Help me out on a cooler-Thanks

[Overland Hadley]

HI All, Thank you so much for your kind comments. Galaxy Coolers is still around. We took some hard hits in this economy but are still kicking. Please check us out at http://www.galaxycoolers.blogspot.com

And yes we do have the best latches and insulation and polyethylene skids for sliding that heavy cooler when all your friends are doing their own thing.

I look forward to hearing from you.

GC

Great to see that you guys are still around! My cooler from you is top notch.

 

[Fish]

It sure seems like none of these coolers will really hold ice much more than 3 days realistically and even then will need to be topped off;

Pete, during one desert excursion (in Sept)a few years ago I brought two Coleman Xtreme coolers with me. One was filled with a block of ice, frozen water bottles for drinking water and had the remaining space filled with cube ice. The other had a block of ice, food, drinks and remaining space filled with cube ice. IIRC, I never did move any ice from the ice cooler to the other during the week I was there. Both coolers still had ice in them at the end of the week.

As an aside, I wonder if one could figure out where the insulation was missing from a cheaper cooler by using a laser thermometer. (Or a Thermal Infrared Camera borrowed from your friendly neighborhood firefighter or energy consultant.) You could then drill holes in the cooler and fill the gaps with expanding foam. Might be a cheap way to significantly improve the performance of a cheap cooler.

 

[pete.wilson]

Hey

I checked out the coleman extreme and the coleman marine coolers at Bass Pro Shops this week and both seemed like they would be better than average cooler, with maybe a slight nod to the marine being all white (would look terrible in short order in the field) and having a thick insulated lid. I also checked out the Coleman metal banded cooler but found the metal latch to be completely junk and didnt actually create a seal (Maybe Cabela's steel banded cooler is better?) but at $130 for the Coleman, I couldn't see it. I would rather pay 2-3 times as much and buy a good cooler that lasts. Seems like the biggest thing is having a tight seal for the lid and a lid that has thicker mass/well insulated. I usually freeze 20oz. bottles of water and place them among the items I want to keep cold and then spead the ice on top of that, then place a blanket over the whole cooler, works Ok for several days, but I would never get 5-7 days from it without refilling the ice.

Pete Wilson

 

[R_Lefebvre]

Just got back from a 4 day trip. I put my ice cubes into large plastic containers to try and tame the water problem. It worked for the most part, but I found the temperature in the cooler wasn't as cold as I'd like. Items right next to the ice containers were cold, but farther away were only "cool". After 2 days, I opened two of the ice containers and placed meats directly on the ice. After 4 days, I still had lots of ice left in the cooler. The weather wasn't very warm however, so YMMV. I definitely feel it's a step up from the cheaper coolers.

 

[fzsk4p]

Just got back from a 4 day trip. I put my ice cubes into large plastic containers to try and tame the water problem. It worked for the most part, but I found the temperature in the cooler wasn't as cold as I'd like. Items right next to the ice containers were cold, but farther away were only "cool". After 2 days, I opened two of the ice containers and placed meats directly on the ice. After 4 days, I still had lots of ice left in the cooler. The weather wasn't very warm however, so YMMV. I definitely feel it's a step up from the cheaper coolers.

Maybe I missed it but what kind of cooler did you use ?