Coolbox…igloo, Ninja?

[Moonlightfrog]

Are the Ninja, igloo cool boxes worth the money? Are there cheaper alternatives? We only camp for 3 or 4 days at a time, we have a camper and we do have electric hook up and a Jackery portable power bank. But prefer not to pay for hook up. We could do with a cool box just for Milk, Bacon, cheese etc.. but there are so many on the market. Obviously some are very expensive including the Ninja and Igloo. Are there and alternatives or is it worth paying more?

They are much better than ordinary passive cool boxes. I have an Icey tek 18L

It keeps stuff cold for 4 days if everything goes in frozen, you pre-chill the box, and don't keep leaving it open. You can thrown on a bag of ice after a few days.

Icey Tek and Yeti are in lovely colours. Coleman Xtreme is also a premium passive cooler.

They are v good.

I asked similiar recently, ended up with a yellow icey tek - I love it! Works brilliantly

How many trips worth of hook up cost would you need to save before the coolbox pays for itself? I would just go for a pitch with a hook up. It's one less thing to pack then.

We have a yeti which is expensive but keeps things cold over that sort of time period.

I would still need to buy a fridge to use with the hook up? Campervan fridges are expensive and we don’t have space for one.

I have an igloo and it’s really good. Ice still intact after 2 day trip. Friends have the decathlon inflatable ice boxes which are also good. Make sure you have plenty of ice packs in there too to keep it cool

We have an icy Tek and it's much better than our previous cheap one. It is really heavy though! I think Igloo and yeti are supposed to be good too. Definitely buy some of the big ice blocks to go with it.

Igloo did a decent sale last year at the end of season if you can wait until October you might get a good bargain

One thing I learned on MN a few years ago was the importance of “pre-cooking” your cool box. So fill it with ice/blocks for at least the 24 hours before you are packing it up.

Have all the food going into it at least properly chilled to cold, and some frozen if possible. Have it all out and ready to pack (and your extra ice-blocks) before emptying the pre-cooling ice/blocks.

Empty the pre-cooling ice/blocks and then repack as quickly as possible to keep the box as cool as possible. Have it full, or fill remaining space with ice, ice blocks or scrunched newspaper.

When away, open as few times as possible. I take my original not so good box for the things I’ll need a lot in a day (milk, butter, cheese), or things that could do with cool but not cold (eggs, veggies, fruits). Leaving my hard sided box for the things that need to stay cold and only opening that as little as possible and for short periods. And remembering to fully seal it closed again.

I also refreeze ice blocks in the site freezer to alternate - and sometimes I do a 2l bottle (say we’ve finished a bottle of coke) filled 3/4 full with plain water as a block as that takes a long time to defrost again.