Can't afford a YETI

[James.]

Re: Can't afford a YETI

I usually replace broken hinges with leather ones which never fail.

That is a great idea that I would have never thought of.

[swebob]

Re: Can't afford a YETI

I will pass on the designer coolers and just freeze my Gatoraid bottles with water which last longer then ice.. Anyway the majority of Colmen cooler have no insulation between the plastic and are wothless.. I purchaced some reflective wrap at Homedepot and aluminum tape and made a cover to slip over my cooler when it is closed, make a big difference.. With this setup my water bottles stay frozen 5 days with little ice melted

[Diveralan]

Re: Can't afford a YETI

I have a 120 qt Yeti and I have been very happy with it. I purchased it in a silent auction for $95.00. I don't know if I would pay full price to replace it if something happened to it but I would miss it.

One of the mistakes people make with ice chests is they leave it in the hot garage until they load it and then they take a warm ice chest dump a bunch of warm soda in it along with their food and then fill it with ice. By the time your drinks and the ice chest get cold half of the ice has already melted.

Pre chill the ice chest with a bag of ice for 24 hours and then dump this ice out. Make sure everything that goes in the ice chest is at least prechilled or even better frozen.

As others have mentioned 2 liter bottles of frozen water will last longer than a bag of ice dumped in your ice chest. I use both, bottles on the bottom and bag ice on top.

If you use these suggestions along some of the others mentioned you can get good results with an inexpensive ice chest.

[gatordude]

Re: Can't afford a YETI

I was at Road Atlanta for 4 days + 2 days travel time each way. I didn't like the idea of paying $4.00 for 7.5 lbs of ice, so I was real careful with my coolers. I used a Coleman extreme 50 qt. cooler + a small cooler for drinks while traveling. For the Coleman, I froze water in 2 gallon jugs + 2 gallons of water in 2 one gallon freezer bags. I also cooled everything that went into the cooler, and turned the empty cooler upside down over an A/C vent to cool it off. Also about an hour before I left, I wet a bath towel and put it in the freezer, not to freeze, but almost. When I loaded the cooler I put the ice jugs and bags in the bottom and the drinks on top. I then put the towel on top of that, then the food on top of the towel. I then put a quilt, and my jackets on and around the cooler. Everything that was left was still very cold when I got home 8 days later. I did the same with the smaller cooler and transferred the drinks from the large one to the smaller one, which lasted about 5 days. My cooler cost around $35.00 and my ice cost nothing. No need for a more expensive cooler.