Cool box question

[Macocious]

Right, those icey tek boxes look amazing but I think they might just be too good for my purposes and they're so so expensive!

We'll probably only be using the cool box for 3 or 4 days at a time. Can anyone recommend a good middle ground cool box? Would something like a Coleman be much better than a £10 jobby from Wilkinson? Don't want anything too big as we don't have much space in the car. There's only two of us and a baby.

---

This thread is very old now so some of the suggestions may be outdated, but we’ve recently refreshed our best cooling boxes page with plenty of Mumsnetter-approved options, including affordable Icey-Tek alternatives. We hope you find it helpful.
MNHQ

I have a Coleman 36QT Xtreme Cooler -it is advertised as able to keep ice for up to 5 days in temperatures reaching 32C. This is one of the most affordable quality boxes on the market. It is quite big but I think smaller ones keep ice for only 3 days in 32C. This Xtreme range is really good in my opinion as most cheap boxes usually cool to about 18 degrees below ambient temperature. So anything above 22 C and you have a problem and tents warm up quite a bit on sunny days.

Thanks for taking the time to reply Kmski. That 36QT coleman does look really good but I've been out to measure the boot and I just don't think it'd work with our tent. I've decided to go with the 25L icey tex despite saying I wouldn't...

Agree with above, but tbf we have only this year graduated to an Iceytech after eight years of camping with a super cheap second hand coolbox that our neighbour was putting in a skip!

If you use a cheapy, just be prepared to rotate ice packs every 12/24 hours and food every two days, so only put in it what you are going to eat in the next 48 hours.

Also personally would never leave a coolbox in a tent during the day it gets far too hot, ours goes outside in the kitchen area under a table where it will be shaded from the sun and is covered by a wet towel.

Bear in mind that the claims of all the expensive boxes are based on a high fill, ie all frozen contents and not opening the box for the length of time claimed. Ie totally the opposite of how they will be used when camping

Lol, come over to the dark side

Mine is currently pre-cooling for tomorrow

Yes! Waeco do a range of passive cool boxes see one size here
Really very good, same qualities as iceytec but cheaper.. I have the one linked to above and it kept ice for 4 days (not tried a longer trip yet).