water drenched ice chest... other ideas?

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water drenched ice chest... other ideas?

Postby oklahomajewel » Wed Jul 05, 2006 5:36 pm

I've always taken an ice chest when going camping, etc. Usually have one bag of ice still bagged, then another one or two loose , to keep things good and cold. Used to go to the church and get as much ice as I wanted from their machine .

But then you have all that melted water and sometimes a mess.

My Kuffel creek plans show how to make an ICE BOX but I don't wanna mess with that .

I know those thermo electric ice coolers are too too little for anything.

I tried this past weekend, freezing two gallon jugs with water and using that in the ice chest. It worked pretty good and gave me good, cold drinking water but I was afraid it wasn't keeping things really cold.

Those Blue Ice things??? Would that be a good investment? Haven't used them much.


I'd like to know your thoughts. I will still have my Coleman ice chest on the td.

Julie
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Postby Chris C » Wed Jul 05, 2006 5:39 pm

Julie,

I've traveled with those "blue ice" packages and equiv for years. They work just fine...........but so will your icewater jugs. I just like the smaller packages because they are easier to move around and arrange things inside the cooler.
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Postby SteveH » Wed Jul 05, 2006 5:41 pm

Julie,

When I go to a funfly with my teardrop, I put ice in it the day before, and like you I freeze 1/2 gallon milk jugs filled with water. Always have a good supply of them, and they are free. Anyway, put four of them in there the day before I go to cool down the box, and the day I go, I put four fresh frozen ones in and then the drinks and food. Works good and they last for about three days.
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Postby Chris C » Wed Jul 05, 2006 5:43 pm

Good idea, Steve. And they'd last longer if using one of the Extreme coolers made be Igloo or Coleman. (I think Madjack likes the Igloo. I've only used Coleman, so I can't comment.)
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Postby madjack » Wed Jul 05, 2006 6:41 pm

Mainly I find the Igloo has a better fitting/sealing/insulated lid...I have 50qt versions of both and that has been my experience with them...ice last longer in the Igloo and the biggest diff seems to be the lid...
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Postby oklahomajewel » Wed Jul 05, 2006 7:26 pm

Thanks y'all.... I like the cheap idea of freezing in the milk jugs, and too because then I have my own home ice cold water to drink.

I will try with smaller containers like quart milk jugs and not the gallon size next time.
Maybe even freeze several of those cleaned out juice bottles,
(20 oz size-ish)

Thanks for the advice!

Julie
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Postby madjack » Wed Jul 05, 2006 7:36 pm

Julie the 1/2 gal square jugs seem to work best for packing...the round bottles take up to much of your usable room......
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Postby Micro469 » Wed Jul 05, 2006 8:45 pm

Just something I've been thinking about. Don't know how feasible, might try to build it one day. A rectangular box, insulated,devided into two sections, a door on each side. One side has a shelf halfway. On the top shelf, a plastic container witha drain hose, draining into a clear container.. jug, bottle, whatever. A block of ice in the top container. As it melts it drains into the bottom container to supply cold water.
The other side can also have a shelf, and this is your food storage side. The middle partition will have a slot cut near the top between the two partitions. O the bottom, a small 12 volt fan to circulate the air from the ice side to the food side, and the warm air pushed into the ice side at the top. As the ice melts you can buy bag ice to replenish the block ice, just make sure you use the water in the lower half.
This would not use a lot of battery and could be run continuously and the food would stay cold, and dry. The purpose of the two doors would be to keep the cold in when using the "fridge". You could also hook it up so that the fan shuts off when you open the storage area.
If anybody has already thoughtof this, well, great minds think alike. I know I haven't seen this anywhere. Also if you want to build it, be my guest, I won't sue you. Just let me know how it works....

;)
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Postby RKH » Wed Jul 05, 2006 9:37 pm

ANother alternative that might work depending on the sourceof the objection ot melted ice is to put you stuff into tupperware or similar containers that truly seal and then put those inot your cooler with the ice/milk jugs. The outside of the container gets wet but your cheese, eggs, meat, whatever stay dry.
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Postby Melvin » Wed Jul 05, 2006 11:51 pm

Freezing milk doesn't hurt it so if you like ice cold milk on your cereal in the morning substitute a milk jug with frozen milk for one of your ice jugs.
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Postby sauljordan » Thu Jul 06, 2006 11:53 am

We buy the cases of water bottles from Sam's for about $4.50 to keep in the cars. When I took the boys to Cub Scout day camp I just froze some of them. It worked very well. It took several days for them to melt completely.
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Postby tomkat6546 » Thu Jul 06, 2006 10:59 pm

Well, we've been on 3 camping trips so far this season and I've checked the (kinda old) cooler each time. The first time, hubby was diligent about draining the water out of the cooler. Unfortunately, the water was housing most of the cooling power. When I checked the temperature of our stuff upon return, the items sitting in the ice water were about 40-42 degrees and the stuff sitting above the water was closer to 65 degrees. Huge difference. Since then, we have put items in ziploc bags and allowed them to sit in the icewater for maximum cooling power. As long as the milk container (1/2 gallon plastic jugs for us) remain seated in the ice water, the temp is super cold. I'll recheck our process when and if I ever get one of the coleman or other 5 day cloolers, but will go with the icewater bath theory for now!

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Postby Laredo » Thu Jul 06, 2006 11:20 pm

You might try this:

Fill quart Ziploc bags about half full of water, burp out the air, then seal.
Now seal in a 2nd Ziploc.
Lay flat in bottom of freezer and freeze.
You can stack these around and amongst about anything in the cooler, kinda like the blue thingies, only cheaper and drinkable if they melt. Less mess unless you puncture both bags which is really hard.

Um, yeah, that's an old Cub Scout parent trick ...
But I bet soccer moms and football coaches prob'ly still do this too, for sprains and strains and quick ice packs.
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Postby Juneaudave » Fri Jul 07, 2006 12:02 am

Sorry Jewel...but it's hard for me to help you here. In Alaska, I tend to worry about the food freezing...but for your information, here's how I typically do it...

Take your pulaski and the cooler out to your back yard and whack off the appropriate amount of ice from the glacier. Layer glacier ice with Bud until you have a solid foundation covering about 1/2 to 2/3rds of the capacity of the cooler. Lay your frozen packages of moose burger on top of ice and Bud to fill. All vegetables should be canned and kept in a Safeway bag separately from the cooler, preferably in a location where they will not rattle as you drive.

Upon arrival at the camping destination...drink beer, eat at a restaurant or mooch off the guys with dutch ovens. Put thawed and unused moose burger in a location near to camp for evening bear watching. Use melted glacier water/ice mixture remaining in cooler to soak the hand you burned while trying to light campfire....Juneaudave
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Postby BrwBier » Fri Jul 07, 2006 9:09 pm

http://home.elp.rr.com/brewbeer/chiller/chiller.PDF
micro469, follow the above link and see an example of about what you are thinking about.
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