Can anyone recommend a cheap but good non-electric coolbox?

[moosemama]

We have a camping trip to the West of Ireland planned in the Summer and as we have an ancient VW camper, we are splitting the journey with an overnight at the port and will therefore need to keep things cool for longer than usual before even arriving on site.

We currently have two standard sized coolboxes, one of the cheap ones you can pick up in any supermarket and a more expensive one that can run off the cigarette lighter in the car, or an electric hook up.

I was watching a youtube video about the Coleman boxes the other day and found out that the reason the cheap boxes are a bit hopeless, is that they aren't actually insulated, they just have air between the wall and lining, whereas the better brands are fully insulated to keep the inside cool for longer. Sure enough, I went and knocked the side of ours and its not insulated at all.

So, it seems we are going to need a decent, well insulated box for our trip, preferably larger than the standard picnic sized boxes, but not huge as we are going to be overloaded as it is. Oh - and we are broke at the moment, so need something cheapish, but effective.

Any recommendations?

No reccs but will be watching as we also need the same.

Can you get to a Costco? They have Igloo Marine 45l boxes for £30, and Maxcold 55l (I think) for £42.

Oo thank you. I think we do have a Costco. Aren't they a membership only warehouse type shop though?

I have a coleman xtreme which is supposed to keep things cool for up to 5 days. Ive not managed to try if out for myself yet but we are going away for 4 days in a couple of weeks so can report back then. It's the smallest one in the range and it was about £45 on a pricematch deal at Go Outdoors. But it is HUGE, I am going to have to think carefully about how to fit everything in the car!

The igloo marine set from Costco is fab. It kept frozen 2l bottles with ice in after 4 days.

You can become a member if self employed, or if you work for civil service, nhs etc. There is a link on their website with joining criteria.

Thank you Pifpaffpoff and Nikkid21.

Dh does do freelance work, so we might be able to swing a Costco membership, it depends what they'll accept for proof of self-employment.

Piffpaffpoff, did you get the 36qt or the 50qt Coleman Extreme? Just had a quick look at the Go Outdoors website and the 50qt one looks massive.

I've been looking at the 'relatively' new Coleman Stacker range and wondering if we might do better to get a few of those in different sizes, that we can then stash in different places in the van for the journey, then stack up in the awning when we arrive. I also thought it might help to keep things chilled, as we could keep the most frequently used stuff in one box (eg milk, cheese, spread) that would therefore be opened more frequently, whilst leaving the stuff we need to keep chilled/frozen for longer in the bigger box which would only be opened when absolutely necessary, so it would hopefully maintain a more stable temperature. Does that make sense?

I'm not sure if they are made to such a high standard as the other ones though, as they are sold as the Party Stacker range, so might not be up to keeping things chilled for a few days at a time.

I got the 36l, it does look pretty big but I am going to use it as a table for the DCs as well so I save some space by not having to take their wee table! We only ever camp for 3-4 days do it should be big enough to take the food for that.