Icey Tek Question

[BaconCrispsGone]

So I have finally succumbed to the luxury coolbox, but I'm wondering how best to use it. Do you find it works best as a fridge or freezer or do you have some clever way of using it as both?

I pre-cool mine for at least 24 hours below, so I fill a couple of big plastic milk bottles with water, freeze them then but them inside. If I'm really organised and have saved enough milk bottles then I'll swap them for 2 different frozen bottles every few hours.

When we go I usually put a few things in frozen which we'll use later in the week, these work as ice blocks, but you have to remember to take them out to defrost because they will stay frozen. Then chilled things just get popped in as is.

To keep it cool while we're away I have 2, 2 pint milk bottles of water frozen. I have the smaller icey tek and these bottles are the perfect size to stand up, whereas the 4pint bottles are a little bit too tall. once we're at the campsite I put one bottle in the campsite freezer and then we swap them over every day.

If it gets really hot or it's towards the end of the week I may do some strategic positioning of things that need to be kept very cold. So butter is kept closer to the frozen bottle, and other things such as cider can be positioned further away from the milk bottle.

It's also a handy chair or table :)

Could you use it for ice cream?
Ideally I'm thinking of lollies, ice creams, frozen kids food and all the fridge stuff. I'm assuming that I'd actually end up with runny ice cream and frozen lettuce, and I'd need to decide if I was keeping stuff frozen or just cool? Do I need to buy two?????:)

It won't work as a freezer for long....brilliant cool box tho as long as you put some effort into keeping it cold

I do the same as Annie and pre-cool mine for 24-48 hours with frozen bottle of water. The big 5l water bottles are also good to fill and freeze if you can collect a few empty ones. The longer you can freeze it down for the better.

I take a couple of frozen bits (e.g. milk) to defrost over the weekend and we have some big cool packs. For more than a couple of days it's worth having some more in the freezers on site to swap over.

I am also obsessive about not opening the it unless necessary. So if DH opens a bottle of wine it stays out - none of this taking it in and out! Also try to avoid putting things in that aren't already chilled e.g. drinks that you buy whilst out and about as that will also raise the temperature.

Best present I ever had though - love my Icey Tek!

Ice cream would probably keep for about a day, so good for a trip out but not for a weekend camping. I definitely use it as a fridge, and a slow way of defrosting frozen items.