Hey Mike. I might give a fridge a shot some day. Especially if I get a great deal. I have the electrical on my Exventure Trailer already. Thanks for watching.
Sometimes I have added a block of dry ice on the bottom, then block ice on top of it. Gets bulky on that side, but it is definitely cold. Also not cheap, but for extended cold it works.
@@MuddyRuttzz I was living without a refrigerator for about 6 months and relied on a cooler (an old coleman). At one point I used some dry ice along with a block and some crushed. I wrapped the dry ice in a towel and placed it on top...in about an hour I heard a crunching sound and found that the entire ice chest along with everything in it had frozen solid. It was a big ice chest...a large family sized one that would fill the back end of our van. I used way less from then on.
Are you sure you are doing it right? Putting the coldest or frozen items at the bottom? Have you tested back to back what happens if you frozen items are at the top? When in uni I had a part time job collecting lab test materials in and around the city and bring em to the lab facility. When I picked up the coolers empty they had some frozen ice packs sitting in a top tray. The rules was that all the test samples should go below the tray of frozen ice, because cold air is heavier then hot air. As sun or heat is hammering the top it takes a lot of energy to defrost ice, it's called phase change. Everything below the ice will get "blasted" with cooler air. Since those days I've always used the same principles for coolers when camping and I usually have frozen ice left when I return home, while others have been draining their coolers for days and the last day or so their drinks and cold cuts are not really cold anymore. Try it out, you might get surprised. What I do is just throw a few bottles of water in the freezer, enough to fit as a top layer. I load up with frozen products and cold products and have all the frozen water bottles on top. Easy to move a bottle or two to get to the products below. I don't use much ice cubes, only scatter some to fill up any air space left inside the cooler when loading up with products, and of cos the frozen water bottles. I am no scientist so I can't explain it any better, nor can I give you formulas to prove it works. But a simple test should help you see if it works better. And it could make for a great video too. And yes you are so right about chilling the cooler before loading it up.
Yeti is a high end cooler that is very durable, keeps ice a long while but they are expensive. If you don’t need 5 days of ice or bear resistance a Coleman is fine. Check out my Blog Article for more information. www.muddyruttzz.com/post/how-to-pack-a-cooler
Draining the cooler is not helpful to retain the cold temps in your cooler. You are getting rid of cold thermal mass you cannot replenish. Draining the cooler is useful if you want to stock new ice and make room for new food, but that is not what You're doing here. If you don't want water floating around your cooler, then maybe freeze some water bottles or milk jugs or use ice packs instead, but draining your cold water will not make your cooler last longer.
I fully agree I have 10 acres off grid on a Bridge lake,e in the Cariboo....leave the cold water in, I have a bunch of large ic e packs I got on sale, enough to completely line the bottom of my 5 day 65 liter cooler.....1 or 2 bags of ice for a slurry and it lasts for days
