Portable cooler

[stout]

We are planning a cross-country road trip in July (since our B2B DCL in Europe is toast). We have a child with a severe food allergy, so we want to prepare frozen meals at home and bring them with to the rental houses, as to minimize cross contamination. We need a really good/reliable cooler that we can throw in the back of the vehicle and trust that the frozen food will stay frozen for 8-10 hours. We are looking at the 45 quart Yeti or Rtic. Any suggestions or personal experience with either, or even something else? Thank you!

 

[davper]

Save your money and use any cooler with some dry ice.

When I do a large cookout, i place a box of dry ice pellets in a large Coleman marine cooler to keep frozen foods, frozen. The next day, what I didn't use the previous day is still frozen and safe to put back in the freezer.

 

[disney144]

We love our yeti, although they are very heavy and very expensive. I think 8-10 hours would be fine with a regular Coleman. One trick is to put ice in the cooler the night before, then dump that and use new ice when you load the cooler. That way, you only need to keep the cooler cold- you don’t need to cool it off initially.

 

[ID_Dismom]

We got an Orca a few years back. Very similar to a Yeti, but I had a 20% off coupon, so the price point was much better! We absolutely love it!

 

[Searc]

Skip the Yeti. You're only paying for the name. You can get a much cheaper choice that works just as well or better.

 

[clh2]

Yes to the dry ice idea! Our daughter needed dry ice to take some meat from Wisconsin to the Alabama shire area. A local meat shop carried it; and was able to accurately determine how much dry ice was needed, based on the size of the cooler, amount of meat and other stuff going in cooler, and the length of the trip.

the meat shop also asked was it a yeti cooler or not, the yeti would have required 1/2 the amount of dry ice that a regular cooler would have needed.

 

[_19disnA]

Dry ice is a great way to keep things cold and it evaporates so you don't end up with water logged food or excess water to dump. Check around for local supplies of dry ice as sometimes you will find it available in places you might not have expected. Some portable coolers also have a built in electrically operated cooling mechanism that can be plugged into your car.

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

We refill the large juice bottles with water and freeze them. They stay frozen for 3 days in a cooler. The square Juicy Juicy ones are what we use because they are square and fit nicely in the cooler. They are thick and take awhile to thaw out. You can put them around the sides of the cooler and make an ice cave that will surround the food. Also add a layer of newspaper on top of everything inside the cooler this will help insulate the stuff. We have done this for years when we travel. We have a regular Colemans cooler.

 

[AgentMama]

We have the Ozark cooler that is a knockoff of Yeti. We've been really happy with it.

 

[GingerPilot]

We have Yetis in a few different sizes and styles. You can keep things frozen for a long time with very little ice (ice packs are preferable) as long as you pre cool it. IMO you get what you pay for and there is a reason Yetis cost what they cost. We go to an event in Reno NV every year and pack food/drinks in a few different Yetis and they're opened MANY times a day and sit in the sun... We never leave with a cooler full of water.

Just my opinion. If you're an REI member today is the last day you can use your 20% off annual coupon and it is good towards Yeti. Its the only time you can get Yeti at a discount.

 

[MrsPete]

We did a similar trip -- also in July -- a few years ago. We flew to Vegas /rented a car /drove mostly among the western national parks. We landed late at night, and our first stop the next morning was Walmart, where we bought a plain old Coleman cooler (and lots of food). Every night we emptied out the water /replenished the ice. It was a bit of a chore, but it worked flawlessly. At the end of our trip, we left the cooler in the trunk of our rental car /hoped someone at the rental place would enjoy it. (Couldn't do that with a Yeti.)