Cocky_Camper wrote:
When we got our hybrid years ago, we discovered that the Fridge didn't keep up to well with the southern heat. We placed a small "personal" fan behind the fridge and just plugged it into the exterior outlet when we get to our destination.
We now have two 8 year old twins, and no matter what you do, the fridge will not stay cold when it is opened every 20 minutes. We purchased a Coleman Extreme 120qt 5 day cooler about 5 years ago. We pre-chill the cooler and drinks with ice, drain and top off the morning that we leave. The cooler can easily keep ice for 5 days in 90 degree southern heat as long as the kids COMPLETELY shut the lid (which never happens). Our neighbors had a yard sale a few years ago and had a mini Fridge/freezer they were selling. We purchased that to use while camping to place the drinks for the kids in for $25. Best purchase ever. There drinks will stay cold, if they shut "their fridge", our food stays cold in the camper fridge, and the adult beverages stay nice and cold in the Coleman Extreme Cooler (which will last almost as long as a Yeti or Yeti equivalent ($50 cooler.)
Pre-cooling helps a ton. I used to do that all the time with the cheaper coolers. Now I don't have to worry :)
My buddy picked up two of the extreme 70 quarts this year for the trip
One for food and one for drinks. He said his food one had all the ice melted by the second day. The drink one last till Sat morning (3 days). Same environment as my Pelican which still had ice when I got home Monday.
A lot of these cooler tests just aren't realistic in real-world testing. In real world you are going into the cooler often. A lot of these tests close the cooler and open it once a day to check ice. Real world use includes kids opening and closing just to look inside and not get anything and then repeat. Or going in and looking for a drink every 15-30 minutes.
My 65 quart 2 years ago was $300 from amazon prime (now $400) My buddy paid $60 ea for his extremes. Yea, it seems like a lot but the hinges are amazing and I really like the latching system. There is a place to put a padlock as well so if you leave it outside you don't need to worry about someone stealing your booze (and people WILL do that at some places). Good warranty (LIFETIME!) and made in the USA. The only drawback is it's heavy as hell. You need two people to move a loaded cooler. I'd like to get a smaller one for shorter trips, but not sure it's worth the price since most any cooler will hold ice for 2 days. The main reason for getting it was these concerts where you had no electricity and camping.
Also, do the math. If you go camping 10x a year and save one bag of ice each trip in the cooler, that's roughly $50/year savings. Over the course of 10 years you save $500 in ice. It does add up and I used to have to get a bag when camping to make sure the food stayed cold or I got a bag to pre-cool it, or I needed 2 bags to fill the ice to the top to accomodate for melting. Now I just need one 22lb bag of ice and I make a couple blocks as well for $0 and I don't worry about filling it up all the way. The return in invest is not needing to buy as much ice at $5/bag.
However, last year I ended up getting a TT with a nice fridge with freezer. My use went down quite a bit, but I still use it a couple times a year, just not every camping trip anymore.
