Cooler on Sale

[Travisma 1,317]

To the purists that think a Yeti is the only cooler on Earth, move along.  This is about a Coleman.

 

Picked up a Coleman Xtreme 5  wheeled cooler at Lowes last night.

 

It's a 75 quart 110 can sized one.

 

 

It was on clearance for $49 instead of $55.  Not a huge savings, but on Colemans site they are $79 with an upcharge for shipping, and still $77 at Wally World. 

 

We have 2 of the larger rectangular non wheeled Xtremes that work great.  Frozen salt water milk jugs will stay frozen easily for 5 or 6 days.

 

So for those that can never have enough coolers, time to shop!

 

And just think, you could get 8 or 9 of these for the cost of 1 Yeti !

[swimmarz 72]

I don't own a yeti, Ill have you know I am an Engel purist.... 

 

now before you go accusing me of spending too much on a cooler, I actually got it off amazon for $125 shipped, they were running a sale and when you signed up for the Amazon CC they gave a $70 credit, so my total out of pocket cost was $125

[Travisma 1,317]

I don't own a yeti, Ill have you know I am an Engel purist.... 

 

now before you go accusing me of spending too much on a cooler, I actually got it off amazon for $125 shipped, they were running a sale and when you signed up for the Amazon CC they gave a $70 credit, so my total out of pocket cost was $125

I know there are Bison lovers out there also.

 

But at $400 for a similar sized Yeti or Bison, I'll stick with the Coleman Xtremes and throw one of the truck windshield silver reflectors over them when they get in the sun.

[arthuruscg 34]

I don't use the coolers often enough to justify a Yeti, and I usually have access to buying more ice, the cheaper Coleman works good for me. If you want to up the insulation, look into making a set of ReflectX covers (bubble insulation from Lowes or Homedepot)

[Travisma 1,317]

I don't use the coolers often enough to justify a Yeti, and I usually have access to buying more ice, the cheaper Coleman works good for me. If you want to up the insulation, look into making a set of ReflectX covers (bubble insulation from Lowes or Homedepot)

Someone had posted a video where they made a reflectix liner for the inside of the cooler.  Said it helped tremendously.

[GaDawgFan.....Kelly 799]

We had one of those, but the wheels kept falling off.

[Travisma 1,317]

There's a guy out there that has a FB page and web site called Polar Tubes.

 

I don't think he's selling anything, but has come up with this idea.

 

He measures his freezer, then his ice chests.

 

Cuts 2 inch diameter pcv that will fit into the freezer and his chest.  Glues and caps one end, fills the tube 80% with water so it has expansion, glues and caps the other end, then freezes the tubes.

 

The idea is that they fit into your specific chest, you can layer them between food as needed.

 

Sounds good, but pvc is kind of thick, and there isn't a lot of mass in the amount of water, so I would imagine it might melt quicker than say a gallon or 1/2 gallon jug?

 

Has anyone tried this?

 

Also, I see Yeti sells 2 and 4 pound containers of that blue gel artificial ice.

 

Has anyone tried that, and does it last longer than a frozen milk jug?

[Humphrey Bear…Rob 42]

There's a guy out there that has a FB page and web site called Polar Tubes.

 

I don't think he's selling anything, but has come up with this idea.

 

He measures his freezer, then his ice chests.

 

Cuts 2 inch diameter pcv that will fit into the freezer and his chest.  Glues and caps one end, fills the tube 80% with water so it has expansion, glues and caps the other end, then freezes the tubes.

 

The idea is that they fit into your specific chest, you can layer them between food as needed.

 

Sounds good, but pvc is kind of thick, and there isn't a lot of mass in the amount of water, so I would imagine it might melt quicker than say a gallon or 1/2 gallon jug?

 

Has anyone tried this?

 

Also, I see Yeti sells 2 and 4 pound containers of that blue gel artificial ice.

 

Has anyone tried that, and does it last longer than a frozen milk jug?

 

I think the key here is once you get your cooler and the contents down to the temp you want, a milk jug or "ice tube" will do their best work to maintain.  In full disclosure, I do have a YETI - I've found over the years that the combination of Ice and water - not just ice alone - is the best way to maintain your cooler. Air is not nearly as good as water to transfer temps. So air between tubes or milk jugs won't be as good as adding some ice cold water to the mix.  Lazy man's way - dump extra ice in and voila, you have ice and WATER soon.  LOL.

 

Having been involved in scouting over the past 15 years, I've used Coleman coolers a LOT!  Don't have anything against them - work well for what they do. 

[BradyBzLyn...Mo 2,023]

I think the key here is once you get your cooler and the contents down to the temp you want, a milk jug or "ice tube" will do their best work to maintain.

 

When we use the big Coleman cooler at our camp (the size you can fit a body in), we get a block of ice instead of bags of cubes or ice packs. It'll usually last a good 3-4+ days depending on the air temp. I also put a beach towel on top of everything under the lid, tuck it around the edges as much as I can, and try and at least organize it enough so that I know what's where and don't have to take .  Helps keep more of the cold air in when the cover gets opened.

 

I do the towel trick when we use a smaller cooler too, and it still seems to help.

[Memphis 105]

Block ice from a very cold freezer is your friend.  I freeze my own in a square plastic bucket in a -20 freezer.  If I load everything either frozen or cold and keep the coleman extreme cooler in the shade.  I can go a week easy without adding ice and still have a good size chunk of ice to keep for next time.   I saw the polar tube post as well and I don't buy it.  He talked using them to hold fish out of the water at the bottom of the cooler but I don't think they could keep fish cold enough for very long.  Maybe if you live up north and the fish are only 50-60 deg. but down here where fish come out of the gulf at 80-90 deg. in the summer those tubes don't stand a chance. I swear by the Igloo ultracold and Coleman extremes.  Great coolers that will keep whatever you use cold longer. 

[Retired and Happy (Ken) 101]

A pound or two of dry ice would help too.