Tell me about your cooler

April 21, 2008 8:55 AM

I need a new cooler.

I need a cooler for a 4-day car-camping trip. Sure, I could go to Target and see what's available, but I thought I'd see if anyone had any specific recommendations. Features? Insulating ability?

We'll be living mostly off the grid for a few days in May, and our little Igloo won't cut it. I need to keep things cold for a couple of days, and I'd like to be able to store hot dogs, butter, etc., without nastifying the melted ice-water. Are there any fancy new options out there? Any features I should look for/avoid? Size isn't really an issue, and I'm prepared to spend whatever I need to. As much as I'd like to use one of those fancy electric ones, that won't be an option, unless I can run it off batteries.

posted by MrMoonPie to sports, hobbies, & recreation (12 comments total)

We just bought a colossal cooler from Coleman at Wal-Mart. It's gigantic and ran us about $75. There are no wheels, so I'm pretty much figuring that it's going to remain in the back of the vehicle once it's fully loaded.

One way to keep things cool is to fill empty milk containers with water (leave a few inches at the top for expansion) and freeze them, rather than dumping in bags of ice. Bonus - you get nice cold water to drink as it melts.
posted by jquinby at 8:59 AM on April 21, 2008

Another option would be to use dry ice. 10 pounds would last a couple days in any decent cooler and would cost between 10 and 15 dollars.
posted by buggzzee23 at 9:06 AM on April 21, 2008

Seconding dry ice; it'll keep stuff rock-solid frozen for days. Keep a "cool" cooler (with the frozen milk jugs) and a frozen cooler with everything else, and just move stuff on over or leave it out when you need to defrost. No mess. Just make sure the car is adequately ventilated if you're going to be in there with the dry ice for any great length. Any old coolers will do; the $15 Colemans at Wal-Mart or wherever work just fine (although if you get a particularly large one, you might want wheels).
posted by uncleozzy at 9:17 AM on April 21, 2008

Regardless of what cooler you use, put your butter/hotdogs/etc into ziploc style bags. Keeps the water off the food, and the ice-water clean.

Is there any reason you can't use two smaller coolers? We usually have two, one for beverages/snacks (things that we need more often) and another for meal fixings which only gets opened once or twice a day. If you don't open a cooler, it'll stay cold longer.

There are some new super insulated ones which are supposed to be really good, although I've not bought a new cooler in years. FWIW, we've found that the 'fancy electric ones' have really good insulation, and have seen no reason to not use them even when there is no power available.
posted by jlkr at 9:19 AM on April 21, 2008

Many people swear by the insulating ability and durability of the classic steel Colemans. They are pretty pricey, but last forever.
posted by TedW at 9:22 AM on April 21, 2008

Allow me to present to you the Coleman Xtreme.

I bought the 62 quart wheeled version for a trip to Bonnaroo back in 2006 and it was amazing. It kept all of our stuff cold for about six days. The wheels were a Godsend and we even strapped our camping stuff to it and it made transportation from the car to the camping site easy.

Here's a tip: If you can, freeze bottled water and take that instead of ice. That way when the bottles thaw out you are left with really cold bottled water.
posted by Diskeater at 9:22 AM on April 21, 2008 [2 favorites]

http://www.rubbermaid.com/rubbermaid/product/product.jhtml?prodId=HPProd260042

We have this cooler. Its used camping all the time, and like it says, does keep food cold for an extended period. Probably not 5 days unless you replenish the ice.

I like that you can drain it without tipping it over, and it has a really great pulley that works well. You can also use it as a table and hold drinks in it.

We've put ours through a lot and its still in top shape.
posted by AsRuinsAreToRome at 9:26 AM on April 21, 2008

I've got one of the classic steel Coleman coolers. It pretty much rules. Generally driving around the desert in summer it'll keep ice in there for a couple of days.
posted by trbrts at 10:31 AM on April 21, 2008

Slate reviewed several coolers and concluded that, despite the dumb name, the Coleman Ultimate Xtreme was the best.
posted by electroboy at 10:36 AM on April 21, 2008

Whatever you get, keep the cooler in the shade---it makes a difference.
posted by hulahulagirl at 7:58 PM on April 21, 2008

Sounds like the Ultimate Extreme Super Extra Mega 2.0 cooler is the way to go. Thanks for the tips and recommendations, all.
posted by MrMoonPie at 2:18 PM on April 22, 2008

So, followup--

We got the Coleman Ultimate Extreme, the 50-quart wheeled model. Ordered it via REI.com, dduring a sale where they gave members 20% off, free delivery to a near-by store, so we paid $47.

Worked great. We froze several milk jugs, and kept beverage ice in a separate small cooler. After 4 days, the jug ice had melted completely, but everything was still quite cold.
posted by MrMoonPie at 4:26 PM on May 26, 2008