Pretty sure nothing is going to work for 5 days unless you’re adding ice/cool packs from the freezer.

plus what tom said, really. Are you staying at a site where you can rotate ice packs in the site freezer?

If not, are you by a river? You keep space for a litre bottle of water and refill with cold river water, if it’s clean enough. Or rotate cold river rocks. Or build a cleit.

Coleman Xtreme

I have 2. A huge one and a normal size one. Been round a baking hot Alps in the van in the summer with the dogs raw food in it.

Frozen stuff will still be fairly well frozen after 5 days as long as you’re not opening it constantly

They make 5 day coolers, we have one. It’s good, but no way is it 5 days. I also don’t think not opening the lid is going to make a lot of difference. The amount of heat in a few litres of warm air is tiny compared to that stored in the cold stuff inside and compared to that which will leak in over 5 days.

I would be looking at an electric coolbox and a solar panel. Sure, it’ll only work during the day, but it’s much cooler at night so you could probably survive on the stored coolness.  The 24l coolbox only draws 40W, so if you were to get say a 150W solar panel you would easily be able to run that even if it’s not sunny, I reckon.

We used the in-car 12l one as a camping fridge on one trip, although not solar. It worked well, but the daytime temps were only low 20s. Overnight it froze our milk.  If your day temps are high 20s, it will only be 10C ish in the cooler which isn’t enough to keep milk for 5 days I think.

I used on of these round Oz in high temps, relying on blocks of ice  – pretty effective. Ice cubes are crap.

https://24tackle.com/igloo-cooler-sportsman-52-green-49liters-p-2367.html

I bought one back in UK and have used it for weekend festivals. You wont have ice cold beers by the last day, but the marg/cheese will be solid. It’s old and seems discontinued but I’d hope that the newer ones are just as good.

The less you open it the better, so plan what you want to get out, don’t let the kids keep opening it (the cold air will sink so it’s not as bad you think). Also important to keep it out of the sun and not in a hot car. If really trying, cover it in a wet towel…

If taking meals, freeze  everything you can so it slowly defrosts, also frozen 2l milk containers of water make great ice blocks and stop the water going everywhere. frozen UHT milk also makes good ice blocks.

Sounds a bit daft but pre chill the esky before you load it (with frozen stuff you arent taking, that can go back in your freezer)

A second drinks esky can work for a day or two, and then switch to red wine…

or splash out on a gas/elec powered fancy fridge/freezer (The cheap powered coolboxes can’t cope even on a warm UK day)

It’s for festival use

Whatever the local bar is, get ice in everything and even chance your arm for a pint glass full of it. Then run that back to the coolbox to replenish.

We’ve an IceyTek and it’ll do a good job for a few days, after that needs ice top-ups. Trick is pre-cooling it for a day or two before you go.

Top tip. Bags of frozen peas stay frozen longer than bags of ice or ice packs

Worx do a battery powered coolbox

+another for Coleman extreme. Mine will do 3 days easy, especially if I really cool it down before use (stick some bottles of frozen water in there overnight before I pack it next day). Don’t keep opening it is the main thing, nothing will stay cool for long if you’re opening it all the time.

Coleman extreme user too.

Freeze as much as you can eg. Bacon, sausages, spaghetti bolognaise etc and milk. Freezing beer / soft drinks cans is an art which deserves a thread of its own. Sometimes you win and sometimes you don’t 🤫.

in point of fact its just not possible to have a coolbox remain cold for 5 days.

Yeah naw mate

The Best Esky Australia 2024

Get a 12/240/gas unit. 12v in car, 240v at Christmas for the drinks, gas cartridge whilst at festival (they need to be vented to don’t run inside a tent, especially if it’s got a sewn in groundsheet) Best hidden behind the hedge under the shade of a hedgehow or something .

Don’t get a peltier type cool boxes, they are only useful whilst driving, once parked they will suck a car battery dry in just a few hours and you will be trying to bump start your car the following morning.

we’ve a coleman exreme, they generally need a bag of ice every 2 days but keep everything nice and cold in france in the middle of summer (30C peaks) – beers etc are as you’d expect just out of a decent fridge. You could probably run one for 5 days without topping up but the contents would have to be 90% ice to start with. If you’ve access to a supermarket or at a decent campsite (most french ones have a freezer for freezing ice packs) you should be grand

ours is a 66l – its massive on the outside, so check the size before you order something similar as they take a lot of room in the car. Ours just fits on the middle seat wedged between that and the front seats, in a fairly large car. Stops the kids fighting in the back as they can’t see each other

Yeti – cult following in the US (especially in the huntin’, fishin’, overlandin’ communities in the US where you’re outside and it’s hot AF), good products, with really good customer service.

I have a few bits of Yeti kit in daily use (bottles, tumblers, etc) and it’s been awesome.  One minor issues I (suspect it was a clumsy teenagers fault as much as anything) was sorted out megafast and free.

I don’t have a cooler – I have a fridge in my van that will run off 12V leisure battery and solar for a week in 25C weather without hookup – but if I needed one it would be a Yeti or Icey-Tek which the offshore fishermen seem to rate.

Not sure if you can get them in the uk but Makita make a battery powered fridge cooler