Best cooler for ice, drinks, etc?

[madkatz1]

What do you consider is the best cooler to use?  
 
Senario: Cooler sitting outside camper, in shade, 80-85 degrees. If you put a bag of ice into the cooler in the morning, would there still be usable ice in the afternoon?  

[Geeze]

The Coleman stainless steel cooler is probably the best cooler on the market. We have some friends who have one and they claim it will hold ice for three days. They are pricey at about a hundred dollars.

[tlhdoc]

The Coleman Extream coolers are supposed to keep ice for 5 or 6 days in 90 degree heat, but you need to start with a large amount of ice to do this and the items in the cooler need to be cold to start with.  The Extream have more insulation than the metal Coleman coolers do.  The metal coolers will keep small critters from chewing holes in your cooler, but they will not stop bigger critters from opening or taking the whole cooler with them.

[oldmoose]

We have 2 Coleman Extremes and they are substantially better than a regular cooler we have. I highly recommend them.

Moose

[zamboni]

Likewise for the Coleman Extreme.  We've had ours last days.  2 pieces of advice:
1) Make sure to close the lid tight, or the ice will melt
(1.5: constantly (very often)opening and closing it is not healthy for ice*)
2) Keep it out of the direct sun and it will last much longer.


* we took our camping with a group.  Kept the beer in there, but noticed the ice was melting quick.  Turns out a couple lazy people weren't latching it, or even left it open.

[griffsdad]

Another vote for the Coleman Extreme.

[madkatz1]

Zamboni, I love your avatar. Where did you ever find it? lol

I love to ski, too.
 
Sooooooo, the Extreme is the favorite from many replys. I guess I'll go to Wally World tomorrow - they have 'em there for $25.

[garym053]

Coleman Extreme!
2 bags of Ice Cubes have never lasted LESS than 4 days, even over the 4th of July.
We haven't been out for 5 full days with them yet. Last trip was Thursday thru Sunday and there was half a bag of ice cubes left in each bag.
We DO keep drinks, etc in one, and meats and food in another when we have a crowd around.

[badkitty]

Yet another vote for the Coleman Extreme!

[madkatz1]

The Extreme seems to be most everyone's favorite - good, cuz I just bought one yesterday.  I'll be breaking in that baby next week when we camp at Ginnie Springs, FL. Anyone been there? It's been so damn hot/humid - we'll see how long the ice lasts!
 
This will be my 2nd trip with the new pu .... it's been sitting in the driveway far too long. I hope I don't have any surprises when I pop it up again.

[tplife]

2 words:  dry ice.

[chip]

I caught a Coleman Extreme at an LL Bean outlet for 18.95 (with coupon). Awsome cooler.  Here is what I have figgered out:

The key is to have it cooled off prior to loading:  Put two frozen 2 liter bottles (water works) in the cooler the day prior to loading.  Part of the load is two frozen gallon jugs of water and all the meat is frozen solid.  The ice blocks will last for about three days, keeping everything else safely cold and thawing slowly and safely.  Milk, juices (pre-colled) etc. will stay cool as well.

After 3-4 days (or when thawed, depending on conditions), take the jugs out and revert to ice.  (Block ice will last longer, but will likely generate wetness in the bottom of the cooler.)

Depending on ambient temperatures, this process will need to be adjusted, obviously.

[gravy]

We switched from ice chests to a Coleman Big Chill electric.I use it in the truck during the week.It comes with an adapter for ac.

[shellcjt]

I would like to have the coleman extreme but the smallest one I 've seen with wheels is 40 Qt - little too big for me.  If you all see any new ones comin' out with wheels, alert me right away...
Thanks

[cjpoppin]

We have one rated to keep the ice for up to five days in 85 degree temps it works pretty well if we use block ice along with cube......Never use dry when camping with the grandkids.....Also, use the solar cover over the ice chest Dee talked about on the RV show and that Really HELPS,,,,,,,Plus, we have a round cooler also rated for keeping ice for up to five days that we pack full with ice only and it does a very good job keeping ice... it gets covered too.......