Ozark Trail "High Performance" cooler - any good?

pyrate

pyrate

Rollin' along
Airmapper said:
Well when I hear it both ways, I have to make up my own mind, and I'd rather work with logic here. I understand what you are saying, but I also have a moderate understanding of physics. Cold water is cold, and it has a lot of mass. Cold air is cold, and has very little mass, and is gone as soon as you open the lid and screw around in there.

Water transfers heat really really well. Air sucks at transferring heat. That is why we have huge radiators on our vehicles to loose heat, yet tiny water passages move it away from the engine.

If I don't have ice on hand to make the situation better, I'm better off keeping my cold mass that can still absorb heat. You pour out the water you pour out the only thing you have left that is below air temperature that isn't food. If you don't have more ice, you are screwed.

If by doing it my way, I loose ice faster but keep my items cold, that is okay. Hot air rises, cold air sinks. Inside a cooler everything on top the ice has the best chance possible of holding off the ice's ability to take it's heat away. If you had a perfect cooler, and put food in it that is not frozen solid, and no ice melts, then that food did not get any colder.

So I agree, ditch the water, but only if you can replace it with more ice. If you don't have any ice, keep what cold water you have, cold water still means cold food. Cold air, is worth about as much as it weighs. And put your ice over or at least around what you want cold, if you want it to be cold sooner rather than later.
Click to expand...

I worked for a HVAC and refrigeration company out of high school and remember debating this with the owner once. So he had me take two identical refrigerators and load one with bottles of water while leaving the other one empty. I then got to sit there and monitor how often each unit turned on once the full one had cooled all the water. The empty one ran 4x as often to keep air cold vs the one with water bottles. It was a pretty unforgettable experiment as a teenager sitting in a room waiting for the dumb things to turn on only to find out they could monitor it automatically.

I've used that idea for years in cooler usage. Water is better than air but when new ice is available, drain it.
 
Robert Bills

Robert Bills

Explorer
The saga of my search for an Ozark Trail 26-qt. High Performance Cooler continues:

Having received an insulated cup instead of a cooler the last time these were available online, and having dutifully checked Walmart.com for a new shipment every day for two weeks without success, I decided to stop obsessing over the Walmart Yeti-style cooler and investigate upgrading the insulation in my existing Igloo 25-qt. marine cooler instead. I discovered reports on various forums of injecting Great Stuff Window and Door Insulating Foam Sealant into the air spaces with varying degrees of success. I must have had my google search on the brain when I went to bed last night because I awakened at 2:00 a.m. with the thought that I should check Walmart.com one more time before giving up.

Imagine my surprise to find the 26-qt. high performance coolers back in stock!!! I immediately ordered one (at 2:15 a.m.), which is anticipated to arrive on Monday, May 16.

I contacted customer service for Walmart.com when I awoke this morning at 6:45 a.m. to confirm that my order had been processed. I was told that the 26-qt. coolers were already sold out and it appeared I got the last one. The representative told me that there was no way to flag my order or request special handling to ensure that I wouldn't be shipped an insulated cup again, and that the only thing that would indicate prior to delivery whether the correct product was being shipped this time would be to check the shipping weight of the package on FedEx.com. Walmart doesn't list the weight of the item on its website, but since these coolers are identical to the Bayou Classics BC25 coolers I checked those, which are listed at 14 lbs. My Fedex package is listed at 18.1 lbs. so I may be in luck this time.

Sometimes it pays to have insomnia. We'll see if this is one of those times.

Walmart ozark Trail 26-qt. High Performance Cooler $96:
k2-_53273d3d-97ba-4793-a2b0-0b49f199db64.v1.jpg

Bayou Classic BC25 Roto-Mold Cooler $169.99 on Overstock.com:
Bayou-Classic-Roto-Mold-25-Liter-Cooler-9417bd10-76da-4c2e-9055-c317e4e34451_600.jpg
 
Z

zerskier

Observer
Robert Bills said:
The saga of my search for an Ozark Trail 26-qt. High Performance Cooler continues:

Having received an insulated cup instead of a cooler the last time these were available online, and having dutifully checked Walmart.com for a new shipment every day for two weeks without success, I decided to stop obsessing over the Walmart Yeti-style cooler and investigate upgrading the insulation in my existing Igloo 25-qt. marine cooler instead. I discovered reports on various forums of injecting Great Stuff Window and Door Insulating Foam Sealant into the air spaces with varying degrees of success. I must have had my google search on the brain when I went to bed last night because I awakened at 2:00 a.m. with the thought that I should check Walmart.com one more time before giving up.

