Igloo Marine Coolers

[Big Mac]

We recently had the factory ice box taken out and had a shelve and door installed. I have been looking at the 72 quart Igloo Marine cooler with a padded seat top. Looks like it would make a nice extra seat out back. Has anyone been using this cooler and what are your thoughts. It says it will keep ice for 5 days at 90 degrees, a little hard to believe? Thanks in advance for any posts. Happy Boating, Big Mac.

[Big dave]

Hi Mac I used that cooler on my Arima for a few years and we start looking for ice on the third day. If you open the lid a lot the ice will melt faster.(and I have a college degree hehe) We got a smaller one to keep our cold drinks in and use the big one for rest of the food we want to keep cold. We loaded the big one with frozen fish that we caught in Port Hardy BC and took three days to drive home to Vancouver WA. and when we got home all the fish was still froze solid ! We did put the cooler inside a sleeping bag for the trip home though.
My 22' cruiser starts production on the 14th of this month and we are getting the ice box from the factory, if I might inquire why you took yours out ? It seems the cooler is not a favored option. I guess I just don't expect that much out of it. If it will hold a block of ice for two days I'll be happy, rest of my cold food will go in the Igloo cooler in the stern.
Hope that I answered a few of your questions.
Big Dave.

[Seeker]

I have the Coleman (I think the 162 qt.) large cooler that I bought for the cockpit of the CD. We've been using it as our sole refererator for the last 10 days.

It's on the floor in the kitchen with 2 or 3 frozen 1 gal. jugs of water. They only last 2 1/2 maybe 3 days before becoming completely thawed.

The temperature gets to be about 80 degrees F. before I cool it down inside the house.

We haven't had electricity since Katrina.

I think They must have completely frozen the cooler completely full of water to make a solid block of ice, and never opened it, to have it last 5 days.

I wouldn'y buy another one based on that 5 day claim.

Law

[AnchortownJim]

Big Dave,

The reason I took my ice box out and built drawers is I NEEDED the storage space! A cooler in the cockpit serves several purposes, one as a cooler for drinks and food storage, and two as a nice place to sit or use as a coffee table in the cockpit. Can't tell you what I would do if someone took away my full extension drawers that hold the silverware, cooking untensils, log book, equipment manuals, spare parts, flashlights, binoculars, etc. Those drawers get more use than just about any other thing on my 22' cruiser. Just flat out love them!

[Adeline]

Hi Big Mac, Last year I decided to compare a 5-day Igloo 100 quart cooler to one of my Coleman Marine 100s. In my garage I loaded each with five bags of ice. Each evening and each morning I checked them. Neither one made it 5 days. As I recall the Coleman made it 4 days and the Igloo 3 1/2. I returned the Igloo. The factory installed ice-box was never really intended to be used for its intended purpose. Mark Toland( original president) explained to me that if ANY boat had an installed ice-box(or fridge), sink, and stove that it was considered a second home for tax purposes by the IRS and interest would be deductible. A tax dodge. On Adeline I simply removed the door and it is a perfect space for my Sharp Half-Pint microwave with a little storage space on top.

[Casey]

We have the 72-quart Igloo with the padded seat.

It was the forward seat/cooler on our Whaler, and I just converted it to use on the C-Dory. Worked fairly well, but the 5-day claim is just advertising hype. The only time I've had ice last THAT long was up in Alaska, when we had access to iceberg-bits! (Bergy bits work etremely well!) All in all I have no complaints with the 72's cooling; but when you get it loaded with ice and food - it does get HEAVY !

During our recent trip to the San Juans we tried a slightly different strategy. We bought TWO of the 48(50?) quart "5 day" coolers from West Marine. They seem to work very well, are smaller (lighter...) and permit us to segregate items better, so we're not spending time searching through the larger cooler looking for stuff. And ... the smaller coolers serve well as impromptu tables for eating and sitting. Pretty handy.

It seems to work well for us.

Casey
C-Dory Naknek

[Sealife]

On my new 22 Sealife, I installed a 72qt in chocks in the cockpit. The cushion on top helps with insulation, and ice lasted about 3days in fairly hot weather, which I deem good enough. Block ice lasts longer than cube.

