ghone":3qpgrivz said:
Some places don't sell block anymore. We could only get party ice.
You've hit on a sore point with me. The virtually complete lack of real block ice available in the U.S. anymore (I'm sure some places must still have it, but they are few and far between in my experience). If you are "lucky" you find what I call "fake blocks," which are blocks comprised of a bunch of cubes frozen together to make a square shape. They still last better than bags of cubes, but
nothing like real blocks.
I once had a discussion with an ice vendor who came to my place of employment, and we talked about the "fake blocks." He explained what it took to make them vs. the real ones, and of course it was quicker/cheaper to make the "fake" ones. I said yeah, but they don't last! (And they're not cheaper to buy; but I'd pay more for the real ones happily anyway.) Of course he insisted they last just as long, which made me think he had never tried them out for real. Sigh.
I'm loving my "nimble C-Dory stage of life" right now (which is currently U.S./Canada based) and don't want to trade it; but if there is one thing I remember fondly from foreign cruising, it's the ice plants :lol: Huge great rooms with gigantic blocks of clear, hard ice. What size block do you want? (As they break out the saw...) Man, those lasted - even in the tropics. But of course those were places where people still use ice to power their iceboxes at home!
Right now I have an "Ice Cube" 70-quart cooler. It's nothing special at all (and somewhat oddly shaped for either sitting on or fitting blocks of ice into). I bought it on the spur-of-the-moment at the Wal-Mart in Price last year on the way to Powell and just now used it for a month aboard so it's fresh in my mind. It has one of those telescoping handles and wheels like a carry on bag you'd use at an airport. As it turns out I don't use that feature at all (would be too heavy to lift into boat, so I just load cooler in boat, at least in my limited experience to-date). And the fact that there is a hump on the inside (where the wheels are outside) means that the drain plug is rather high on the cooler and you have to tip it way up to drain it. However if you want a small/tall footprint, or the wheels, it might be a choice as it is more cube-shaped than most.
I watched a video which I think is the test a couple folks have referred to in the thread. What I got out of it (by memory, a year later) is that the Yeti and Engel (Engel cooler; this is different from their 12-volt refrigerator) are both very good and very tough. For some reason I had in mind I might like the Engel better of the two, but I don't remember why. I did try opening an Engel at Cabela's last month and felt like I was not sure I'd want to bother with the latches just to grab a quick drink, etc. (but maybe you can just firmly push it closed and not latch the two latches every time - they were two rubber "T" sort of like a Jeep hood). I would want to try the Engel "everyday opening handiness" too before buying one.
The other thing I got out of the Video was that the Coleman Extreme series basically held ice just as long as the expensive coolers (Yeti/Engel), and was much, much less expensive to buy; but that the quality of the hardware (construction/hinges/lid/etc.) was about as good as you'd expect for the price, i.e. nothing like the better ones.
I like having a cooler aboard - I use it basically for drinks/milk and ice (the hardest for me to give up), and then since I have it for cheese, butter, some produce. Of course the latter depends a lot on where you boat; the dinette foot compartment would not make a good "larder" in Florida, for example - it would be 80º+ much of the time.
Since I'm not enamored of "The Cube," I'm also keeping an eye out for a cooler I like. I don't mind "investing" in a good one if it's just what I want; otherwise I'll look at the various Coleman Extreme models (Jay on Hunky Dory had one that fit four blocks, plus a tub of food that would then never get wet - that's how I use my cooler too but can never fit that much ice, but I can't remember which size he had). What I now know I want or don't want:
1) Holds ice and has a shape that will fit a food tub (or two) and blocks of ice efficiently (I use a plastic tub to put all the food into so it never gets wet; this is not one that comes with the cooler - at least so far - but just a tub I find that happens to fit well. This also makes it easy to just lift everything out when it is time to drain/add ice, then put it all back as a "lump." I do keep milk and drinks just "out" in the cooler though, packed in with the ice.
2) Lid is "pleasant" and easy to get open and shut one handed (food or drink is in other hand now).
3) Drain is easy to operate and drains cooler as much as possible without having to lift or tilt it a lot.
4) Lid is strong and can be used for seat.
5) Lid is strong and is of a height that I can use it to step up and over my motorwell board and onto the platform in the splashwell that is on the way to the swim step (Cube cooler did work very well for this).
6) Refillable/refreezable built in "ice packs" are not useful to me because I don't leave from a home base that has a big freezer, so I can't re-charge them regularly (if I do get that chance I can freeze water jugs, then use them to drink as they melt).
Sunbeam
Thanks