shoeshineman
WKR
Howdy all!
This is an addition to another review post I made about my 2019 hunt.
This past year, I went with the coleman 120 quart cooler after watching some "cooler genre" videos on youtube (yes this is a thing apparently). These coolers were awesome and kept my ice frozen for a solid week! I have no regrets!
Setup:
24 hours prior to leaving for elk camp, I pre-chilled the cooler with loose cube ice. This is to lower the temp of the insulation and internal surfaces.
Ice blocks:
I bought some regular old 2 inch PVC pipe and cut it down to (1) fit inside my freezer (this is a key thing that the videos don't mention) and (2) also fit inside the cooler itself. I capped one side with the standard PVC cap and then filled it to about 80-90% full with water. I then capped the other side off. These then went into the freezer about a week or so before departure (make sure you leak test before freezing). The theory is that the PVC walls of the tube act as an insulator for the ice to make it last longer, it also takes longer to freeze because of this insulation.
As a science experiment, I made a few of these tubes with "salt water" and some with fresh water. The fresh water tubes stayed rock solid frozen a lot longer than the salt water by several days. I won't use salt water at all next time.
I used frozen water bottles and loose cube ice to fill the leftover air space in the cooler.
In the field:
This cooler was only used for elk meat, I didn't pack food and what not as I had no intention of opening/closing these for the entire week other than to put in the elk meat. I left this cooler in the back of the subaru all week loosely covered with a cheap old sleeping bag (to act as another insulation barrier). The subaru was parked in the sun without any sort of tree-shade for a week.
At the end of the week, the cube ice and water bottles were mostly melted. The fresh water tubes were frozen rock solid. The salt water tubes were mostly melted, but there was a bit of ice in some of them.
When I got back home, my bone-in elk quarter was frozen solid!
I hope this helps!
This is an addition to another review post I made about my 2019 hunt.
This past year, I went with the coleman 120 quart cooler after watching some "cooler genre" videos on youtube (yes this is a thing apparently). These coolers were awesome and kept my ice frozen for a solid week! I have no regrets!
Setup:
24 hours prior to leaving for elk camp, I pre-chilled the cooler with loose cube ice. This is to lower the temp of the insulation and internal surfaces.
Ice blocks:
I bought some regular old 2 inch PVC pipe and cut it down to (1) fit inside my freezer (this is a key thing that the videos don't mention) and (2) also fit inside the cooler itself. I capped one side with the standard PVC cap and then filled it to about 80-90% full with water. I then capped the other side off. These then went into the freezer about a week or so before departure (make sure you leak test before freezing). The theory is that the PVC walls of the tube act as an insulator for the ice to make it last longer, it also takes longer to freeze because of this insulation.
As a science experiment, I made a few of these tubes with "salt water" and some with fresh water. The fresh water tubes stayed rock solid frozen a lot longer than the salt water by several days. I won't use salt water at all next time.
I used frozen water bottles and loose cube ice to fill the leftover air space in the cooler.
In the field:
This cooler was only used for elk meat, I didn't pack food and what not as I had no intention of opening/closing these for the entire week other than to put in the elk meat. I left this cooler in the back of the subaru all week loosely covered with a cheap old sleeping bag (to act as another insulation barrier). The subaru was parked in the sun without any sort of tree-shade for a week.
At the end of the week, the cube ice and water bottles were mostly melted. The fresh water tubes were frozen rock solid. The salt water tubes were mostly melted, but there was a bit of ice in some of them.
When I got back home, my bone-in elk quarter was frozen solid!
I hope this helps!