Mike - Sealife

[Big Mac]

Big Dave, we had the factory ice box for 3 years and never used it as a cooler. We have a 12volt/120 Coleman refrigerator that we kept on the bunk. It worked ok but was a real pain to get into and had to be moved to use the bunk. The factory installed shelf and door where the ice box was works great for almost all of our food. We also have a shelf under the sink. We thought it would be a lot easer to have the cooler in the cockpit for access and use as a spare bench. If it holds ice for 3 days I will be very happy. We will see. Thanks for all the posts, Big Mac.

[MOOSE]

Although our procedures are still evolving, here's what we are doing for longer trips. We keep a 70 quart Igloo under the dinette table, covered with an old sleeping bag, with the bulk of our food in it. Then we bought a 50 quart, 5-day, Igloo Marine Cooler which is kept in the cockpit and fits somewhat nicely between the gas tanks. It's our reserve ice supply and is opened only sparingly. I made a slip-in liner for this cooler out of one- and two-inch rigid foam insulation stuck together with silicone adhesive to add extra insulation. I also made up three foam blocks which slip into the foam box. By changing the filler blocks, I can accomodate either two, three, or four ice blocks, depending on the length of trip, all surrounded with the maximum amount of insulation. We just used it on a five-day trip with three blocks and had beaucoup ice remaining to cool some trout for the trip home. For the heat of next summer, my thought is to seal the cooler with duct tape after filling it with ice to limit air infiltration, and then make a "blanket" for it, perhaps out of white beach towels, that I can repeatedly wet down to add evaporative cooling to the surface of the Igloo. I'll bet I could keep ice for ten days.
Al

[Salty Dog]

Big Dave,
I too have the ice box and use it regularly. Keeps most everything cold for about 3 days. I've found the perfect combination of ice is two 1 gallon milk jugs frozen solid and three 1/2 gallon milk jugs frozen solid. This combination fits perfectly in the tray. I locate the two gallons in the back and the three 1/2 gallons in front of them. Then when I get home, I just put the jugs back in the chest freezer in the garage and they're ready for the next trip.

[Big dave]

Hey Salty Dog thanks for the positive feed back on the ice box and how to arrange the blocks. I think at this point I will leave the ice box in and try it out, if you get three days of "cool" out of yours I think that is great !
So thanks again for the advice ! We can hardly wait to get our boat, I'm missing my Arima and need to get out on the water soon !
Big Dave.

[Salty Dog]

Big Dave,
No problemo. One thing you might consider doing is beefing up the mounting areas on the hinge side. The ice box is held in place by 4 screws, one near each corner. The plastic on mine has busted right there by the screw from opening/closing it. I would think a piece of aluminum or stainless steel running down the entire hinge side with additional screws holding it in place to dissipate the pressure would work. I'm going to try that on mine this winter to firm it up.

[k3nlind]

[DodgeRam]

Any of you ever use cooler by Icey-Tek ,little pricey but the say 9 days at 90 degrees, look like very well made coolers . The have the Cube style and the Chests style. Wall are about 3 inch thick. Gary SEA RAM

[wannabe owner]

We're still waiting on that elusive C-Dory but we know a bit about long term storage of ice and frozen goods with my years as a river guide on the Grand Canyon and other western rivers.

The posts on segragating food and drink into long term and short term "opening the cooler all the time" storage are correct. For those of you with serious long term ice needs here is what we did on the Grand Canyon. (Solid sun and 100 degree plus summer temps.) Start with 120 quart cooler. (Bigger mass of frozen goods stay frozen longer.) Double bag all food and individually freeze everything solid. Then nest everything as solid as possible in the cooler and take to a commercial frozen locker and fill cooler within 1" or so (to allow expansion of ice) with water and freeze cooler solid. Just befor your trip remove and seal lid with duct tape and wrap with a space blanket and duct tape. Then cover with a quilted moving blanket and secure with straps. Now keep pouring water over the blanket so it stays wet continuously. (Evaporative cooling.)

Using this system (which I recognize may have limited value for most C-Dory people due to more frequent call-ins at marinas) we had shrimp, steaks and corn on the cob, all frozen solid at day 11 on the Grand Canyon. In the right (low humidty climate) the evaporative cooling of the constantly wet moving blanket seems to really help.

Thanks for letting me wax nostaligic.

Steve

PS Sioux and I are looking forward to our fall color trip on the Erie Canal October 8 to 15 on a rented Nimble Nomad. We'll be cruising out of Brewerton, NY. Any suggestins on going "left" or "right"?