Coolers?

[la79al]

Not sure where to put this, but assuming my brother does not have a mini fridge that we can haul along to DW, I am planning on us taking a cooler along for in our room. Is there a trick to making sure things stay cool in it without adding ice every 8 hours? Anyone think if we take a cooler full of frozen water bottles and add ice every day we will still have frozen or semi frozen water bottles by the end of the week?

[MN_Cruz'n]

Any "good" cooler should not need ice more than once a day (of course, that assumes your cooler is in the cool, shaded, resort room, not the hot, sunny, car).

If you can, freeze all the "liquid" items you plan to take with (bottled water, milk, orange juice, etc.). Refrigerate everything else before you leave so it is cold before you pack the cooler.

I also find it helps to cool the cooler first. A few hours before you pack the cooler, fill it with cold water and some ice to get the inside cool. It will suck up less of the cold when you start packing.

We also take along a number of heavy-duty/freeze "ziplock-type" bags. Fill these with the ice and put in the cooler. Keeps the water contained and help avoid soggies.

Also, air space is not your friend. IF your cooler is NOT packed full, it will heat up faster because of the extra air space. Take along some extra towels, and lay them on the top of the food/stuff in your cooler to fill up any extra space.

I don't make any guarantees of having frozen water still at the end of the week, but you may make it half way. It depends on how often you are in the cooler too. If you take the above steps, you will certainly be able to keep stuff pretty cold for the week.

[swilshire]

I LOVE my 7-day Coleman cooler. I've put frozen food in it (just a few items) and most things were still frozen solid after a two day drive. We always freeze a couple of milk jugs or those flat juice bottles to help keep the food cold.

I got mine at the Coleman outlet store, but a friend bought one just like it at Walmart.

Sheila

[perdidochas]

Not sure where to put this, but assuming my brother does not have a mini fridge that we can haul along to DW, I am planning on us taking a cooler along for in our room. Is there a trick to making sure things stay cool in it without adding ice every 8 hours? Anyone think if we take a cooler full of frozen water bottles and add ice every day we will still have frozen or semi frozen water bottles by the end of the week?

A couple of things. 1) Freeze a couple of gallon jugs of water. It stays frozen longer. 2) Add ice whenever you can. 3) drain the cold water out of the cooler whenever you add new ice--it melts the ice. 3) you probably won't have frozen or semifrozen water bottles after mid-week. However, you can keep up very cold water.