Kitchen

[Tigriss]

I remember an Alton Brown episode where he packed a cooler for a picnic. He puts the ice packs/cold packs on top, so the cold air can sink down. It is what cold air does, so his thinking is right. You could also line the bottom of the folding cooler with newspaper to keep air from leaving the cracks its has and help thing that might produce condensation/leak. I'll have to look into getting one of these..

[hondagirl]

Stopped at a fruit and veg. stand and purchased quite a bit of produce... Also bought a small container of potato and macroni salad for the next day....
Filled the container with the food and there wasn't any room for anything else.  When I got home several hours later the salads were warm and had to be tossed....The cooler did not do what I thought.... Really needed to add ice packs - so this did not worki for me.  Not worth the money...

[RollTide2008]

Hondagirl, was everything cold when you put it in the box?

[hondagirl]

Everything was not cold in the box (fruit and vegetables).  Guess the salads got warm and I probably needed to add ice to keep them fresh.   According to the vendor no ice is needed but I will try again this time with cold or frozen food.   I usually make a large purchase of meat etc.  from a local butcher and the items will be in the car for a few hours... Hope it will work and I will not lose a ton of food.  Will try again...

[RollTide2008]

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@Hondagirl wrote:

Everything was not cold in the box (fruit and vegetables).  Guess the salads got warm and I probably needed to add ice to keep them fresh.   According to the vendor no ice is needed but I will try again this time with cold or frozen food.   I usually make a large purchase of meat etc.  from a local butcher and the items will be in the car for a few hours... Hope it will work and I will not lose a ton of food.  Will try again...

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There's your trouble.  This thing doesn't defy the laws of thermodynamics.  Items will only stay as cold as the least cold item you put it in.

I have this cooler.  If things are really cold when you pack it, it stays really cold for a long time.  If things are only a little cold, you really need a few cold packs.  Any cooler is like that. 

[gacat123]

@SharkE 

I have a YETI/35 and love it.  It keeps a bag of  ICE for about 3 days more or less. I use newspaper and thick towels for extra insulation around the bag of ICE/frozen items. 

I put a layer of ice water bottles in the bottom to start out and layer items with more ice water bottles for food storage.  I use for cooling batches of spaghetti sauce B4 freezer. 

Very useful but I do not open the cooler very often in order to keep the stuff  COLD.  

Good Luck,  CAT

[Tigriss]

OK, so here is my theory on this cooler. Since cold moves to an area of warmth, if all items are not cold/frozen when you put them in, then the warmer items will suck the cold from the others quickly. If you make sure that you only fill it with cold things, then you will be fine to a certain point for time. If you make sure that your items are frozen and cold, then fill the thing full with no air gaps, then you should be fine for a few hours, providing the cooler is not in full sun, but in the trunk/coolest part of the car. This is any cooler. There are 5 day coolers out there, but even with that, you will need cold packs and cold food to keep things that way. Mixing the cold with the warm, will do nothing even in a cooler with cold packs for too much time. The best thing is to plan ahead and make sure your cold items are the last thing you buy and go home, or plan to have cold packs/ice and have it in your cooler first with layers of newspaper too prevent quick cold air loss. I would use the cooler that way and not just toss thing in willy nilly.

[SharkE]

I figure get what you pay for. Anything 25-36 bucks can't be worth to much

I'll get a Yenti as time goes by. LOL 25% off most places now, price coming down.

[RollTide2008]

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@SharkE wrote:

I figure get what you pay for. Anything 25-36 bucks can't be worth to much

I'll get a Yenti as time goes by. LOL 25% off most places now, price coming down.

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Putting a bunch of lukewarm food into a $300 cooler is also not going to defy the laws of thermodynamics and magically make it colder either.