Cooler boxes… Are ‘icey tek’ worth it?

I’ve a halfords electric box, and to be Frank, it’s crap!
Once unplugged it gets warm in a few hours.

I’ve been looking at the coleman extreme, but then the ‘advert gods’ have shown me icey tek boxes.
Man, are they expensive… But…. If they are £135 compared to £70 (about 40l) then the difference is ok to swallow IF they really do keep things cool for several days…

Thoughts….?

DrP

fwiw Dr P I have a Coleman which is used regularly, up to a maximum of 3 hours, and even in that amount of time the produce never feels particularly chilly. For £135 I think I’d like a ‘try before you buy’.

Just looking at the website, you don’t plug them in and just use expensive gel packs. Sorry, just assumed they were electric!

Edit: blimey, they’re heavy when empty!

Yeah, I’ve figured a really good passive cool box is better than an electric one…

I want to cock a bag of ice in the bottom, and things still be cold after a weekend in the tent!

I’d like to see an icey tek in person too!

DrP

I have a Halfords one, it seems to work ok.

We also have a Coleman one from the USA where it’s advertised as a 5 day cooler (which is wildly optimistic obvs) but it keeps stuff cool for a while. But if you chuck ice in the bottom everything gets soaking wet which is annoying.

Yes, from the point of view of not worrying about sockets and also they look to have more internal room compared to my Coleman where the lid is deep. Reviews look good from what I could see but reckon you’d need to be practical about the size, 10kg when empty for a 40l one although don’t know how much the ice packs weigh.

This might help, US based;

The Big Chill: Overland Journal’s Cooler Test

I had a halfords one, it ran off the 12v in the car.
Worked ok, but only for about a year.
If i was bothering again, id get a passive one, plenty of ice, and keep it away from sunlight.
Bigger is definitely better, the more volume that’s cold, the longer it takes to absorb heat from its surroundings. Can’t recommend any particular brand though, sorry.
Pre chill anything that goes in there too.

Yes they are, in short. We have a Coleman it never kept things cold enough even plugged in. We use the Icey-Tek in the awning, full of ice/ cold stuff it’s good for up to 5 days. Can be too cold sometimes for drinks. Brilliant for taking in the van to the beach for the day safe in the knowledge the food for BBQs isn’t going to get ruined.

Igloo are another brand worth looking at, similar in performance to Icey Tek.

Do a STW search for ‘passive cool box/es in the search engine of your choice, there were a couple of threads on here about a year ago on them but I can’t seem to find them… heres one…

STW passive cool boxes

Pretty awesome results here

I have the following Igloo that I am pretty happy with

https://www.costco.co.uk/Sports-Spas-Leisure/Camping/Cool-Boxes/Igloo-Maxcold-Latitude-58-Litre-62-US-Quart-Rolling-Cool-Box/p/1183295

I use a waeco coolice. Mostly for keeping mackeral frozen for sea fishing when I head over to skye. It will last about a week, as long as i don’t open it! As soon as you open these boxes and remove stuff they all start to defrost.

I have one of the Coleman Extreme jobbies. Felt a bit expensive when I was buying. However, with a few ice packs and everything fridge cooled before packing, drinks will stay cold for the weekend! Couldn’t quite believe it myself. You have to be careful to make sure anyone who rumbles around in it for stuff closes the lid properly though. Mrs DD and dd have to listen to me constantly saying, “did you close the **** cool-box properly?” to which they always reply, “Yes!” Then I check it, and lo, it’s not been pushed closed. I mean FFS!! How difficult is it? 😀

Keeping stuff cool? Ice cubes FTW. Okay, there’ll be water, lots of it, but it stays cold and if your box has a drain tap then the level can be kept manageable. This approach does require Tupperware, or similar, for some / most foodstuffs but smallish squared boxes stow pretty well.
If it’s just for cold drinks, then definitely ice cubes.

I’m both grateful and disappointed in you, STW…

grateful for the advice, and will likely save my pennies and hey a pricey cooler.

But disappointed that my accidental typo went unnoticed..

I want to cock a bag of ice in the bottom

Ha! You’re getting slack…!

DrP

I must admit, I did notice your ‘cock’ and presumed it was a bit of Northern vernacular 😉

Forget ice cubes and those blue block things. Coke bottles filled and frozen is the best in my experience. Make sure you buy a big enough box for this though.

For my money, one decent one and one cheap one is the way. The cheap one gets used for drinks and things that need to be accessed many times a day, the good one gets food and dairy in it and is to be opened as infrequently as possibly. Doing this we’ve managed to go for days at a time with nice fresh food still.

Dometic ice / passive cooling boxes are fantastic. I borrowed one for a week away camping in the Alpes & only had to add ice once. A fantastically simple piece of rather expensive kit.

What noahhowes said. Yes they are worth it (iceytek here)