Ozark Trail "High Performance" cooler - any good?

[Ducky's Dad]

Forgive my ignorance, but why does using Paypal or bitcoin present a red flag? I've used Paypal for years hassle free.

My buddy said it was only Paypal or BitCoin, no credit cards. And when you go to the order pages, you are not on the WalMart website. Their web pages look like a pretty good spoof of the WalMart site, but they are not WalMart as far as I can tell. And the disconnected phone number. And they say they are closed on Mondays. Too many issues, aside from PayPal. I don't like PayPal, won't use PayPal for a variety of reasons, including their business model, their business practices, their history, and their politics. But aside from PayPal, this site looks flaky.

 

[BBsound]

Site looks legit, but I sent the link to a friend and he tried to order a cooler. According to him, they only accept PayPal and BitCoin. Red flags abound! Anyone else seeing that?

Edit: I just tried to call their "contact us" number on the website and it has been disconnected. I'm staying clear until somebody has better info.

My employers network blocks that site due to malware. First time I have seen that warning.

 

[CSG]

I looked last night. Got SCAM all over it.

 

[aruss]

4 26qts left at walmart.com, just picked one up.

 

[perterra]

Their contact address is bogus

 

[HenryJ]

Boy hope this works! Been watching for a 73 qt for a while now.

Yup. Must be a scam. Paypal refunded. Order cancelled. Seller response requested another form of payment.
Bummer. I keep looking.

 

[thefishhawk]

If you are getting two weeks of ice in a Yeti in Utah summers, then it must not be too hot in that part of Utah. I have a couple of rotomolded Orca 58s and a buddy has a couple of giant Yetis, and neither one will hold ice in Arizona for more than about three days when it gets real hot. Most of the comparisons on the interwebs show that Orca is slightly better than Yeti at holding ice, but I don't see any practical difference. I had my white Orca 58 in Yuma last week, in the back of a white truck with a white shell, and I was adding 10-20 pounds of ice per day to that one. Had lots of cold water, but the cubes were gone every afternoon that I did not add ice.

3 days?? You guys should stop driving around with your coolers open lol Grand trips can do 16 days and still have ice left, river or not, 3 days you aren't using very good cooler management. My guess would be you open them 42 times a day.

 

[thefishhawk]

I run commercial river trips in the summers. We run a variety of these rotomolded brands of coolers, including a bunch of yetis. Every one of them will still have 1/3 - 1/2 the initial ice remaining after five or six days of sitting out in the 100 degree sun. We don't precool them, but we do use block ice.

this.....block ice makes a huge difference. And make your own. Store ice is aerated and melts fast so you buy more. You are buying a bunch of air. If you can't make our own, you can usually find a place that sells clear ice if you search. I use the filtered water jugs, a 2.5 gal rectangle jug fits perfect in mine. melt is captured and you can drink it if you want later, but I usually reuse them until the plastic starts to puncture.

 

[perkj]

3 days?? You guys should stop driving around with your coolers open lol Grand trips can do 16 days and still have ice left, river or not, 3 days you aren't using very good cooler management. My guess would be you open them 42 times a day.

I don't think its just an issue of opening/closing but more so with the ice-to-content ratio. Someone a few posts back complained of a 52 qt completely melting in 24hr and come to find out they ONLY had 20 lbs of ice to begin with and yet the cooler was completely full. I used 20 lbs of ice in my 26 qt (with 18 cans of beer)! This tells me the person had way overfilled their cooler with content and not enough with ice....they should have had 40 lbs of ice in there. A 73 qt cooler would have been a better choice for this person as they could have used the extra 20 qts to get a more adequate ice ratio. A lot of people don't understand that you need more at least a 2:1 ice-to-content ratio to maximize how long the cooler will retain the ice....this means you'll have double ice volume than your content volume.

 

[Ducky's Dad]

You guys talking about clear block ice with no air and cooler management and getting 16 days should try parking your truck in the Arizona desert for five days when temps hit 128F and there is no shade and your big ice chest is servicing about eight adult males and a couple of kids. Maybe I could find clear block ice, but it's 30 miles to the nearest gas station and 50 miles to the nearest thing that can pass for a town and about 75 miles to the nearest place with block ice. As to the ice to drink ratio, I'd rather buy ice when I can find it than run out of drinks in East BFE.

While moving

Here's your shade

Whenever I can, I freeze the drinks before I pack them into the cooler, but once that load turns back to liquid, it's a constant fight to keep it cold.

 

[Townsend]

You guys talking about clear block ice with no air and cooler management and getting 16 days should try parking your truck in the Arizona desert for five days when temps hit 128F and there is no shade and your big ice chest is servicing about eight adult males and a couple of kids. Maybe I could find clear block ice, but it's 30 miles to the nearest gas station and 50 miles to the nearest thing that can pass for a town and about 75 miles to the nearest place with block ice. As to the ice to drink ratio, I'd rather buy ice when I can find it than run out of drinks in East BFE.

While moving View attachment 367312

Here's your shade View attachment 367313

Whenever I can, I freeze the drinks before I pack them into the cooler, but once that load turns back to liquid, it's a constant fight to keep it cold.

Time for an ARB fridge...

 

[perkj]

Time for an ARB fridge...

:iagree: My thoughts exactly!

 

[Ducky's Dad]

Time for an ARB fridge...

I have an Indel B 50 qt strapped into the back seat area, running off a pair of Optima marine house batteries. That's for the ice cream.

 

[Ricer_X_01]

My 52 quart was used 28 days straight for my gf and myself. The time it blew through ice in 24 hrs, we added 20lbs of fresh ice, not block ice, to an already high 30 degree cooler 3 weeks into our trip. I already had contents as well as left over ice and water. I would drain off water as needed with a short hose I kept attached to the cooler because the cooler didn't leave my vehicle the entire trip. The hottest interior temp I remember seeing was over 130 degrees with the windows cracked, vehicle locked with windshield shade when we weren't driving. It gets very hot mid June in the deserts of Cali, Arizona, and Utah... Most coolers will be used in conditions a little over half those temperatures. I wish I could afford a fridge, but the cooler was the next best option for us.

 

[Shlaytim]

Yup. Must be a scam. Paypal refunded. Order cancelled. Seller response requested another form of payment.
Bummer. I keep looking.

I received the same email, and refund from Paypal, only difference is I ordered both the 73 and the 52 quart, the 73 processed fine, it was the 52 that got bumped out. noticed the seller was different for the 73, ordered the 52 from the same seller. Checked my email this morning, have tracking numbers for both coolers, arriving Friday before 8:00pm. contacted carrier, it's a legit tracking number and it's coming Fedex ground. so far so good. Will update when they arrive.