Sorry not exciting - please hit me with your best recommendations for a cool box!

[Advent0range]

Hi, we desperately need a better solution for keeping milk cold. We don't always use electric hook up, so our ideal solution would work with or without electricity. Thanks in advance

Igloo and yeti are both very good, you can keep things fridge cold for 4-5 days.

I’ve got two, a big vango and a smaller polar box. The bigger vango one is the best bit tbh bI think it’s because of the sheer size of it providing a more stable environment. It tastes up a LOT of space in a typical family car and I’d we are going with that it’s a two car camping trip with one car full of equipment and I’ve car full of people. With that I freeze milk and sausages/bacon/cup drinks and whatever else I want and there is still solid frozen masses in the bottles on day 3-4, we only need to add more frozen stuff into it on day 4/5 to keep the temperate below 4c. during a heat wave a few years ago we’re were the envy of the very rural campsite as we whipped out ice cream on day 3 and everybody was like 😮😲😯🍦

The20l Polarbox is also great , mega light and easy transportable, and will keep stuff frozen for 2-3 days if you only open it once to remove stuff, if it’s still cold you can top up with more frozen stuff for another 2-3 days. I pre cool both boxes with frozen bottles of water and make sure they are packed full to stay at a stable temperature.

Ooh this is really helpful with some good tips. There are lots of reviews on the internet but your lived experience is helpful in a more practical way!

Also - ice-cream!! That's practically a freezer then!

We put the ice cream right at the bottom with a 4pt of frozen milk. I also took a 2litre full of frozen curry for an easy meal and these big frozen items really help to keep the defrost extra slow, just open the lid is little as possible and if you do have empty void space as you use stuff, it’s better to fill the space with loosely crumpled news paper in plastic bags to fill the void, than to leave the space empty. Just keeps it more stable.

That's really helpful advice. Thank you.

We have the Coleman extreme and with some of the big gel freezer packs it stays cold for up to 4 days!

Have never been let down by our Icey Tel- it is big and was expensive. It takes up loads of space. But it is by far the best cool box we have ever had!

Icey Tek. I love my Icey Tek. Not sure I would put ice cream in my 24l box but it’s excellent for keeping things v cold.

But any of the ‘high performance’ coolboxes should be good; Coleman Xtreme tends to to be cheaper than Icey Tek / Yeti because they don’t have the trendy / cool / design appeal, I think.

To get the best out of them you need to pre-chill the box for 24 hours, ordinary plastic bottles of frozen tap water work well. Pack with frozen and chilled items.

Don’t open or leave the lid open more than necessary. I banned the kids from opening it. Might be good to get a second box just for drinks if there is a lot of that.

If you can top up with ice / refrozen blocks, do.

Agreed!