Cooler/Ice chest options ?

[rodro123]

Originally Posted by Magnolia Tom

I use RTIC brand coolers. Half price of yeti with equal performance

X2

[TWP723]

I have a Sovaro. Had a gift certificate and added a little cash. Nice cooler and it does keep ice very well. But I can't see the price. I'd never buy this cooler for full price. I'd rather go RTIC or YETI. But there are a lot of copy cats out there and claim to be just as good for half the price.

[Desertpull]

We have the lifetime cooler from Walmart and love it! We paid just under 100.00 for it. The ice is supposed to last as long as the yeti but we really haven’t had it long enough to know.
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Lifetime-...0820/850043843

[bdreinv]

Maybe try ice blocks, that stuff's expensive!

[dee]

Pelican here as well. I like the fact mine has wheels as well. It is laughable how much better it is than your Walmart igloo brand. Just know that the cooler is a bit larger for a given volume you want cooled.

[CanuckAndy]

We bought a small bar fridge that fits perfectly under the cupboards where the original ice chest "fridge" was in our 1993 Eagle. We only use the fridge for meat and the perishable stuff....beer tatstes better out of the regular cooler anyways lol.

[dasdman]

Originally Posted by Desertpull

We have the lifetime cooler from Walmart and love it! We paid just under 100.00 for it. The ice is supposed to last as long as the yeti but we really haven’t had it long enough to know.
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Lifetime-...0820/850043843

Just picked up my Lifetime cooler from Walmart yesterday ($97). Heading out next week for 8 days, will be a good test.

[suzieshome]

Originally Posted by 01Ekim

So I have been struggling with the volume of ice we are purchasing to keep food and drinks cold. The small camper fridge only holds so much and our current coolers melt 4 bags of ice a day in the shade.

Does anyone have experience with the different options available?

We only camp at full hook up sites so electric coolers are an option if they work.

We always bought blocks of ice when we had our pop up. They last longer than cubes. We still use a cooler for drinks. It is the stainless steel Coleman and a block of ice lasts 3days

[pconroy]

I chose the Premium Cooler avenue for a handful of reasons.

See: OtterBox Venture vs Yeti

When we go on vacation, we often travel through intense heat (e.g Las Vegas in July). Having a premium cooler means we can put it in one of the outside storage areas and completely forget about it for days or weeks.


Frozen stuff stays frozen for a long, long time.

[REWahoo]

Originally Posted by pconroy

Having a premium cooler means we can put it in one of the outside storage areas and completely forget about it for days or weeks.

Weeks?

[ekesz]

Get an ice maker!!! We also use a large volume of ice daily, mostly because we like our drinks cold and make a lot of smoothie like drinks. We bring our small portable ice maker from home, setup on the counter or even a table just outside the trailer (in shade under awning) and good to go from water to cold ice bucket full in less than 30mins. Way cheaper than yet another cooler that doesn’t work optimally. We do also bring larger ice bags, best to buy the ice blocks over cubes and place in the coolers. Another trick is t bring all meat/possibly precooked entrees (ie chili) already frozen and place in coolers with the ice blocks. Will readily thaw naturally over couple of days or just take out the morning of cooking as per usual. Good luck!

[usafdaddy]

When we had a popup we experienced the exact same problem and came up with, what in my opinion was the simplest solution: a small dormitory refrigerator. It's easily placed in any area, it keeps the food cold (and if it has a small freezer.....frozen). If you like this idea purchase one that is a min. of 3 cubic feet (4 c.f. was best). Will probably cost no more then $200.00. Suggestion: as you remove food replace with bottles of water.

Accum's Razor.
"If you have two equally likely solutions to a problem, choose the simplest."
"The explanation requiring the fewest assumptions is most likely to be correct."

[Mick]

Just get a 3-4 cu ft ~$100 at most any store. Takes up same space as cooler and no need to feed it ice or worry about how many times you open it. We have used one many times and it keeps things cold.

[davolson]

We have a "koolmate' electric cooler we use on 12v while traveling, and also have a 110 transformer adapter. While not huge, it works great. I think we've had it 20 years and it's still going great.

[clubhouse]

About 5 years ago I was given a Yeti 45 as a gift, was so impressed within a year I converted all of our coolers with Yeti’s. I have a roadie 20, tundra 35, 45 and 75. Don’t have a need for anything larger.

I am not confused about Yeti vs RTIC or any of the alternative premium coolers and if I did it again I would buy an alternate if it was less expensive. When I did it RTIC didn’t exist or I simply wasn’t aware of it.

[Tiguan Tow r]

We've had a Mobicool 12v 35Litre cooler that works well. When we had our tent trailer, we used it in addition to the small trailer fridge. It sat on a cabinet in the trailer and kept food very cool 24/7. Now we use it to take cold/frozen food back and forth to our travel trailer.

[Screwby]

We use the Cabelas “Yeti” style cooler. It’s interior dimensions are exactly the same so I even bought the Yeti wire baskets to go inside to keep stuff up off the ice/water if needed (no one likes soggy stuff). The best thing I probably did was review cooler ice packs and came across Cooler Shock ice packs. These are the ice packs they use to transport organs so I figured they were legit. I put a couple of the large Cooler Shock packs down then throw some ice on top of that and holy smokes it will hold its frigid temp for 6 days easy in 90 degree heat.

[Bandit12]

Last year when we went for our usual 6 day Labor Day camping trip, we had 4 coolers and had to replenish ice twice. We still had our pop up at the time. Over the winter, I got a deal from the Army Air Force Exchange (I'm retired USAF) on a new Yeti 65 and 3 Yeti ice blocks. We went out for Memorial Day to the same campground for the same period of time. We used the Yeti for all our food and one other 5 day Coleman Cube for drinks. I used the three Yeti Ice blocks in the bottom, then packed all the food in. That was Tuesday night. On Wednesday I took the rig to work and on my lunch break took the camper to the campground. After work I added 1 block of ice to the Yeti. I had chicken I had packed directly from the freezer in the bottom of the Yeti. On Saturday when I got it out, it was still mostly frozen. The following Tuesday my wife cleaned out the cooler before I got home from work. She estimated at least 75-80% of that block of ice was still intact and very little water in the bottom of the chest. I had to add more ice to the Coleman by Saturday. That was enough to convince me. We had always taken a bunch of ice chests due to the need to pack so much ice in them. This trip we only had the two and had more than enough room. Now we will only need to take the Yeti to keep drinks cold as we sold the pop up and bought a X23B 2 weeks ago. With a decent size fridge and freezer, we are only gonna need the one cooler. Our maiden trip will be this coming weekend. I just added the WDH to the rig today.

[SGT]

We still use a cooler outside the 5th wheel for drinks. I use a Coleman cube because it fits nicely under the table we use butted up against the trailer side. On the table is an Igloo ice maker ($99 at Sam's Club- $199 at CW for the same size). The cooler starts out full of ice when we leave and is topped off by the ice maker during our stay. Works for us. That little icemaker runs 24/7 for the entire stay. It is a trooper!

[GarlicDude]

I've bought dry ice to put in the bottom of our Coleman cooler.