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Catalina/Capri 25/250 Sailor's Forums

General Sailing Forum

5 day cooler -- very cool!!!

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djn
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
1561 Posts

Initially Posted - 01/11/2006 : 10:06:48

Hi All, first off, I have no affiliation with this product!!!! In my post about my reefer, PamC mentioned this cooler so I did a little research and here is a product review. I am very impressed with this cooler and thought I would pass the info on to y'all. I found them for $19.99 on eBay.

PRODUCT REVIEW:

No more trips to the Camp Store for ice!

It was with great excitement that we filled our Xtreme 36 quart cooler with the usual campfire basics and tasty treats for our camping trip far away from the big city. With its rather high - tech logo and slick silver coloring aside, it looked like our normal cooler, so we were interested to see how this would perform in the heat of July. Once filled with food, we placed our bag of ice on top and closed our Xtreme cooler for the trip up north.

As always, we left the cooler on the picnic table under our trusty blue tarp strung to nearby trees, keeping our food area safe from the sizzling sun and any threat of rain. It was a rather hot day, pushing the mid 80's with a humidity that changed any hiking plans into a day of swimming in the refreshingly cool lake. One other rather helpful feature are the openings on each side of the cooler where you can place a bungee cord to safeguard your food from Raccoons and other critters who visit while you sleep or leave the campsite for a hike.

The next morning I started off my routine of lighting the campfire and roasting some coffee in the percolator over the campfire grill. I took the cooler out from my car trunk, and would normally dump out the melted ice water and make a trip to the camp store for a new bag of ice. There was hardly any water in the bottom of the cooler, and the Xtreme booklet mentioned to save the ice water in the cooler as it helps keep the internal temperature lower. I was amazed with this performance, as the heat was sweltering the previous day,

The next two mornings had the same results with just slightly more ice melting, leaving about 75% of the Ice still remaining. We would have gone through 2 bags of ice with our normal cooler at this point. The fourth morning required us to empty the melted ice water, to ensure the food was not swimming, and by doing so greatly increased the melting process, but then again, this should be our 3rd bag of Ice by now!

The Coleman Xtreme cooler certainly follows the long history of quality products produced by Coleman. As an avid Camper, I can see the tremendous advantage this product provides in campgrounds that do not sell ice, as you do not have to drive out of the park to keep your food cool. My previous trips to the Camp Store for ice have been replaced with trips for chocolate ice cream cones!

Dennis
No Boat
S.E. Michigan

Edited by - on

John V.
Admiral

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USA
559 Posts

Response Posted - 01/11/2006 : 10:15:06

Ditto on the coleman,

I have had excellent results and swear by the thing. When cruising Lake Superior where ambient temps are much cooler the Ice lasted over 10 days. I packed everything is ziplocks and tried to open the cooler as little as possible. I found that periodic draining of Ice water shortened the life of the block. I only drain the box when I'm ready for new ice.

Edited by - on

At Ease
Admiral

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672 Posts

Response Posted - 01/11/2006 : 14:31:08

Same here, great cooler.

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Frank Hopper
Past Commodore

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Pitcairn Island
6776 Posts

Response Posted - 01/11/2006 : 19:55:00

Coleman is a Wichita company, while it is no longer family owned we are still proud of it. I don't think anyone at the 05 Nationals went to the outlet store. I worked in R&D in the early 70's, it is the basis of my knowledge in thermal transfer and fluid flow. It is part of why I took to sailing.

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JimB517
Past Commodore

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USA
3285 Posts

Response Posted - 01/12/2006 : 19:29:58

I bought one and find the ice lasts no longer than a regular cooler. Mine is a large one. I but over 50 lbs of ice - 2 10 lbs blocks and 3 10 lb bags and filled the sucker with food and water. I only opened it a couple of times per day. Furthermore I put lots of frozen food in there. All the beer and soda went in pre-chilled. I drained the water about 2 times daily per the instructions. After 3 days at 80 degrees F I had no ice and I was throwing perishables overboard on the 4th. The cooler is a waste of money in my opinion unless you drain water and keep feeding 10 or 20 lbs of ice daily.

Edited by - on

Frank Hopper
Past Commodore

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Pitcairn Island
6776 Posts

Response Posted - 01/12/2006 : 21:51:34

Jim, what brand was yours.

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atgep
Master Marine Consultant

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1009 Posts

Response Posted - 01/13/2006 : 11:45:09

I have had very good service with the Igloo 5 day coolers. There are a couple of tips though.

1. Pre chill everything. If it can be frozen, then freeze it.
2. Keep cooler as cool as possible(out of the sun)
3. Take items out all at once and put them in a "day use cooler" Ie drinks, meal fixings etc.
4. Block ice is better as it has more BTU's stored per cubic quart as there is no air.

Look at all the different brands of coolers and you will see a wide variety of features. I went with the thickest coolers I could find and Igloo has them.

Tom.

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JimB517
Past Commodore

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USA
3285 Posts

Response Posted - 01/13/2006 : 19:18:49

I still have it Frank, I didn't throw it over with the food!

Coleman I think, Its grey with a white top. A feature I really like is there is a small lid in the main lid that you can pop open to get into 1/2 of the cooler. There is a white box you can put here and I use this for bread, meat, cheese, veggies, yogurt, that kind of thing.

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The Officers, Staff and members of this site only provide information based upon the concept that anyone utilizing this information does so at their own risk and holds harmless all contributors to this site.