www.iFourWinns.com

One of our neighbors that we regularly boat with always "pre-chills" his cooler by putting a bag of ice in it several days before a trip. We are getting ready for a week long trip this Saturday and he already has begun the process. Has anyone on here ever heard of this? Seems that ice chills things down pretty quick. My neighbor claims his ice lasts longer if he pre-chills.

What do you think?

Anyone else have some interesting tips like this to pass along? We freeze our bottled water and use them in the food cooler so our food doesn't get wet from melting ice.

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Norris Lake, Stardust Marina, Andersonville, TN
2005 Four Winns 230 Horizon 5.7L Volvo Gi/DP
2001 Maxum 1900SR 5.0L V8 (Sold)
2011 Nissan Armada Platnum

I haven't heard of that, although good timing. I just tonight drilled a few small holes in the bottom of my coolers lid, and put some of the spray expansion foam in there. In both my coolers its hollow...so I'm expecting it to help keep it insulated better.

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2007 358 T-5.7GXi IB
Previous Boats
'08 H240, '08 V318, '04 268, '04 225

I do notice the ice in my cooler melts easy. Good thread, anxious to see how experienced boaters deal with this issue, Dennis

And here I thought I was the only one that did this......

I know if you have a 5 day (or Coleman xtreame) or alot of higher dollar marine coolers (that are also 5 day coolers) the ONLY way they work is to pre chill. Marine coolers are white (reflect heat, not absorb it) and that makes sense too. That being said I am too cheep and/or space limited to buy either the 5 day or marine cooler, but via a friends cooler and bigger boat it does help.

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'90 Horizon 220 5.8

I have a five day cooler that I usually just store the ice bags in and transfer to another cooler when needed. Just used it a couple of weekends ago and have four bags of ice keep semi frozen from 9:30 am till the next morning. It was out in the Texas sun all day with the temp around 101. The 5 day coolers are not that big inside since they have a ton of insulation, but the can hold 3-4 bags of ice.

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2001 328 Vista

Previous Boats:
2004 Sea Ray 220 Select

if you have a big freezer, stick the cooler in the freezer for a day before you go out. Cant get much colder than that. I bet it would help the ice last longer.

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2008 Four Winns F224
5.0 Volvo Penta
Towing with Audi Q7 4.2 V8

I have not heard of pre-chilling a cooler, but it is very important to make sure the items that you put in the cooler are already cold. If you put hot items in it, it makes your ice work too hard and it will melt quickly. Even 'normal' coolers can keep ice solid for days if you do not put hot items in it. Another tip- block ice will last much longer than the small pieces you get in bags of ice. Use old milk jugs filled with water or freeze water bottles to use as your icing system in the cooler. It will last you the weekend! I have bottles of different sizes for my different size coolers depending on how long I plan to be out.

4th of July coming up I plan to be on the lake all weekend!

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1998 Four Winns 205 Sundowner

TV: 2011 Toyota Tundra/2002 Chevy Tahoe

I freeze bottled waters. They slowly thaw but seem to help keep the cubed ice longer. Works great!

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Jeff
2006 H240 6.2 MX 320HP B3
La Habra, California

+1 or freeze ziplock bags of water. We still use a bag of ice, but also have the larger blocks, which do not melt as fast.

I'd love to see the look on my wife's face if I were to fill the freezer up with the cooler in order to pre-chill it. In fact, I may need to give this a try

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-Rob.


Current boat: 2011 Yamaha AR210
Previous boat: 1998 Horizon RX 4.3GL SX

This could be a good one for Mythbusters...

I have been doing this for years. As a mater of fact I have a small cooler chilled in my downstairs beverage fridge.
For larger coolers I keep some gallon plastic jugs of water frozen in the beverage fridge freezer, and will fill the large coolers with them at least a day before use.

My thought process on this anyway is that by pre chilling the cooler and adding pre chilled beverages there is no wasted energy used by the ice or ice packs to chill things down.

So pass me another cold one...

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Add more life to your days, not more days to your life.

Myth or not there is some truth I've found, but it really depends on your cooler. For a day trip I'm not sure it's worth it.

What I do is to save a few milk jugs, rinse and fill nearly to the top with water. Then place them in the cooler 24 hours before being used. Then day of filled them with ice and other items, if I have the room leave a jug in the center that's still frozen solid.

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2007 Four Winns 190 Horizon Merc 4.3 MPI

Our boat on Crescent Lake in Oregon

Yes mine neighbours are the same but pre-cooling does not means that it will keep ice cool long lasting because according to me, if you keep the ice on a medium temperature than also it would take the same time to melt, as there is some difference between the pre chilling and cold storage. But the most important tip is to use dry ice in your cooler or else you can also wrap the ice in a newspaper and place it on the food but the process of the melting is not going to vanish this tip is on a temporarily basis.

All I know is my 5-day cooler must be broke. It sure doesn't hold 5-days worth of beer!

Seriously, I have never tried pre-chilling the cooler. I do, however, insist that everything that goes in the cooler is cold. Starting off with warm contents is like sending your ice on a suicide mission. I am constantly on my kids that whatever drinks they want to take along better be cold before they are packed in the cooler. I tell them, "I don't want any of your warm drinks melting all my ice so I have to drink warm beer at the end of the day!" My brother is notorious for showing up (after the boat is already in the water) with a warm 12-pack (bottles of course, a whole other gripe of mine) and asks if I have room in my cooler. I put my foot down the last time he came out with me. We'll see if he ever tries that again.

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2005 FW Horizon 250
8.1L VP DP

Keeping your cooler out of direct sun can help more than insulating the lid. Pre-chilling the cooler does save ice from melting just by bringing down the temp of the inside of the cooler. The same holds true with items going into the cooler, pre-chill them or even partially freeze them so they stay chilled longer. When freezing plastic bottles filled with water to use as ice, leave about 20% airspace to allow for expansion of ice. Try to fill empty airspace in the cooler with crumpled up newspaper, this adds a little extra insulation and 'focuses' the cold temps on the food items in the cooler. As with a fridge, try to minimize opening and closing of the cooler, practically the only way to get 5 days out of a 5 day cooler is to keep it closed - it might help to have a second smaller cooler for high demand items, allowing the main cooler to stay shut.

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2007 Horizon 200
4.3L GXi/ SX 225 HP

Remember, there is no cold, only degrees of heat. Heat absorbs cold. Starting out with cold objects makes sense to me. I'll apply that technique tomorrow. Dennis