Are all passive cool boxes created equal?

Looking for a camping cool box, not really bothered about an electric one – something to last from friday to sunday night.  Big range in price from basic £15 ones to £55 for a Coleman Extreme.  Any thoughts / experiences?

our cheap bag = ok.

Ex Norway Military insulated box = frozen still two days into a canoe trip, no ice needed.

Esky ones with the drain hole/tap are good for staying cool for a long weekend. Use ice.

Edit – the expensive Colemans may well be Eskys anyway. I

The 15 quid ones will be very poor in my experience.

We needed one quickly and got a cheapo one which lasted less than a trip – it broke revealing the internal insulation to a half inch thick pieces of polystyrene on each side. They didn’t even meet up at the corners.

It went back.

I’ve got a 55 litre Iceytec – pricey but superbly good performance. Works well with ice cubes, block ice or ice packs / frozen bottles of water.

The real trick is to pre-cool the ice box before you put your stuff in, whatever model you buy.

Coleman Extreme user here: can’t remember which one – the grey, orange and white one – no wheels. Waited until I saw it going cheap at some site or other a few years ago. I can confirm that with some ice packs top and bottom, it’ll keep stuff ice cold for a whole weekend. You HAVE to be careful to always close the top (it kinda closes, then pushes shut to seal) as soon as you’ve taken something out though. Best thing is to use it as a seat! 🙂

They’re a bit pricey but it’s way better than the el cheapo one it replaced. It’s not suitable for use with bags of ice as there’s no drain – bottles or cans, fine – but anything that might get soggy will get soggy just using bags of ice.

I have a coleman xtreme 30 something litre coolbox and it’s great. Will last 3-5 days no problem. Before that I had an igloo marine 30 something litre coolbox which would only last 3 days but had more space inside due to thinner insulation and also a bunged drain hole. Would recommend either. Much better than the cheapo ones, better even than a lot of the electric ones.

Useful thread. Can I bookmark it now I wonder?!

Those Icey-Tek boxes look good and if they can work on my boats, then they’ll be the ones I’ll go for.

Those Icey-Tek boxes look good and if they can work on my boats, then they’ll be the ones I’ll go for.

If you have a costco nearby they often have the Igloo Marine coolers in at this time of year for a lot less than elsewhere. These are white and made for fishing boats. They also have the Igloo MaxCold ones which are also white and can hold ice for upto a week.

This 156 litre one looks good for £113.

https://www.costco.co.uk/Sports-Spas-Leisure/Camping/Cool-Boxes/Igloo-MaxCold-156-Litre-165-US-Quart-Cool-Box/p/1183297

Or smaller 52 litre one for £55.

https://www.costco.co.uk/Sports-Spas-Leisure/Camping/Cool-Boxes/Igloo-Marine-Ultra-52-Litre-55-US-Quart-Quantum-and-Quantum-10L-11QT-Cool-Box-Combo/p/247131

Cant’t remember the brand of ours, but its a piezo electric active one. To be frank, the electric gubbins don’t seem to make much difference, but its really well insulated and will keep bags of ice at least partially frozen for a couple of days in a tent awning in 30 degree heat.

its all about the insulation (and build quality)

As far as I know the electric ones don’t actually cool the box, they just circulate the air to help keep the whole internal area cool.

We have an electric coleman. If there’s nothing cold in there, turning the electric gubbins on doesn’t make it any colder inside.

This 156 litre one looks good for £113.

We’ve had one of these big Igloo ones for about 10 years…… very good indeed – ice stay in for about a week pretty easily. One of the clips that holds the lid closed has now broken but I can easily get another.

It’s one of those things that seems pretty expensive to buy but just keeps on going.

We also have an Igloo on our Boston Whaler boat and it puts up with a lot of punishment but not used it for long-term storage.

No

I used a large and cheap Halfords piezo box when crossing Morocco and the Sahara and it worked well enough. Most in the group stocked with food while I stocked the 90 with beer at the Spanish tax-free peninsula. Vinnie’s Mobile Bar became quite popular most evenings as I traded cool beers for a cooked meal.

Awesome thread because I’m surprised just how long a non powered coolbox can last. Bought a cheap decathlon coolbag the other day for £7 and was pleasantly surprised with the fact my lunch was still cool more than 12 hours later but I know that for my van adventures it’ll need to last longer and had assumed the loft powered box I have would be the only option but the leisure battery will only last so long. Already this weekend I’m thinking I can’t last three nights because of my breakfast needs but maybe I should look to splurge out.

The trick with these types is coolboxes is to pack them full and pre chill contents where possible. Fill up any empty space as it becomes available and it will help a lot to keeping the temperature down. Try and stay out of it as much as you can, obviously the more you open them the quicker the temperature will rise. My Igloo keeps ice for a week away. I use small water bottles as freezer packs which work well.

When I researched cool boxes I wanted the capacity to be ‘off grid’ for a few days without having to rely on hookups, leisure batteries or risk draining the van battery.

‘Passive’ cool boxes are great if they’re good quality, but they need sensible use:

– pre-cool them for 24hr (frozen 2L water bottles are good) before packing them

– ice is better than cool blocks. Block ice better still.

– only put cold stuff into them where possible (you might be able to chill a bottle of wine or two from ambient, but doing so will warm the box overall)

– DON’T place them in direct sunlight for any length of time – create shade or wrap something reflective around them

– do not leave them in hot vehicles

– don’t leave the lid open at all (open, grab your stuff, close again)

– wipe them out with something anti bacterial on a regular basis

we did a month camping around France last summer with no serious problems at all. Never used a hook up. Had a flexible solar panel and small battery pack for recharging phones, blue tooth speaker, e-cigs etc. Spent a few euros on ice.

TBH, when you consider how much you’ll save on electric hook ups, leisure batteries etc, spending £100 on a decent one suddenly makes sense.

Alanf:  the electric ones use peltier effect material to actively suck heat from one surface to another. A simple heat sink on each surface works as a heat exchanger. Sounds like your coleman may be kaput. I’ve got two electric cool boxes – a thermos and a cheap-o aldi job. Both are excellent. You should get up to 15C or more difference between the hot and cold side of the heat exchanger in one.

Those costco boxes are huge, but look amazing.

I have a halfords 12v coolbox. It was around £40, tbh it’s fine, definitely cools stuff/keeps it cool.

more efficient to keep it in the boot, where it’s protected from sunlight.

pre chill everything that goes in, use ice, or ice blocks if you have the space. Great thing in summer, although I live in fife, so have no real idea what that word really means.

The peltier ones are a bit rubbish, they will only cool to a certain level below the outside temperature, and they guzzle the amps.  No thermostat either so they are on 24/7. Leave one plugged in to your car overnight and you’ll be lucky to get it started in the morning.

Great info here guys – you’ve persuaded me to stump up some cash and get a ‘better’ one than the cheapo boxes.  BUt I’m not going daft, it’s only for half a dozen or so times a year, couple of nights at a time…decided on the Coleman Extreme

Cheers!

Great thread tagged for future

just fyi (sort of on topic ish)

we have just used a halfords 12+240v 40l  one in our motorhome for 2 weeks (fridge died on day 1 of a 2 week Scotland tour), so we always had either 240v(on sites) or 12v (driving/leisure battery with solar panel) – very impressed – quiet enough to sleep with (it was about 3ft away) and it really did cool stuff, even over last 2 weeks, which were pretty warm