OK, the packs I use for my cooler have hit their limit, they're not freezing and holding their chill as long as when I bought them nearly 10-years ago.

Looks like there's been some changes, perhaps its more aesthetics. I see Arctic Ice has up'd their assortment, I'd like to avoid Yeti, Wal-Mart house brand is a maybe...what else is out there to consider?

I’ve had good luck with the Rubbermaid Blue Ice brand hard packs.

I’m cheap, I just freeze different sizes of bottled water.

Seems to work just as well.
.

Frozen waters bottle work, but I got these and love the options of freezing temperatures and sizes.

https://arctic-ice.com/collections/all

I use CoolerShock. You mix the water with the powder stuff and seal it at home.
https://www.amazon.com/Cooler-...id=1588638628&sr=8-2

They now have a hard pack version that I've been meaning to buy.
https://www.amazon.com/Cooler-...88638702&sr=8-5&th=1

“Cooler Shock” from Amazon. Our fridge went out the week of Thanksgiving and couldn’t get a new on delivered for 10 days.

I picked these up from Amazon and can’t recommend strong enough. Three of them in the old fridge kept it at 39 degrees for 12-15 hours before starting to thaw.

Two in my 50L cooler kept it 35 degrees for 20 hours.

ONce they start to soften, 12 hours in the freezer and they are good to go again. Some sort of super cooling chemical, “thaws” to 18 degrees then holds for hours before slowly working towards ambient.

They come in HD aluminum pouches with the chemical inside, you add water and have the reusable packs.

Come in different sizes, are thin and don’t take up much room and cool far superior to the bulkier freeze pack option

https://www.amazon.com/gp/prod..._title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

America's Test Kitchen tested a bunch of 'em

Doesn’t get better than Techni-Ice, IMO, but make sure you get legit Aussie product and not cheap ChiCom knock offs.

-Rob

quote:

Originally posted by bendable:
America's Test Kitchen tested a bunch of 'em

Yep

quote:

Originally posted by corsair:
OK, the packs I use for my cooler have hit their limit, they're not freezing and holding their chill as long as when I bought them nearly 10-years ago.

Looks like there's been some changes, perhaps its more aesthetics. I see Arctic Ice has up'd their assortment, I'd like to avoid Yeti, Wal-Mart house brand is a maybe...what else is out there to consider?

Next time you go by your pharmacy ask him if they have any leftover ice packs that are used to ship biologic Medications most pharmacies end up just throwing these away

I buy them in the fall for 75¢-$1 when places are doing 50-75% off summer item sales. I pack a cooler daily for work and the ones I constantly use day in and day out end up leaking over time. My strategy has been more cheap ones rather than the best ones that last for years. Seems to work out for me. My annual budget is about $6 a year.

Food lion, Safeway, and CVS near me all slash prices in August/September for them.

quote:

Originally posted by BurtonRW:
Doesn’t get better than Techni-Ice, IMO, but make sure you get legit Aussie product and not cheap ChiCom knock offs.

-Rob

Rob,
Do you have issues with the slime that some people complain about in the reviews.

I just keep the packs that come every 3 months with my insulin medicine.

flashguy

quote:

Originally posted by tatortodd:

quote:

Originally posted by bendable:
America's Test Kitchen tested a bunch of 'em

Yep

And the winner was... Plain ice. But then there is the melt water to cause a problem perhaps.

SNIP:
While these results were impressive, we were astounded to find that the clear winner was the plain bagged ice, which brought the drinks down to a frosty 33 degrees and consistently kept them 10 degrees colder than any ice pack over the course of 36 hours—even after a day and a half, sodas in the cooler with plain ice hadn’t even climbed to 40 degrees.

Actually, different winners based on what you want them to do. Yes, plain ice is a winner. Back in the last century when I was known to cart a cooler of adult beverages to a club owned property, the best was just a 20# bag of ice from the deli down the road. Then being cheap, I'd shovel up the left over salt the highway trucks would deposit in the nearby turnout. I'd shovel it into a box lined with a garbage bag.

All clean and simple. Then I'd spread a nice layer of salt on top of the ice. Beer first, ice next, then salt. The 20 mile drive to the gravel pit would induce sloshing. By the time I'd get there, some of the ice would turn to brine. Causing the tops of the cans to be encased in a thick layer of clear ice.

Sure, it would cause some effort to chip off the ice to open the can. The the very first sip or two would come complete with "beer slush". Terrible because the brew was so cold. No one I ever gave a beer to complained, and I gave away a lot of beer. Best friend, who passed away maybe 10 or so years ago, would wait for me to show up. He wanted an ice cold beer. Yes, you need to use a cold cup to protect your hands from the cold. Well, that and to keep the beer cold.

Oldest son used to go to Moab with me in the spring. One year he got out a Dew, and started hiking back the row of jeeps. Soon he came back to get another one. Then again. He was selling the MD encased in ice to suckers who couldn't resist offering him a buck for a dew. Worked for him, I paid for the case of MD early in the week. He'd sell of individual ones for a dollar.

quote:

Originally posted by hbabler:

quote:

Originally posted by BurtonRW:
Doesn’t get better than Techni-Ice, IMO, but make sure you get legit Aussie product and not cheap ChiCom knock offs.

-Rob

Rob,
Do you have issues with the slime that some people complain about in the reviews.

No, but I read those reviews as well. We used it in a mid-range soft-sided cooler to keep regular first aid type ice packs frozen while we were tooling around the outer banks in August last year after Mrs.BurtonRW’s knee surgery. They did an amazing job all day and we just threw them in the freezer for a recharge overnight. They never unfroze, though.

The only sense of any “slime” I’ve ever encountered was more like a feeling than an actual gooey substance that got on anything, and that was only after we got home and let them thaw so they wouldn’t take up freezer space while we didn’t need them.

I really like the ability to cut them to size as well.

-Rob

Depending on your particular situation and needs a chunk of Dry Ice will work well.

In fact, if you are using a bag of ice to keep things frozen or just cold, Dry Ice will keep the regular ice frozen for a couple days at least.

I make an annual trip to Albuquerque to pick up a large quantity of Chili Rellenos, Dry Ice keeps it frozen for several days so I can just take my time coming home.