Imagine my surprise to find the 26-qt. high performance coolers back in stock!!! I immediately ordered one (at 2:15 a.m.), which is anticipated to arrive on Monday, May 16.

I contacted customer service for Walmart.com when I awoke this morning at 6:45 a.m. to confirm that my order had been processed. I was told that the 26-qt. coolers were already sold out and it appeared I got the last one. The representative told me that there was no way to flag my order or request special handling to ensure that I wouldn't be shipped an insulated cup again, and that the only thing that would indicate prior to delivery whether the correct product was being shipped this time would be to check the shipping weight of the package on FedEx.com. Walmart doesn't list the weight of the item on its website, but since these coolers are identical to the Bayou Classics BC25 coolers I checked those, which are listed at 14 lbs. My Fedex package is listed at 18.1 lbs. so I may be in luck this time.

Sometimes it pays to have insomnia. We'll see if this is one of those times.

Walmart ozark Trail 26-qt. High Performance Cooler $96:
k2-_53273d3d-97ba-4793-a2b0-0b49f199db64.v1.jpg

Bayou Classic BC25 Roto-Mold Cooler $169.99 on Overstock.com:
Bayou-Classic-Roto-Mold-25-Liter-Cooler-9417bd10-76da-4c2e-9055-c317e4e34451_600.jpg
Click to expand...

I just got a tracking number for the 26 quart cooler I ordered at 2am this morning, tracking number show package is 18.2lbs so that's promising to be the correct item.. I also saw Walmart had some 52 quarts yesterday on the website, showed stock for only a couple hours..
 
Robert Bills

Robert Bills

Explorer
Here is living proof that the Walmart "Ozark Trail" 26-qt. roto-molded coolers actually exist.


Mine arrived today, 3 days sooner than promised!!! Better yet, to make up for sending me an insulated cup rather than a cooler the first time I ordered one of these, and for making me wait two weeks for the next shipment, Walmart.com discounted my cooler 20%.


IMG_0535.JPG





I am already figuring out how to eliminate the metal handle - it works just fine but takes up too much precious space in the back of my rig. There are four slots for 1" webbing in the body of the cooler located under the lid, two at each end. The way they are oriented it should be easy to substitute a thermoplastic handle, a piece of 1" webbing and a buckle, (all readily available on Ebay) for handles at each end that will double as tie down points, something like this:

PJA7847bs.jpg


mrDzmPJrAMMv4cdM3Ahn_XQ.jpg


I plan to fill it with ice on Saturday to pre-chill it, then starting Sunday I will duplicate the test conditions detailed in the literature that came with the cooler to see if I get the promised 4 1/2 days of ice retention. But even if I don't, I'm sure it will perform better than the 25 qt. Igloo marine cooler it is replacing. That one seldom kept ice more than 1 1/2 - 2 days.

Keep hitting "refresh" on Walmart.com if you wan't one of these. My guess is that there will be at least one more shipment of each size before the end of May.
 
Ricer_X_01

Ricer_X_01

Observer
Looks good back there with that new rack you picked up.... side note, what size propane tank is that? My 5# Worthington has a different bottom than yours. Mine indents up inside.


as for handles... do you think the handles for the 52 and 73 will work? or would they be to big... why not just pick up a set from Gander Mountain?
 
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Robert Bills

Robert Bills

Explorer
Ricer_X_01 said:
Looks good back there with that new rack you picked up.... side note, what size propane tank is that? My 5# Worthington has a different bottom than yours. Mine indents up inside.
Click to expand...

11# Worthington propane tank. Same diameter as the 5# Worthington tank, but a bit taller. Has a ring on bottom rather than the "no tip" bottom of the 5 pounder. Oddly, the prices for the two sizes were nearly same, so I went for the larger one.

The Gander Mountain replacement handles might work, but they look long and the buckles might interfere with closing the lid. At $13 for 2, they might be worth a try but I already have plenty of 1" webbing, buckles, fasteners, etc., and the thermoplastic handles only cost $3.50 ea if I can't find something in my "leftovers" box that will work.
 
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Ricer_X_01

Ricer_X_01

Observer
If you don't mind me asking, what did you pay for it? Paid $54 and change for my 5#. See the 11# on Amazon for $84...
 
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