WTB Good Quality Cooler

[Arivalsend]

Ok guys a Engel is not in the cards for me until I hit the point in life where I am not making school payments. I am however trying to track down a high quality cooler. Something akin to the older coleman chest style ones, but durable and with some good insulation. I have several of the cheapy plastic varieties, but I am looking to pick up something of higher quality and with better insulation qualities. Any ideas about a cooler or personal ones you are looking to get rid of would be a great help. I have about a month to find one. Thanks all:coffeedrink:

 

[DaveInDenver]

We have two coolers, one is the Coleman Steel Belted and the other one of the pale blue Extreme. Been happy enough with both, the Extreme works pretty well but is still a plastic molded cooler and so I don't hold out for decades of service. The Steel Belted one, however, is made pretty well and I think a good option. It's definitely a step up in construction. Ours is about 4 or 5 years old now, a little scratched but holding up mechanically fine. It doubles as the back door step into the camper and it has not blinked at being stepped on at all.

 

[Moody]

Before I bought an Engel, I was using a marine cooler. I can't recall who made it, but it seemed to work much better than the traditional cheapo versions you mentioned. I remember paying a little over 100 dollars for it, but my thinking was that a marine cooler is designed for water use, and water=hot=better insulated. If you were around me, you could have it...

 

[greenhorn]

I don't have one but, I'm kinda in the same boat as you. I don't know your price range, but check out http://galaxycoolers.com/index-2.html They are more than a regular cooler, but cheaper than a fridge. They say they can hold ice for two weeks. I thought a couple of people on here are running them.

 

[kjp98TJ]

have had good luck with the aforementioned extremes. they seem to do just about as advertised.

only issue being the cheap hinges. but i do have some brutes opening and closing them.

 

[nastav]

Decent cooler and decent price at Costco

About three weeks ago Costco had a 2-pack special on Igloo Ice cube Marine coolers, you got one about the size in this link, and a second smaller (12"x12"x12" -ish) one for 'I believe' $30.00.
http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/s...-AEEB-DC11-AA92-001422107090&mr:referralID=NA
They seem to work well, the small one comes in handy when only needing cold beverages for a day, and they don't take up that much space in the garage.
Obviously this is not a substitute for a fridge...but the price is low enough that you can save more money for that fridge.
They seem like better quality and a better price than you'd find in that last-minute cooler shopping trip to wallyworld or whatever.
Great for filling with beer on the porch when you have people over...keeps them outta the nice clean inside fridge.
Bonus: nice camp chair table.

 

[DaveM]

I use the coleman extreme 5 day cooler. It's great. And while it may be plastic I'm pretty sure it will last long enough. The new retro metal ones seem too thin to me and I found the construction to a bit week looking. No idea how well they perform though.

 

[Arivalsend]

lots of input!

hey thanks everyone who has posted up there preferences. The mass of cooler options out there is one reason I am so stalled out on finding one. I do really like the Coleman steel belted set up, its tried and true and I have found they work very well. I have not tried marine coolers as of yet, but am curious. I would love it if I could find something that did turn my ice into a pond after a few days away. This may be asking a bit much of a cooler. I am just hoping that the 25 year old Coleman cooler I have used since I was 12 has been improved upon. :1888fbbd:

Often I find myself hours away from the ice cooler at the local gas pumps. And without fail three days in my ice is gone, and instead I now have well-hydrated food stuffs that I had thought were all sealed up and are now awash in soup de cooler'. I am sure many of you who have purchased fridges, have done so for this very difficulty. So this may be a fruitless search. Two weeks would be amazing, if I could find that in a cooler that is all I ask. Some good ideas and I am going to keep searching about. All you guys who are now adventuring with a shiny Engel, clean out that garage and sell me a cooler

 

[Arivalsend]

I don't have one but, I'm kinda in the same boat as you. I don't know your price range, but check out http://galaxycoolers.com/index-2.html

