Cooler hype

Tuma wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>broth82 wrote:</div>
Has anyone tried mixing 1/3 wood shavings (sawdust) with 2/3 water for your ice when using milk jugs?

Would it matter how fine the shavings are or would chunks work better?

It’s definitely an interesting concept.

The wood must insulate the ice itself.

I’d imagine a mixed block would put out “less cooling” than a plain block, but if it was still enough to keep the cooler cold, it’s worth a shot!

I’m going to do some experimenting with it. Right now I save all of my Clamato jugs and use them as ice blocks.

They’re square so they utilize the space in a cooler better than a round container. Some of them are going to get some wood added.

im no scientist but how I understand it the sawdust works by insulating the ice when its on top of it much like sleeping with a blanket keeps your heat in. I would doubt that having sawdust mixed in with the water would have any affect just the same as having particles of blanket inside of you wouldn’t keep you warm. kind of a weird analogy I know but it worked in my head. I could be wrong but I think the sawdust needs to cover the top of the ice to be effective. if anyone tries it let us know if it seems to work. maybe Bill Nye can chime in

From what I saw they added the sawdust to the water, stirred it in good so it was mixed up really well then froze it. From what I understand the wood particles absorb some of the water and provide insulation to the ice making it melt slower. It also make the ice very strong, they had another 2 blocks that they hit with a sledge hammer, the clear ice broke right away. The one with the sawdust they hit several times and only chipped the surface it never cracked or broke apart.

Pykrete, also known as picolite, is a composite material made of approximately 14% sawdust (papershreds or wood pulp) and 86% water by weight then frozen. It is invented by Max Perutz during World War II.

The material was proposed to United Kingdom’s Royal Navy, by Geoffrey Pyke, as a candidate material for making a huge, unsinkable aircraft carrier, Project Habakkuk. Steel and aluminium were in short supply and required for other purposes. Pyke realized that the answer was ice, which also could be manufactured for only 1% of the energy needed to make an equivalent mass of steel.

Pykrete has some interesting properties, notably its relatively slow melting rate (due to low thermal conductivity), and its vastly improved strength and toughness over pure ice, actually closer to concrete, while still being able to float on water. Pykrete is slightly harder to form than concrete, as it expands while freezing, but can be repaired and maintained from the sea’s most abundant raw material. It has a crush resistance of greater than 21 megapascals (3,000 psi) so a very short 25 by 25 mm (1 inch by 1 inch) column could support the weight of a typical car. The wood pulp also makes the pykrete stable at higher temperatures. Pykrete can be easily formed using water and any porous and fibrous material, such as shredded paper or sawdust. Anything that can be molded with this wet pulp can be frozen into a strong and non-brittle solid.

Who needs Bill Nye??

Myth busters did an episode on it.

I bought a grizzly cooler for half off on some special. It’s the roto molded 65 quart I believe. Was like 200 bucks. I beat the hell out of it at work day in and day out. 2 ten lbs blocks of ice on Monday morning will last 4 of us digging through it for water and red bull till Thursday or Friday. And it’s always in the box of my truck so right in the sun. And I tell you it’s taken a beating and lasted enough to I bout 2 more another 65 i think it is and a 45

I pre chilled my ozark trail bag cooler overnight friday night and put 18 tall boys onto 2 quarts of block ice saturday morning. By the time we drank the beers from the bottom saturday evening they were slushy, and the cooler was sitting in the sun all day.

The trick I learned is freeze your ice in half gallon jugs and do not use cubes. The blocks of ice last all week. The cubes melt in 2 or 3 days.

The beginning of a science experiment…..

Two identical Clamato jugs.

One filled with plain water (already frozen).

One filled with lightly fluffed pine bedding chips.

To my surprise, they weigh within an ounce of each other. I thought for sure the wood-filled jug would be considerably less.

The wood filled jug needs to freeze, and I will start my own half-azzed test tomorrow or the next day.

If the theory of the wood filled block lasting significantly longer holds true, it should also take longer to become completely frozen.

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Here is my go to cooler. I pull it up the steps, I let it slide down the steps. I pick it up to load it in the truck and roll it on the ground where ever I go. holds ice very well. I use it for a cooler as well as a pick-er-nic hot basket. I made a 1/4″ shelf with a leg for a tray in the bottom to level the bottom interior where the wheels are inset.

Anyway it has worked for me for years now.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Coleman-62-Quart-Xtreme-5-Day-Heavy-Duty-Cooler-with-Wheels-Blue/181351865?wmlspartner=wlpa&selectedSellerId=0&adid=22222222227074913451&wmlspartner=wmtlabs&wl0=&wl1=g&wl2=c&wl3=188301650289&wl4=pla-292702835650&wl5=9017955&wl6=&wl7=&wl8=&wl9=pla&wl10=8175035&wl11=online&wl12=181351865&wl13=&veh=sem

B-man, I’m interested in how cold each will preform over the given time line in the same space starting out at the same internal temperature.

Hey B-Man, who helped drink all the bloodys ???

