iceboxes

albro · Veteran Member

iceboxes

Dougwe · Chief one feather

I have just recently heard or read somewhere, can't remember where though sorry, that the pocket of sealed air between the inside and outside walls acts as a good insulator. With ice, cold packs or similar inside, might all work together to keep contents cold.

Dav4Cris · Senior Member

Drill a hole and fill with expanding foam, worth a try only problem would be how much and I would suspect that you would have to drill a couple holes at top one to fill one for excess to come out. Otherwise as Dougwe said.

LLD · Senior Member

From my school days, hollow walls are only good if they have no air in them (ie. vacuum flask).

Also, ice boxes say they keep ice frozen for 4-5 days. They do if you don't open them. Getting a beer or three out per day will soon melt the ice, especially if it is the stuff you get from a bottle shop.

albro · Veteran Member

Thanks for the info guys. I bought the icebox before realizing I might have made a mistake. Haven't actually used it yet. I suppose I should try it out before drilling holes and trying the DIY insulation bit. It would be good if what Dougwe said is right. By the way I am a newby here and pretty thrilled to get the feedback!

Grumpytoo · Senior Member

The type of box you have would probably be OK to keep lunches in but is not going to keep things much longer than that.

adreamer · Senior Member

Sorry about this, but if I was you I would fill the holes with buckshot and blow the chest up.

Peter_n_Margaret · Guru

Air is a reasonable insulator, but only if it can't move about and is in small "parcels". That is what foam insulation does, it stops the air moving about and keeps all the little bits separated.
An open air filled cavity won't be too good.
Some foams are better than others too. Closed cell urethane is almost twice as good as polystyrene foam of the same thickness.
No air (a vacuum) is even better.

Cheers,
Peter

hako · Guru

If you fill it with expanding foam you will probably need 2 tubes so that's about $20 and then when you fill the void it will probably expand too much and split the sides of the cooler. The foam dries yellow and looks terrible IMO. Personally I would not fill with foam.

Good Luck.

Bruce and Bev · Guru

G'day albro and welcome to the site. I guess the answers you got weren't what you were hoping to hear, but theyre problem pretty spot on.

Have you actually put some cold food and liquids inside and then filled the balance with ice (some on the bottom, around the sides and on top?

Then you'll know if you have a lemon or a food/drink cooler :))

albro · Veteran Member

Thanks for all the feed back guys. I will try it out before our next trip, as you said Bruce, and then I will know for sure.

Cupie · Guru

Yes .. Wise move to check it out first. I find that block ice lasts much longer than 'party ice' & dry ice even better.

Don't know about ice boxes, but I recall that a bricklayer mate built a solid brick bungalow with both exterior & internal walls constructed with brick. Unfortunately he filled the gap between the external walls with concrete. Topped it off with a tin roof. Result was a very hot house. (In Qld). Sold it after less than 2 years & built another.

LLD · Senior Member

I've seen people who just use their Engel / Waeco just to make ice in 2L ice cream containers during the day with a solar setup then use ice in foam eskies to keep their drinks / food cold. The foam eskies are often foam boxes retrieved from supermarket / fruit & veggie shops.

Cupie · Guru

LLD wrote:
I've seen people who just use their Engel / Waeco just to make ice in 2L ice cream containers during the day with a solar setup then use ice in foam eskies to keep their drinks / food cold. The foam eskies are often foam boxes retrieved from supermarket / fruit & veggie shops.

As a CP dweller, I just rotate my water bottles through the camp kitchen freezers & my crappy 3 way fridge. I rederve the middle shelf for them. My Engel is reserved for important things like wet groceries.