hello. am also trying to find a good quality smaller coolbox! love the igloos and coleman extreme but they are too big I think for our weekend trips! Best I found was this Igloo marine cooler which is 23 litres, is supposed to work for 3 days and is the smallest I've found bar the 'normal' ones, may just go for that tho and prep it like post above says, is a good idea! Maybe igloo/ coleman will realise some peoople need something a little smaller too! Heres hoping! heres the link anyway, abxx
Any coolbox of the nature of the large Coleman ones need proper preperation. You cannot just bung frozen food in it and expect it to work for the stated 6 days. The preperation comes in the form of filling it with ice etc. for a few days before so the cold is absorbed into the lining.
Good preperation will ensure that they do exactly as they 'state on the tin'
I have similar and have never had a problem with keeping things cool.
Cheers Ratty
To prep it I didn't have enough ice blocks to fill it at the time, so I put it into our chest freezer and filled it with all the stuff that was in the freezer for about a week before we went away - its outside was cold too, wonder if that was a problem?
I took it out, dried the outside, and packed it about midday on the Friday and on site all the meat that was frozen defrosted overnight - the water stayed frozen till the following evening, but was defrosted by day 3. It was a warm weekend, but not ultra-sunny. I did put some bananas and choccy biscuits in the top of it for the journey, so maybe they 'sucked' some of the cold out of it?
Now I have loads of techni-ice I fill an electric one with that and run it at home overnight before we go away to prime it. Both of them (Aldi one and an Igloo one) seems to keep the stuff cold. We took a 6pt of frozen milk on our last weekend away and it was still too frozen to use when we got home 3 days later, and the ham we put in cold but not frozen was too cold to eat.
last thursday evening i bought (another) coolbag in waitrose for ten quid plus two bags of ice at 99p each.
i double wrapped the bags of ice in carrier bags and left them in the coolbag overnight.
on friday morning i put bacon butter and milk, ham and cheese, from my fridge into the coolbag.
over the weekend i drained off the melting ice water and kept the bag in the shade.
on monday night when we got back we had bacon butties with the last of the bacon and the butter from the coolbag and the sliced bread i'd left in the fridge, from our sandwiches for the journey. :)
the bonus was, when we packed to come back, the coolbag took up less room than when we went away! bargain!
hmmm sonja.p , that sounds pretty good, we r only off 4 weekend; maybe all I need is a new soft coolbag???!!! R these expensive ones REALLY worth it? Any more thoughts?
we've just bought a bit bigger coolbag (15squid 'thermos' one) for our longer trip away.
the advantage of a cool bag is that, as it empties, you can squeeze air out.
our plan is to take the smaller one shopping and buy bags of ice cubes (we did that last year) on a regular basis.
It also occurs to me that keeping the smaller bag inside the bigger one could be a useful idea :)
It isn't necessarily the cheapest option but it is certainly the most space saving... especially when it comes to keeping your kit packed away over the winter.
We haven't got a freezer (don't ask!) but if we had i would try sticking the coolbag in it overnight to 'prime' it.
I put a small coolbag (open) in a fridge the other day to make sure my sandwiches would be cool for a car journey. It worked :)
i would also be interested in the properties of different cool bags.
i had a coolbox once and i fell over it for years before i found a home for it . yet again.. don't ask!
reading about the great coolblocks heist on another thread i think the bags of ice from a supermarket option isn't so non cost effective after all!
forgot to mention. If you use the bags of ice in coolbags option the bag will leak water a bit, when they melt; so don't pack it next to your bedding! I put mine in my washing up tub trug on the way out, to be on the safe side!
on the way back i just had some bacon and butter left, so i squoze it into a very small space :)
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Topic: COOLBAGS V COOLBOXES
