Hi all , i am after a decent sized coolbox for 3 nights away , good enough to keep iced nearly frozen to keep the wife,s wine chilled and if any room my beers as well
Yes I can vouch for the Coleman Extreme 36, really good price for what it does.
One tip, use large blocks of ice instead of crushed/cubes as will last far longer. I have been freezing the silver foil bags out of supermarket wine boxes for a few years now (3ltrs) with very good results.
Have a coleman 50 qt box - it is massive! kept things cold all week-end. Loaded it early Fri morn and unpacked late sun - left over beer still very cold and ice in the box. I froze down 2 x 4pt milk containers and pre cooled the box prior to using with ice blocks.
Quote: Originally posted by Gareth29 on 08/8/2012Yes I can vouch for the Coleman Extreme 36, really good price for what it does.
One tip, use large blocks of ice instead of crushed/cubes as will last far longer. I have been freezing the silver foil bags out of supermarket wine boxes for a few years now (3ltrs) with very good results.
Have you tried the 2ltr plastic bottle idea yet Gareth? We have a load of re-freezable blocks but i've heard that the 2ltr bottles full of water are the way forward..
Oh, and I love those 3ltr wine boxes.. T'will be the death of me.. !!
If I can chip in with some memories of school physics. There is the trick of adding salt to any ice you have. This encourages the ice to melt but to do this it requires energy which it will drag from the contents of your coolbox. If the external insulation is good then not much will be dragged from outside. The result will be colder temperature of the bottles or cans within the cooler. This is how they used to make ice cream before efficient coolers were invented. Ice, water and salt can produce temperatures down to -22 C I think.
Less remaining ice at the end of the weekend doesn't mean that it s less effective. Big ice blocks have a smaller surface area and so melt slower which means less cooling to your contents. Smaller ice cubes will cool the contents more but won't last as long. Crushed ice will provide even more cooling effect. So it's a bit like motoring go fast (colder) and the fuel (ice) gets used quickly or be slower and fuel lasts longer
The best way to measure the cooling is by a thermometer rather than by how much ice is left. Or you may want less temperature drop but it to last longer. You can choose how you run it.
Quote: Originally posted by SoggySteve on 08/8/2012
Quote: Originally posted by Gareth29 on 08/8/2012Yes I can vouch for the Coleman Extreme 36, really good price for what it does.One tip, use large blocks of ice instead of crushed/cubes as will last far longer. I have been freezing the silver foil bags out of supermarket wine boxes for a few years now (3ltrs) with very good results.
Have you tried the 2ltr plastic bottle idea yet Gareth? We have a load of re-freezable blocks but i've heard that the 2ltr bottles full of water are the way forward..
Oh, and I love those 3ltr wine boxes.. T'will be the death of me.. !!
Yes used to do the bottle trick few years ago but found the wine bag lasting longer myself. I'm a bit of a freak and monitor my cooler temps quite regularly.
Yeah it reads the internal temp of the coolbox. Took me a few days to calibrate it correctly but it works well. Did a thread on it last year, 'coleman extreme review' or something like that. Mainly did it to make sure our newborn son's (3 weeks) bottles were kept at the correct temperature whilst we were away. The cupholders are filled with polystyrene as these things loose cold retention too quickly through these for my liking.
Quote: Originally posted by Gareth29 on 08/8/2012
I have been freezing the silver foil bags out of supermarket wine boxes for a few years now (3ltrs) with very good results.
I did this recently, along with frozen sausages, bacon and orange juice (frozen in ziploc bags) add a few iceblock and everything kept really nice and cold for 3 days, even in a cheapo Tesco's coolbox