Ice chest vs. TJ

Yeti or any of the knockoffs will work great for 3 days in heat. As others have mentioned keeping things cold has more to do with technique than build of the cooler. Yeti is top dog but nowadays there are much cheaper options that are as good.

Engel and ARB electric coolers are being mentioned. I mainly use a Engel 45 quart freezer/fridge weekend dry camping. A full-size auxiliary car battery in good condition will keep the Engel running for nearly 2 days straight with a recharge needed by the start of the 3rd day. It’s extremely efficient power-wise. Charge the battery directly from the Jeep or better yet get a portable solar panel that you can trickle charge your battery. Downside is these 12v compressor fridges are expensive to buy. They do last a longtime even in bumpy off-road conditions. Engel’s have become legendary over landing in Australia outback country.
 
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bobthetj03 said:
How do you pre-cool them? Do you put ice in them the night before?
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Yep OR better yet if you have a friend that works at a gas station or restaurant have them put it in the walk in fridge/ freezer with ice in it if fridge. Or if you have a chest freezer that can fit it...
 
Putting a little Rock salt/ice cream salt in the bottom of your ice chest helps a lot. Just don't put too much or it will freeze your drinks and other stuff you have in your ice chest. Precooling the inside of your ice chest with frozen jugs or blocks of ice or just party ice really helps!
 
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lowranger said:
Putting a little Rock salt/ice cream salt in the bottom of your ice chest helps a lot. Just don't put too much or it will freeze your drinks and other stuff you have in your ice chest.
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Salt just helps ice melt faster which is why roads are salted in areas that see a lot of ice on the roads. It wont make things freeze faster or more easily.
 
Isn’t it amazing how stagnant the cooler industry was for decades ...then someone comes along at 10x the price and literally revolutionized it.

Imagine “igloo” stickers on our cj’s way back...never would have happened.. maybe “Morton Salt Life” too.
 
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Jerry Bransford said:
Salt just helps ice melt faster which is why roads are salted in areas that see a lot of ice on the roads. It wont make things freeze faster or more easily.
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That’s not necessarily true, salt is used to lower the freezing point which does “make ice melt faster”. However it chemically changes the water/ice mixture to be colder before you’d see ice. Consequently things that are not mixed with the solvent are colder (and could indeed freeze as their freezing point hasn’t changed as the H2O’s has).
 
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rasband said:
That’s not necessarily true, salt is used to lower the freezing point which does “make ice melt faster”. However it chemically changes the water/ice mixture to be colder before you’d see ice. Consequently things that are not mixed with the solvent are colder (and could indeed freeze as their freezing point hasn’t changed as the H2O’s has).
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To be clear... adding salt does not lower the temperature.
 
Jerry Bransford said:
To be clear... adding salt does not lower the temperature.
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It actually does, due to how endothermic reactions work, it’s pretty cool to read up on.

> Salt lowers the freezing point of water via freezing point depression. Among other processes, the ions from the salt get in the way of water molecules aligning to crystallize into ice. When salted ice melts, the water can't refreeze as readily because the saline isn't pure water anymore and because the freezing point is colder. As more ice melts, more heat is absorbed, bringing the temperature down even lower.

Salt on roads helps melt ice (typically). Salt in a cooler of ice can help lower the temperature of the cooler.
 
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More on topic, my wife gifted me a Yeti 45. I canon balled half the country and back within 4 days with very little loss of ice. I would struggle to spend the Yeti price from our budget, but I’m sold on its performance.

I’m sure that similar quality alternatives exist, but haven’t dabbled enough to find them. I’m not the type to constantly experiment when I find something that works. Our old Coleman cooler was bigger and less effective on an overnight trip to Steamboat, CO.
 
If you're looking for reviews you can trust. Try Outdoor Gearlab. They review EVERYTHING outdoor related. From tents to boots to coolers and beyond. The reviewers and owners of the site are all world class hikers and trekkers. That actually use all the products in their ventures. And review them. It's a gem within the hiking and backpacking community. Even if your not looking for a cooler. And need a tent. Or new boots. Or a rain jacket. It's worth checking out.

Here are their reviews of coolers. Looks pretty inline with everything that's been mentioned. RTIC looks like the sweet spot. I have RTIC mugs that keep ice overnight in your drink. I'm sure they are direct copies of YETI. Which is unfortunate. But who wants to spend $400 on a cooler?! lol. My grandfather would have shit himself if he saw a cooler with a $400 price tag. But then again his crappy old cooler needed new ice twice a day. ;)

I'd go with the RTIC 65. But it's worth mentioning these reviews don't include the Walmart brand. If anyone has a comparison review of coolers that includes the Ozark ones. I'd like to read it. They get mentioned alot. I'd like to see how they compare to an RTIC.

https://www.outdoorgearlab.com/topics/camping-and-hiking/best-cooler?specs=n&n=0&sort_field=#compare
UPDATE - Just cycled thru a ton of reviews on Google. Man what a rabbit hole! All this fuss over 1 more day of solid ice! That's basically the difference between a $200 cooler and a $400 one.

One reputable review site that linked from Youtube. Tested the RTIC and it kept ice for 4.75 days. The rest of the coolers tested (most popular brands - YETI etc.) were like 5-5.75 days.

Seriously? How can you justify spending almost twice as much for one more day of ice? I mean when your getting hard ice after 4.75 days. Your splitting hairs. I'd say your well within the ballpark of how a modern cooler should perform. I can't imagine needing that one more day. So I need to spend $200 more for my cooler?! lol. If your getting solid ice after 4 days I'd say you've won the battle.

And at just over $200 I could see spending the money on the RTIC. As someone who's never used anything beyond my 15 yr old Coleman marine coolers. I can see it's time to upgrade. But if I do, I'll go with the RTIC. Two hundred bucks is worth a product that performs at least 80% as well as it's way more expensive competition.
 
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Jerry Bransford said:
Salt just helps ice melt faster which is why roads are salted in areas that see a lot of ice on the roads. It wont make things freeze faster or more easily.
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You would think that....but it's not so with the ice cream salt, I've been doing it for years on extended hunting trips. I have added a little too much salt and it has frozen my beer.
 
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Does water plus salt produce an endothermic reaction? If not, then adding salt to a cooler does not make the water colder. At least, that isn't the reason for why the contents might get cold more quickly that pure water.
 
jjvw said:
Does water plus salt produce an endothermic reaction?
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It has to be salt + ice, water that melts from this will be colder than if it were just ice that had melted. I don’t salt my cooler though, I like being able to use the ice if needed.

Growing up there was a silly game of placing an ice cube in one hand and an ice cube on salt (between the cube and your hand) on the other. You’ll experience the fun of salted ice pretty quickly :giggle:
 
rasband said:
It has to be salt + ice, water that melts from this will be colder than if it were just ice that had melted. I don’t salt my cooler though, I like being able to use the ice if needed.

Growing up there was a silly game of placing an ice cube in one hand and an ice cube on salt (between the cube and your hand) on the other. You’ll experience the fun of salted ice pretty quickly :giggle:
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Salt water can be a liquid below the freezing point of pure water. Liquid water transfers heat faster than ice because it has a greater contacting surface area in which to transfer that heat.
 
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