have a 54 litre Igloo cooler
http://www.igloocoolers.com.au/legend_series.htm
I can go camping for a week with my son and still have ice in the esky on my way home.
I freeze everything I can freeze including my drinking water and I leave a block of ice in the esky over night before I pack it in the morning.
I use 2 litre bottles of frozen drinking water and 4 litre icecream buckets to make blocks of ice a week before a trip.
Cold drinks are stacked at one end, salad veg and fruit kept up high in containers or they will freeze and the ice and frozen meats down low. Don't open the lid more than you need to and avoid putting anything in the esky unless it's near freezing. Keep the esky out of the sun, when traveling put your prius windscreen sun refletive shade over the top with a towel on top of that.

 

A few months ago I was doing a similar search for a cooler for our cross country trip. In the end we decided to use our cheap thin walled cooler and made sure we packed other things around it to exponentially improve the insulation. This worked well.

If you are more adventurous, try this-- leave your spare tire at home and take along one of those Fix-a-Flat kits. Tap and plug a hole in the bottom of your spare tire storage area (to drain water). Spray the inside of that lower storage area with insulating foam. Use a piece of 2" blueboard for the "lid," making sure you have a tight fit.

PA P

 

I was thinking you should have your own line of hybrid coolers out by now.

I have a small thermo-electric (Peltier) cooler that is quiet and does a reasonable job. As long as things are cold when they go in, and I keep the unit running and out of the sun, it's fine. I try to wedge it in among the sleeping bags when I'm packing the car, for better insulation. But for longer trips, and California heat, I think something better would be more to your liking. The Stirling-cycle powered coolers sound great, but I haven't tried one yet.

As for making your own, some foil on the outside to reflect radiant heat could be effective. Do you have any old down sleeping bags lying around?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(darelldd @ Sep 3 2007, 09:51 AM) [snapback]506298[/snapback]</div>

Darell, the foil is good for radiant heat. In space, since there is no air, and lots of sun, the foil works well.

On earth, inside a cooler, where it is dark and full of air, it is kind of useless, since you are trying to stop conductive heat.

What would work well is a vacuum cooler, like a thermos.

Nate

 

Did you click on the link to Frigid? http://www.frigidrigid.com/index.html
http://www.frigidrigid.com/results/test_results.htm
They did tests on the coolers including the Igloo. The Igloo has half the wall thickness yet in some tests only took an 20% hit in efficency. Should you cover the top with a cheap windscreen sun deflector you would get most of the 20% back I think and especially if you bought 3 and covered the whole thing but for the bottom.
Engel car fridges can be assisted with an insulated cover, this would be the same sort of thing.
That's my opinion anyway.

 

How about this one? You can leave this or any other electric cooler running in a locked Prius by removing the mechanical key from the fob. Lock the doors with the button on the armrest, and flip the window button up. The car will turn on and off as needed to recharge the battery.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(darelldd @ Sep 3 2007, 11:51 AM) [snapback]506298[/snapback]</div>

I've done extensive research on this topic for sailboat ice boxes. They are built-in, but the same principles apply. It comes down to durability and cost. There are many types of insulation with better R values than blue board, but each comes with some baggage.

Some types of foam work well when dry, but rapidly absorb moisture and loose most of their insulating properties. Blue board is impervious to water.

Vacuum panels are incredible, and can used for large ice boxes. The limitations with vacuum panels are cost, inability to cut to size, and short life span. While they have great R values when new, in a couple of years the panel will loose its vacuum and then it's not nearly as good as plain old blue board. You also have trouble insulating the corners between the panels, and the whole assembly tends to be fragile.

Silica tiles like those used on the Space Shuttle would work well, but the price is also in low earth orbit.

What we found is that all of the higher tech insulations provided an R value gain only at great expense with limited life. Plain old blue board has the best overall characteristics. We use four inches of it all of the way around, and cover the outside with a heat reflective material, such as aluminized mylar. We line the inside with layed-up GRP (fiberglass).

Tom

 

Darrelldd, when we lived in AZ. we needed a cooler that would keep ice and food good for a few days at a time.
What I did was to use an older cooler we already had that was thick shelled and I drilled a few holes on the underside of the cooler all the way around it ( just a couple on each side)
then used that " foam stuff insulation in a can" it worked great , so great that when the wife and I moved our daughter asked to keep the cooler, she still lives in Phoenix.

So I am glad you brought this topic up, as I need to make another ' Super Cooler"

I will have her take a picture and email it to me to post you can't even tell and it does not add to much extra weight at least I do not think so.

good luck in your quest.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(darelldd @ 2007 Sep 4 12:22 PM) [snapback]506882[/snapback]</div>

Yes, the extra packing goes only around the sides, without blocking any airflow. It's also important to be sure the plug's in right, since the Peltiers can work as heaters, too. No need to ask me how I know this.

True, a gasoline-powered cooler is not ideal. I just think it's cool that it can be done. I'm sure the Coleman Stirling has adjustable controls, so there's no need to go camping without head. Or cold beer.

 

Here's a link to a company that sells aerogel panels. They are R50 per inch, and cost like $345 for a 30" by 35" panel.

http://www.glacierbay.com/insulation_ultra_r.asp

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(darelldd @ Sep 6 2007, 04:15 PM) [snapback]508131[/snapback]</div>

Uh...because no one wants to buy a $500 cooler?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Godiva @ Sep 6 2007, 09:47 PM) [snapback]508273[/snapback]</div>

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(darelldd @ Sep 6 2007, 10:38 PM) [snapback]508300[/snapback]</div>

I'm with darelldd on this. I get it, I think.

Reminds me of a true story. Ever since I was a kid, for some inexplicable reason, I have always loved thermoses and coolers. When I was studying for the bar exam, I became friendly with someone who studied in the same room as me. I told her which law firm I was joining, and she said that she had a friend who was also going to the same firm and that she would introduce her to me. A couple of days later I was studying in the room with my thermos of coffee on top of my desk, and she comes in with her friend to introduce us. The first sentence out of her friend's mouth was "Hey, I like your thermos." The second sentence was "I love thermoses ... I also like coolers". Wow. A real kindred spirit! I should have proposed to her on the spot.

 

it happens.