Keeping ice frozen in the ice chest

[paddlenbike]

Let me preface this by saying I am not ready to drop $700 on an Engel refrigerator. I have a "7-day" Igloo ice chest that keeps ice frozen for about two days. I probably do everything wrong--I rarely have room for block ice, so I use two or three 7# bags of crushed ice and I open the ice chest frequently, allowing the cool air to escape. I do a good job of keeping the chest out of the sun.

So...I'm thinking I should start freezing quart-sized ice blocks. This should increase ice longevity over crushed ice and will take up less space than a 10 lb block.
Pre-freeze as many items as possible.
Possibly put beverages in a separate small ice chest to reduce opening and closing main ice chest.

What else can I do to get more than two or three days out of my ice? I would love to find a soft-sided thermal blanket to zip over my icechest to conserve cold air loss, but no one seems to make them and sewing my own isn't going to happen.

Help me stay :P

[jimbo74]

i wnet on a long trip... i had all my meats frozen, and i put water for me to drink, as well as juices and froze them too... essentially making them block ice... my cooler is grey matel, and was left out in the sun the whole time, never had a problem, my stuff stayed cold all week, and i opened it all the time.... we were @ truckhaven, weather was about 80 during the day and 20s at night

[slosurfer]

Hey Ken, block ice or freezing quarts of ice will help quite a bit. Also, like you said, freezing as much as possible.

Try to get your cooler cool before you load it. I usually get a 10# block of ice and stick it in the cooler the day before. Also, any drinks should be cold before the initial loading of the icechest

Having a small cooler for your drinks and snacks goes a long way towards keeping your ice in your main.

Also, daily draining of water will help keep your block ice longer.

By doing all this, I had almost all my ice left in my main cooler when I got back from DV. I bought one bag of ice while I was there and that was for my drink cooler.

[AxleIke]

When we run week long runs into the Utah backcountry, we use the blocks, rather than bags, as well as run a layer of dry ice under the actual ice. This will not last forever, but will keep your ice from melting much at all until after the dry ice is gone. Good for 6-8 days in a regular cooler, nothing special.

[waskillywabbit]

ARB Freezer/Fridges rock. Worth every penny IMO.

[CJM]

Dry ice, I love that stuff.

[Texas Jim]

you could find a supplier of surplus Arrmy stuff and get a wool blanket and wrap the Ice chest when not in use . Yes ice blocks are the way to go, and the idea of a smaller cooler for drinks and such will also help. TJ

[paddlenbike]

I will give these ideas a try, thanks! I was looking through our kitchen and found some of those silicone baking pans and thought those might work well for freezing small blocks of ice.

I was opposed to using dry ice before, but perhaps for week-long trips it would be worth the extra effort to find some in my area. So how do you keep the dry ice from mixing with the regular ice and forming a fog machine? (That made for some great college dorm parties, but I want to avoid this inside the 4Runner!)

[Robinhood4x4]

Personally, I don't agree with draining the water theory. It takes a lot of energy to change the temperature of water and that ice water is at 32.2 degrees, same as the ice. The sun has to heat up the mass of the water and the mass of the ice. If you dump the water then the sun only has to heat up the mass of the ice.

I picked up one of those cheap coleman peltier 12V ice chests so I'm starting to experiment with that. You're not supposed to use ice with it and it won't keep the temp below freezing. Blue ice won't stay cold for more than a day and it uses too much electricity to keep it running overnight. But I've modified mine by installing a drain. This way I think I can use ice if I drain it before the water gets too high for the electronics and I can run it during the day when I'm driving.

Other than that, I make sure everything is frozen or cold before loading the ice chest. I'll also put a fleece blanket over the top.

[d0ubledown]

i scored some medical grade freezer packs. these things stay frozen and keep the cooler very cold for days. put a thawed steak in a ziplock on this thing, and it'll freeze within 12-18 hrs, in a cooler outside. going to get some more to put in the tent trailer. theyre awesome...about 9"X12"X1.5" high...and got em for about $15 dollars each.