A Cooler Topic

[IndyRob]

I'm not finding an existing topic on coolers so I thought I'd start one. I'm about to embark upon a new opportunity that will require that I travel 2 hours on Monday morning, work a full day (say, 9 hours) and then check into a hotel on Monday night and stay through the work week. I'm not sure about my accommodations, but a small fridge and microwave are becoming fairly common (which I could supplement with toys of my own).

So my basic question is whether I could reasonably expect to keep food at a safe temp for 11 hours in a standard cooler with ice stored in a car. Or, if not, do there exist any higher end 'super coolers' that could accomplish this?

Edited August 18, 2012 by IndyRob (log)

[ElsieD]

We have a cooler that we bought at the hardware store but the brand name escapes me. It plugs into to the cigarette holder of your car and it also has a different plug that allows you to plug it into a regular electrical outlet. Last weekend my husband had a 6 hour car trip and he took with him some frozen foods including bread. It was still frozen when he got to his destination. Also, if you plug it in the other way, it will (supposedly) keep food hot/warm although we have never used it for this purpose. We keep this cooler in the car so when we visit various markets we can keep our purchases cool. Something like that would probably do the trick. Oh - my husband just said the make is Koolatron.

[Kerry Beal]

I second the Koolatron - a very effective cooler. I see them on occasion at thrift stores and places like Kijiji or Craigslist.

[rotuts]

Coleman makes "extreme" coolers: with thicker insulation on the sides and bottom:

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=coleman+extreme

they are cheap and work. if you keep them out of the sun .... read all about it at the above.

i use a large one for SV, which is of course a different application.

[DanM]

The key to keeping food cold in a cooler is the ice that is used. You will want to find a local ice company that can sell you a block that is frozen to a very low temperature. This will melt much slower and last longer. The ice in ice manchines is fine for drinks and quick trips, but it has too much surface area and is usually melting by the time it comes out of the machine.

Dan

[Lisa Shock]

The key to keeping food cold in a cooler is the ice that is used. You will want to find a local ice company that can sell you a block that is frozen to a very low temperature. This will melt much slower and last longer. The ice in ice machines is fine for drinks and quick trips, but it has too much surface area and is usually melting by the time it comes out of the machine.

Dan

I agree. If you have freezer space, you can freeze your own blocks in plastic containers. In my cooler, freezing a container designed to hold cereal (tall) works really well.

[Junkbot]

The key to keeping food cold in a cooler is the ice that is used. You will want to find a local ice company that can sell you a block that is frozen to a very low temperature. This will melt much slower and last longer. The ice in ice manchines is fine for drinks and quick trips, but it has too much surface area and is usually melting by the time it comes out of the machine.

The initial temperature of the ice actually does very little in terms of cooling. The cooling power of ice comes from the heat of enthalpy, or when ice turns to water.

I agree. If you have freezer space, you can freeze your own blocks in plastic containers. In my cooler, freezing a container designed to hold cereal (tall) works really well.

The benefit of freezing large blocks of ice at home is that you lower the surface area of the ice block, so that it melts slower. This means that the cooler won't be as cool, but it'll only be a few degress warmer, and the trade off of the ice lasting a lot longer is a much greater benefit.

[KennethT]

Is dry ice easily available to you? A couple of pounds will keep a decent cooler cool for two days at least... just wrap it in a sheet of paper so it doesn't come in direct contact with anything. To keep things frozen, put the dry ice on top of what you want to keep frozen. To keep cold (but not frozen) put the dry ice on the bottom.

[Porthos]

We have a cooler that we bought at the hardware store but the brand name escapes me. It plugs into to the cigarette holder of your car and it also has a different plug that allows you to plug it into a regular electrical outlet. Last weekend my husband had a 6 hour car trip and he took with him some frozen foods including bread. It was still frozen when he got to his destination. Also, if you plug it in the other way, it will (supposedly) keep food hot/warm although we have never used it for this purpose. We keep this cooler in the car so when we visit various markets we can keep our purchases cool. Something like that would probably do the trick. Oh - my husband just said the make is Koolatron.

My experience with the "plug-in" coolers is that they keep the interior of the cooler about 40 degrees colder that the ambient temperature. If your driving and have the air conditioner running then the internal temp of the cooler is just fine. But if the vehicle is parked mid-day and the interior of the car gets up to, say, 130 degreees, then the internal temperature of the cooler is now 90 degrees.

Several years ago a friend of mine brought one along on a trip to the desert to keep the beer cold. It wasn't even cool. It was lukewarm.

Personally, for something that will probably be in a car for the day, I would go with a regular Coleman/Igloo/Rubbermaid et al cooler and use dry ice.

[sparrowgrass]

I have one of those Coleman coolers. Saturday, I put a load of water and ice in it, and still had ice Monday morning. Because the walls are thick, they don't hold as much as the regular coolers of the same outer dimensions, but they sure do keep things cool.

If you put frozen food in it, fill it full with ice, I think you will be ok, even if the car gets hot. Dry ice would add an extra level of safety, if it is available.

Edited August 21, 2012 by sparrowgrass (log)

[rlummis]

I think all of the above is good advice. The Coleman Xtreme coolers do a very good job. Igloo MaxCold is competitive. For your purposes, the really high-end coolers such as Yeti, Engel, or Frostbite are overkill. Their main advantage is durability in outdoors/marine settings, but for the price you can replace your Coleman or Igloo twice.