Camping tips how is everyone doing it

So as I have been on a few trips I have one question: how do I keep ice in my icechest. I made blocks of ice and that worked on but ice doesn't seem to stay more than a day in my ice chest. I even tried putting ice to cool the drinks the day before then fill it full before i leave and still nothing. Also I tried buying a igloo extreme 5 day cooler and it was horrible, held ice for about 8 hours so I returned it. Any tips on this guys

we buy ice everyday..

Jeff summed it up nicely. If you are camping on a river, you can bag up your items and drop them in the river (tied to shore of course). Lakes are usually too warm to do that with. Read the fine print on the Igloo. It holds ice for 5 days at room temperature. Higher temperatures drop that time very quickly.

We freeze a bunch of water bottles. They last alot longer than Ice and you have nice cold water on your last day

If you are serious about camping and really want cold stuff I would suggest a Engel Freezer/Fridge it will run off a large solar panel if you want and will freeze water if you want...

Otherwise get one of either Engel's Coolers or a Yetti as discussed in this thread....
Other Thread...


Yetti

Engel

This is Grant's Yetti:


This is an Engel Cooler:


I hope that helps!

woah that is way cool. The reason I don't freeze water bottles is because when you freeze them it releases a toxic chemical from the plastic and the chemical is known to cause cancer. A couple of people have told me this and I think someone told me this too. The igloo cooler says on the sticker "holds ice for 5 days in up to 95 degree temperatures" When I went to lake sonoma trust me it wasnt above 80.

Looks like they've changed the fine print but not the product on the Igloos. As far as the plastic water bottle concern, that didn't sound right so I checked it out: http://www.snopes.com/medical/toxins/cookplastic.asp

It's a load of bull.

sweet. I'm freezing them that will help a TON

Take a soaking wet towel and toss it over the ice chest and your Ice will last almost twice as long

Buy the lightest color cooler you can, white is always best. Buy the best cooler you can get. Cheap coolers seem like a great deal, but just add up an extra 10-15 bucks a weekend for additional ice and it pays for itself in no time. Those Yeti and Engel coolers look sweet, good and thick with burley hinges, a worthwhile investment. Just buy the cooler with the thickest sides and tightest lid otherwise.

Keep it out of direct sunlight and open it as little as possible. Maybe use one cooler for food that could spoil and the other for drinks. this keeps you from opening the food cooler every 10 minutes for a fresh beer or water or whatever. Drain it only to make room for more ice, or to keep your food from getting soaked, the water inside is thermal mass, it it's cold, then it's keeping your stuff cold. The wet towel suggestions is a good one, especially if you can't keep your cooler in the shade.

Go buy a few bricks of dry ice and put them in your cooler at the last minute. It should keep everything in your cooler ( including the ice ) frozen or cool for 4-5 days.

We have an extra tent that we put all the ice chest in, just keeping them out of the sun helps.

nice thanks guys. Yea I have a cooler just for food and it is just as big as it needs to be to pack in some block ice I made in containers, seems like the bigger cooler is the problem but I am going to take you suggestions and do the towel and the ice bottles

We use blocks of ice for the food cooler and have to buy ice daily for the beer cooler.

Another trick that works out is freezing any meat you are taking; steak, chicken, etc. This acts as another form of cooling and by the time we need it for dinner its thawed out and ready to go and no worry of going bad.

buy an icy tek (now yetti tek). use block ice, not cubes. a friend of mine goes on an annual 6 day rafting trip on the snake river (100+ degrees) and uses his icy tek for his day 5 and 6 beer cooler. using block ice and keeping it closed until day 5, there is not even much water in the cooler from the block ice when it is time for the day 5 beer. they are expensive, but well worth it when you consider how much you spend on ice.

We bought 100 quart Coleman Xtreme and took it to Pueblo with us for the 4th of July (90+ all week). Used broken up blocks up ice (filled gallon milk cartons and froze) and a dozen frozen water bottles and still had ice in the chest on the fifth day. I thought it was a steal for $70 at Wal-Mart (http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=5192860)

block ice helps. freezing a half gal jug of water, 1 or two per cooler really helps a lot, considering you spend no money on it.

true I like you guys thinking. I trust coleman over igloo after my igloo experience. My regular coleman that didnt have the fancy xtreme and all that stuff lasted WAY longer on ice. Coleman just know what they are doin

When all else fails do this:

put your bottle or can in a cotton tube sock and wet the sock. In about 10 minuets the evaporation will cool the drink to a point that it tastes very cold. I won't be ice cold but will a lot colder than it was.

I learned that in the Kuwaiti desert years ago when we had no ice. I doubt it would work to well humid florida or Louisana but it does in drier climates.

rick ator - There are all kinds of stipulations to those 5 day coolers, they don't work worth a squat if you don't follow the stipulations. They have a specific way you have to stack the cans in the cooler. (has to be cans) I know, they dont put that stuff on the front for all to know. Also, when you put ice in you aren't supposed to drain any of the water out. Again they don't put that on the label. We've gone through what seems like 10 coolers in the last 2 years and you will not get the results you want unless you up some $$$. We did use a 5 day igloo in Laughlin last year, it was about 115 during the day and about 90 at night and the igloo got us through about 24 hours before all of the ice melted (drinks were still cold). Added more ice and drained the water and we were on a once a day ice fill from there on out.

If you are camping at the lake (and we all are,right?) we do the dry ice when we can. I have a good propane fridge/freezer in the camper for the important foodstuff.
Many times, we take a paracord net and place canned or plastic bottled drinks in it and submerge the contents 10-20 ft. into the lake on a rope, sometimes let it dangle from the bouy on the anchor bungee. If it is hot out, this "pre-chills" them enough to take the strain off of the icechest when we move them in to "restock".

Get some dry ice! We go houseboating every year and the dry ice works great! But dry ice on the bottom and cover it with ice cubes and you are good to go. Stays cold for a week.

where do you get dry ice?

yea I dont see it anywhere in the bayarea anymore

Some grocery stores sell dry ice.

another trick that works is to get rock salt and put it in with all your ice... i'm no scientist, but i did stay at a holiday inn select last night.

myth-busters did a show on this. (fastest way to chill a canned beverage to "drinking temp")thats where i got the idea. i didnt take notes, but my ice did last more than 1 day. beer can tastes a little salty on the first sip though.

I can only speak for Chico, CA (where I live) for getting dry ice:

Safeway sells dry ice (only 1 of the 3 Safeways in town)

Raley's (all in town - it is up front in a coler for dry ice)

Albertson's (sometime good to call ahead if you need a lot)

FYI just bought dry ice 2 weeks ago. At Raley's it was $0.98 per lb - we bought 40lbs.

Rock salt makes the ice colder, but melt faster I thought. I make homeaid icecream and we pour rock salt on the ice to make it colder, but we have to keep adding ice, because it melts super fast.

Outdoor World (Hunting, fishing, sporting goods Place) has metal old fashoion ice chest. Metal on the outside and well insulated. They are a pretty penny. I heard they work well.

Rock Salt & Dry Ice????


Engel!!

My dad had hot beer before we went out and we put rock salt in the cooler and by the time we stopped, every beer was frozen solid. It was like making ice cream. The rocking of the boat mixed with rock salt froze every beer.

oh yeah... forgot to mention that it froze some of my drinks... keeps it COOOLLLD though.

man up and drink your beer warm, aftter 6 or 8 you dont care anymore. lol

besides one bag of ice = one case of "natural ice."

(Message edited by westsiderippa on July 26, 2007)

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