Greenhorn these look great, but my budget just won't let it happen. These suckers are nearly what I saw a used Engel go for on ebay

 

[DaveM]

hey thanks everyone who has posted up there preferences. The mass of cooler options out there is one reason I am so stalled out on finding one. I do really like the Coleman steel belted set up, its tried and true and I have found they work very well. I have not tried marine coolers as of yet, but am curious. I would love it if I could find something that did turn my ice into a pond after a few days away. This may be asking a bit much of a cooler. I am just hoping that the 25 year old Coleman cooler I have used since I was 12 has been improved upon. :1888fbbd:

Often I find myself hours away from the ice cooler at the local gas pumps. And without fail three days in my ice is gone, and instead I now have well-hydrated food stuffs that I had thought were all sealed up and are now awash in soup de cooler'. I am sure many of you who have purchased fridges, have done so for this very difficulty. So this may be a fruitless search. Two weeks would be amazing, if I could find that in a cooler that is all I ask. Some good ideas and I am going to keep searching about. All you guys who are now adventuring with a shiny Engel, clean out that garage and sell me a cooler

Just FYI, all coolers melt your ice to a point and thats actually what helps keep your stuff cold for longer, the nearly ice cold water insulates what ice remains (and it's more than appears) and keeps it frozen longer. Whatever you do, don't constantly empty the water from your cooler, it speeds up melting! With an ice chest there is no way around water in the cooler, you have to learn how to manage your food and storage to keep it from getting soaked.

IMO the 5 day coolers do a great job at keeping the melt water really cold and the suspended ice frozen.

 

[DaveInDenver]

Like DaveM says, melting ice is what keeps the inside cold. I find the current crop of 'Extreme' coolers do what they say, keep stuff cold for about 5 days. But you have to not open them much. This is why we have a two cooler solution. I use dry ice in the Extreme and that keeps stuff REALLY cold (basically everything inside is a solid ice cube). Twice a day I take stuff out of the dry ice cooler and put it in the other cooler, where it thaws for dinner. It then also acts like ice for the other stuff that can't be frozen (mostly milk, eggs, beer, etc.). We can do a 3 or 4 day trip this way without needing to restock ice. It's not perfect, but it works. The dry ice cooler almost never gets any water it in, since dry ice just sublimates into CO2 gas. In fact, water in a dry ice cooler will make the dry ice melt in no time, so it's got to be kept dry at can be.

One thing I should mention is that the Steel Belted coolers are made well enough IMO, but they are not as well insulated as the other stuff. Also ours is green (hey, it's traditional Coleman, right?) and that does not help. They make a white one (and a silver) and that's what I would go with now. But what it gives up in insulation it gains in tons of space inside and a better lid for more often opening. The Extreme cooler has a super snug top, but that's not great for getting Cokes and snacks out during the day. So it gets packed and not touched much.

 

[DaveM]

One more note on ice... make up a couple of ice blocks rather than all cubes. The larger mass with less surface area keeps it frozen way longer. At the end of a 3-4 day trip in the hot summer sierras, with a group of 6 people constantly going in and out of the cooler for drinks, I'll have a lot of cold water, a few cubes and 2 big blocks of ice.

You could buy them, but I just freeze it up in some tall tupperware containers or a milk carton.

 

[DaveInDenver]

milk carton

This is good. Clean them well and freeze them into blocks. Cheap and reusable! Plus, you have a couple of gallons of extra water should you ever need it...

 

[ntsqd]

Another aspect to not draining out the water is that the water/ice slurry acts as suspension for everything in the cooler. This is particularly important to beer.

I have seen river rafting "dry bags" made in a clear material. Consider putting that stuff that doesn't want to be hyper-hydrated in one/some of those.

 

[oldcj5guy]

Are you in Colorado?

If things go right, I may be selling my older Norcold freezer. It's a 40qt and runs like a top on 110 or 12v. I'll know for sure by the end of next week.