Make your cooler stay cooler

I saw this in a magazine I get (NC Sportsman)

Apparently the high end coolers like Yeti use an airtight seal around the opening (in addition to better insulating properties to keep the cold stuff cold. Many more inexpensive coolers don't form an airtight seal around the lid, so the solution is to get some self-adhesive marine/automotive weather tape and make it more airtight.

1. Clean the lid well with alcohol or TSP or something and make sure it is very dry before you put on the strip.

2. Place the strip in the recess of the lid

3. Close the lid and sit on it to seal it and press the tape down well

I'd be very interested to see if somebody can do this and take a point and shoot thermometer and measure the temp leakage around the lid.

I just gave in a bought a Yeti.

I just try and drink all the beverages as quickly as possible

calteg wrote: I just try and drink all the adult beverages as quickly as possible

Fixed that for you.

How to at least double the duration of time that the box will stay cold:

First, put some ice in the box overnight before you pack it. Prechilling the box before you pack it makes a difference. It also helps to "temper" your ice, by storing it in a below zero freezer before use.

Most importantly, pick up a mylar "emergency blanket" at the big box store for a couple of bucks. Unfold it, then refold loosely so that it has some air in between the folds. For most standard size boxes (up to about 70 quarts or so), the blanket should still have at least 3-4 layers when refolded.

After the box is packed, wrap the mylar blanket over top of the contents and push it down around the sides. I often follow that with a mylar lined bubble pack bag that is used for shipping vaccines and other temperature sensitive medications. It looks kind of like one of those windshield shades. You can make something like this by cutting open a reusable insulated grocery bag to fit in the top of your box.

Keep the box out of the sun (seems obvious, but I've seen them left out a lot). I'll sometimes wrap a couple of layers of beach towels around and over the top of the cooler.

For best results, don't use ice. I save the cold packs from our vaccine shipments and keep them in my home freezer. The freezer is much more efficient when it's cold, so I save power when they're stored.

The big box store will have some commercial versions of the cold packs in the camping section, along with the above mentioned emergency blankets. I use both types, since the rubbermaid ones are much more durable.

Because I rarely use ice, I don't have to deal with melted water. The inside of the box is dry, so I don't even have to clean it before storage.

A cooler I broke once didn't have a lot of foam insulation between the inner and outer walls. There were some sheets of foam, but a lot of airspace too.

I wonder if getting a few cans of that foaming gap filler from a home improvement place, and completely filling the cavities between the walls would improve the insulating qualities. Intuitively it should.

Stu