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Post by robotrock1382 on Feb 16, 2009 16:15:21 GMT -5
the past two years i have had alot of trouble keeping the food, and such in my ice chest from going bad. I think this year I'm going to keep it in my car, but i wonder if that will work or not. Does anyone have any helpful suggestions?
we didn't have much of a problem keeping our food from going bad last year, we just needed to make sure there was always enough ice in the cooler and as little water as possible.
This is the best plan I've found so far...
Put some dry ice in the bottom of the cooler and some regular ice on top of that. The dry ice will damage food if you put it directly on top, but regular ice works as a good barrier. Try and put some sort of plastic sheet between the ice and your food. It'll help keep your food from getting soaked and ruined.
Make sure you put everything in zip lock bags....even if they're already packaged.
I read a lot on here that if you freeze jugs of water and use them as ice it keeps everything cold all weekend. But I would think that they would melt before the end of the weekend.
And plan your meals well. Use the perishable items first (on Thur and Friday) and the less perishable things on Sat and Sunday.
I usually bring Dirty Rice or Jambalaya mixes that you can cook with just boiling water. I cook the sausage ahead and freeze it. By Sat/Sun the meat's thawed and I boil a pot of water, chop some onions/peppers, add everything and presto. Lunchmeats/hotdogs and canned food is also good for later meals.
I've use frozen gallon jugs and ziplock bags and have never bought ice. Usually the water is thawed by Sunday afternoon but by then the persihables are eaten.
I'd think putting things in a hot car would be bad. I usually leave my food cooler in the shade outside or under the truck and make sure to only open it once or twice a day for a short a time as possible.
Of course I have cheap coolers so a 5-day cooler and/or dry ice would probably help a lot too.
5 day cooler and dry ice work well - we put the dry ice on the bottom, layer frozen water bottles on top of that - a good majority of the water stays frozen all weekend - frozen water bottles are great in the back pack during the day.
We also take another cooler that we layer frozen water bottles in the bottom - put ice on top of that and then any perishable food - but we have really cut down on the food we take - a good majority of it ends up coming home anyway.
You can buy it in pellets or slabs - the slabs are about an inch or so think and lay flat in the bottom - cover them with a light towel and you are good to go.
We have found that by Sunday - our dry ice in the 5 day is generally gone. You have to be careful about not opening your cooler too much .
how much space does the dry ice take up? and how long does it last for?
An important factor in how long the DI will last is how cold the other stuff in the cooler is when you start. If you have a brick of DI and a half case of room temp water botttles, a sizable fraction of it will sublimate (essentially evaporate) just to freeze the H2O. If you freeze that same 1/2 case of H2O beforehand, not only will you not loose the DI by cooling it, if you layer properly the frozen H2O will insulate the DI from heating when you open the cooler. If you have 2 coolers, pack one with DI and frozen H2O bottles and then do not open it until you need more ice for your first cooler. If you have a good cooler (i.e. one of those "5 day" ones) DI should keep no problem. I've had DI and H2O last the entire weekend inside a closed car (in a 1" styrofoam shipping cooler). Avoiding dead spaces (air gaps) in your DI storage cooler helps too. If you really want to go nuts, seal the gap between lid an cooler w/ duct tape.
Last Edit: Feb 16, 2009 19:04:07 GMT -5 by Leo - Back to Top
Dry ice worked "too well" for me 2 years ago. I had a 5-day cooler, bought 3 slabs of dry ice, and then put on layers of frozen water bottles. I added beer and ice on top. Some of the ice on top melted a bit when it came into contact with the relatively warmer beer. After the melting, the dry ice took over and re-froze the "water/slightly melted ice" around the beer. It created a giant block of ice that I had to chip away at to get beer. By day 4, all of my water bottles were still frozen and my beer was still ice cold. (I think I'll use a bit less dry ice this time)
how much space does the dry ice take up? and how long does it last for?
An important factor in how long the DI will last is how cold the other stuff in the cooler is when you start. If you have a brick of DI and a half case of room temp water botttles, a sizable fraction of it will sublimate (essentially evaporate) just to freeze the H2O. If you freeze that same 1/2 case of H2O beforehand, not only will you not loose the DI by cooling it, if you layer properly the frozen H2O will insulate the DI from heating when you open the cooler. If you have 2 coolers, pack one with DI and frozen H2O bottles and then do not open it until you need more ice for your first cooler. If you have a good cooler (i.e. one of those "5 day" ones) DI should keep no problem. I've had DI and H2O last the entire weekend inside a closed car (in a 1" styrofoam shipping cooler). Avoiding dead spaces (air gaps) in your DI storage cooler helps too. If you really want to go nuts, seal the gap between lid an cooler w/ duct tape.
I've got the whole dry-ice thing down to a science and was going to write a lengthy reply detailing exactly how I set my cooler up until I saw this reply. This is spot on for the best way to get through the weekend. 30lbs will keep a 90 gall. cooler perfectly chilled, just make sure you get slabs and not pellets, and sealing each slab in a trash-bag also helps.
"We're no longer called Sonic Death Monkey. We're on the verge of becoming Kathleen Turner Overdrive, but just for tonight, we are Barry Jive and his Uptown Five. "
Make sure you put everything in zip lock bags....even if they're already packaged.
I read a lot on here that if you freeze jugs of water and use them as ice it keeps everything cold all weekend. But I would think that they would melt before the end of the weekend.
We take a Coleman 5 Day Cooler, and instead of ice, we freeze bottles of water. We always have frozen water left for the drive home on Monday. The trick might be the cooler. Those 5 Day Colemans kick ass.