I’ve got no less than a dozen coolers. Amassed over a couple decades and kept in the basement until needed. What I’ve learned is that the igloo 6 day rated cooler on wheels is the most versatile and most used cooler we own. It was maybe $50. We have some smaller Coleman coolers and they don’t hold ice worth a darn. We also have a soft yeti bag cooler . It is ok but the zipper opening is so tight that it is a pain in the butt to use and to clean.holds ice ok but we would rather use a smaller igloo. We also have a big yeti tundra hard side cooler. It takes two people to move it when it is empty. It’s just ridiculous. I haven’t used it much because it is gawdawful heavy and bulky. I have $0 into the yeti coolers (won them) so I can’t really complain but I would be feeling ripped off if I had paid the prices they ask.

big_g wrote:

Hey B-Man, who helped drink all the bloodys ???

I’m pretty good at it

This is the best cooler at the best price. Hands down. I have three. Had a wedding this weekend and just dumped the ice out of the last cooler tonight. Ice was good from last Thursday with the lid being opened occasionally. Would have lasted at least one more day.

Yuppie = Yettie. These are way more lighter and easier too handle. I guess too each their own what they get.

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70 quart needs wheels and a long handle to pull it lengthwise, mo. I could easily get it to weigh 70 pounds. This old man ain’t carrying that kind of weight in front of me for Any distance, real hard on the back!

In order for a cooler to solve a problem, you have to HAVE that problem in the first place. For most people who use a cooler to keep drinks cold over the weekend and are never more than a block away from an ice refill, almost anything will work fine.

I actually have the problem that the Yeti-style roto coolers are designed to solve. I take them to Canada where there is no backup ice supply waiting at the 7-11, so I need to keep ice for 5-6 days. I also use them on varmint shooting expeditions where they bake in the hot truck for 12 hours a day at over 100 degrees. I never carry the cooler far and have help when I have to move it, so the weight is not major concern.

You can’t beat the laws of physics. Yes, they are heavy, that’s because dense insulation and rugged construction aren’t light.

I just put my new RTIC SoftPak through its paces today and I’m impressed. Filled it with warm water and drinks this morning, added ice and had cold drinks all day even though it was left in the sun. Dumped out some ice when I got home.

I totally agree, if you don’t have the problems a Yeti-style cooler will solve, they are a waste of money. I still get plenty of mileage from my big 150 qt marine cooler as well. Everything depends on how you intend to use the cooler.

Grouse

I have been using my Cabelas brand 65qt roto molded for two full years of camping trips and long weekends away. There’s no comparison between that cooler and a Coleman Extreme or the Igloo. Been on trips for 8 days and still have had 1/2 frozen jugs, makes life easier even though I could be buying $3.99 ice every other day.

If I did the camping trips and remote getaways would be alot easier to justify, but all my camping involves a fridge in a cabin.

Part of the confusion, when some say “ICE” they are talking blocks… blocks should last a week in a $300 cooler… when I say “ICE” it is cubes… for my brandy’s. Now if he had 2 blocks of ICE… in his YETI bag and could then fit 1 Bag of ICE in there too, the bag might have lasted all week… but I believe our drinks would have depleted the only bag of cubes the first night. Catch 22… maybe a freezer that worked better in the bush… (for cold beer, sink a bag of beer in 20 feet of water, with a float tied to it)

I have an 80 qt Cabelas roto cooler that I used for the first time last week. Worked very well. It was in the 90’s all week, no clouds, no wind. Placed it in the shade and on the last day I still have ice in my milk jugs I froze.
I bought 3 arctic ice “tundra” packs and 2 of the chillin brew packs. The tundras were placed on the bottom of the cooler. They use plant oils and freeze at 0 degrees. You have to make sure your freezer gets that cold for it to be effective. I checked mine and it was -10.
I had 2 gallon milk jugs with frozen water and 40 pounds of cube ice and a dozen frozen water bottles. I hadn’t loaded my other cooler (coleman 65 quart) with ice real well and had to take ice from the Cabelas cooler much sooner than anticipated.
Had I planned ahead better I know my ice would have faired even better, but I wasn’t planning on bringing my coleman because someone else was going to use their’s, but they didn’t bring it. Grr.
I like to freeze water just because then you can later drink it when it thaws.
I am going to get the cart that is available for my cabelas cooler. It is bulky, but not too bad.

I guess I forgot to mention the grizzly cooler I purchased doubles as a boat seat camp fire chair and weight set. Also a nice step up for getting in and out of my pickup camper

Costco in Fargo had these. Identical to the yeti or the rtic. 80 qt.

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Well I started the experiment at 5:30 a.m.

Ideally I’d have two identical coolers, but unfortunately I don’t.

So I placed the plain water jug and the Pykrete together into a 30 can RTIC soft cooler with nothing else in it.

I’ll check it twice a day and make notes.

Edit: I put them in a 30 can RTIC, not the 40

big_g wrote:

(for cold beer, sink a bag of beer in 20 feet of water, with a float tied to it)

We actually talked about doing this. The only float I had were my 2 blue fox buoys, well, they are like a beacon and someone would have found our treasure.

When I’m fishing Lake Superior I just fill my livewell with lake water and put my beverages in it.

biggill wrote:

When I’m fishing Lake Superior I just fill my livewell with lake water and put my beverages in it.

I fill my livewell with fish out there

Ozark trail with wheels well worth it

For all you yeti haters. I bet whoever started this will do surprisingly well. I refuse to drop that kind of coin on a cooler but just because, I might drop $16 for an emblem? Very clever!

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