refrigeration without a refrigerator...
- Thread starter michaels
- Start date
Conrad_Turbo
Observer
Normally I wouldn't bump such an old post...but I was searching for the site about vacuum sealers and seen this question and that JohnnyS posted here today.
I made the block myself, just measured the inside of the cooler and found some material in the shop that was very close to the right size. Cut it in the bandsaw and welded it up. I'm assuming any capable fab shop should have a TIG or MIG that could weld something up like that for you, heck it could even be made out of thin gauge steel too.
Cheers to a 4 year old post.
We still use the mold but this year we may just go with two 4L milk jugs with frozen water for most of our shorter camping trips.
Super Doody
Explorer
I've seen commercials for yeti coolers on outdoors network. Very good quality but super pricey:
http://www.yeticoolers.com/
http://www.yeticoolers.com/
kickingprop
Observer
Yeti's are as good as they get. Have a Tundra 75 which has been on weeklong adventures and still had ice in it at the end of the trip. You won't find better quality anywhere, but it doesnt come cheap. Luckily I won mine in a raffle!
stioc
Expedition Leader
My progression:
1. Cheap picnic cooler - only good for chilled drinks after the first day (general rule: always pre-cool/freeze contents and the cooler (separately) prior to hitting the road)
2. Coleman 36qt Xtreme 5-day cooler - good for 2 may be 3 days for meats/milk etc (pretty good bang for the buck)
3. Coleman PowerChill 12v cooler - will work to maintain approx. 40F lower than surrounding temps but runs the battery down if you're parked for more than a night. When moving every day and used only during the day light hours it works well.
4. 12v 43qt Fridge: Glamping material but it's nice to be able to eat things that otherwise wouldn't be possible after 2-3 days. Takes up less space than the 36qt cooler but 10x expensive.
1. Cheap picnic cooler - only good for chilled drinks after the first day (general rule: always pre-cool/freeze contents and the cooler (separately) prior to hitting the road)
2. Coleman 36qt Xtreme 5-day cooler - good for 2 may be 3 days for meats/milk etc (pretty good bang for the buck)
3. Coleman PowerChill 12v cooler - will work to maintain approx. 40F lower than surrounding temps but runs the battery down if you're parked for more than a night. When moving every day and used only during the day light hours it works well.
4. 12v 43qt Fridge: Glamping material but it's nice to be able to eat things that otherwise wouldn't be possible after 2-3 days. Takes up less space than the 36qt cooler but 10x expensive.
Chili
Explorer
Knowing this is old but I will add my process, which includes several of the ideas already posted. Using this process we get a full 7-8 days in moderate temps in our Coleman marine cooler.
While camping we try to minimize the opening of the cooler by always asking if anyone needs anything when opening it for ourselves. I know this sounds trivial but it cuts down the opening in half, at least. I like to use the apple juice bottles instead of milk jugs because the lids are more secure and they just seem to fit in my cooler better. And once the milk jugs start to melt some, jostling of the cooler sometimes pops the lids off. When filling the apple juice bottles I make sure not to top them all the way off (leave an inch or so on top) and before closing the lids I squeeze the bottles to bring the water level all the way to the top (getting out all of the air). This help keep the bottle from deforming as the water expands when freezing, and eliminating the air helps the same since we are usually going from about 500' elevation to 11,000' elevation.
We have also stopped taking beer on camping trips due to the amount of space they take, the weight of the bottles (my wife and I don't care for canned beer), and the trash that results. If we are going to be drinking we take liquor and / or red wine, so we don't use cooler space.
As I said, this process nets us a good 7-8 days, and when we get home the apple juice bottles are still mostly frozen.
- 2 days before departure I bring the cooler into the house from the garage. This is important since we live in Texas and the garage gets pretty warm.
- The night before departure I dump in a couple bags of cube ice to condition the cooler
- Any freezable meats that we will not be using in the first couple of days are frozen
- We don't take a lot of soda, mostly bottled water, so I freeze at least half of the water and the rest is refrigerated until loaded
- For the primary cooling on the trip I save, fill and freeze 4 apple juice bottles (3 qt size)
- Day of the trip I drain any water, put the apple juice bottles in the 4 corners, then load in everything else
- Frozen meat is put into freezer bags to prevent from getting wet, that and the frozen bottled water go to the bottom of the cooler, everything else sits on top of that.
- Once the cooler is loaded I backfill with cubed ice on top if I have extra
While camping we try to minimize the opening of the cooler by always asking if anyone needs anything when opening it for ourselves. I know this sounds trivial but it cuts down the opening in half, at least. I like to use the apple juice bottles instead of milk jugs because the lids are more secure and they just seem to fit in my cooler better. And once the milk jugs start to melt some, jostling of the cooler sometimes pops the lids off. When filling the apple juice bottles I make sure not to top them all the way off (leave an inch or so on top) and before closing the lids I squeeze the bottles to bring the water level all the way to the top (getting out all of the air). This help keep the bottle from deforming as the water expands when freezing, and eliminating the air helps the same since we are usually going from about 500' elevation to 11,000' elevation.
We have also stopped taking beer on camping trips due to the amount of space they take, the weight of the bottles (my wife and I don't care for canned beer), and the trash that results. If we are going to be drinking we take liquor and / or red wine, so we don't use cooler space.
As I said, this process nets us a good 7-8 days, and when we get home the apple juice bottles are still mostly frozen.
Cee-Jay
Sasquatch
Some interesting ice facts from this blog post. The main point is that larger-sized ICE cubes do in fact take longer to melt, but they also cool their surroundings more slowly. If you want the warm contents of a cooler to cool quickly, use small cubes or crushed ice. If you are starting with cold contents and you want to focus on lengthening the duration of cooling, then big ice cubes/ice blocks are probably the way to go. And as has already been said, don't chuck the cold water from the melted ice as it will continue to cool the contents (until it rises to the same temperature as the contents).
Hilldweller
SE Expedition Society
We bought a fridge and use the coolers now to keep our water from freezing in the winter. I toss a couple of hand-warmer packs in the cooler before going to bed...
