Great cooler
Last year on a hunting trip to Maine in October a member of our group had a new "YETTI" cooler. He had been out there beyond electric power for about two weeks and his cooler still had about 90% of th...
Forum Discussion
If you aren't going to spend the big buck and need more time for special trips, there are other options.
A big step up is to go primarily with block ice. You can use an ice pick to break it up some, but a big block will last much longer than the same weight in cubes.
The serious freezer tool is dry ice (just wrap it in paper before putting it in, and always use gloves). This is what we used for meats and other high-priority foods during a week long houseboat trip on Lake Powell. For the first few days you had to transition that night's dinner into a regular cooler to thaw (and help that cooler stay colder).
You can also improve the performance of collapsible coolers with a layer of foam at the bottom. And I've made improvised chill boxes by sandwiching bubble-wrap between layers of cardboard. I made one to keep an oversized cake cool by having a two stage box, with the upper box holding dry ice and venting into the lower one.
A big step up is to go primarily with block ice. You can use an ice pick to break it up some, but a big block will last much longer than the same weight in cubes.
The serious freezer tool is dry ice (just wrap it in paper before putting it in, and always use gloves). This is what we used for meats and other high-priority foods during a week long houseboat trip on Lake Powell. For the first few days you had to transition that night's dinner into a regular cooler to thaw (and help that cooler stay colder).
You can also improve the performance of collapsible coolers with a layer of foam at the bottom. And I've made improvised chill boxes by sandwiching bubble-wrap between layers of cardboard. I made one to keep an oversized cake cool by having a two stage box, with the upper box holding dry ice and venting into the lower one.
