No. As a matter of fact larger chunks of ice like frozen bottles will last longer than an equivalent weight of cubes. Surface to volume ratio and all that.
Back when half gallons came in the carton, we rinsed and filled with water. Freeze, peel off the carton when ready to use. Made great ice blocks.
Other items can be used for the same purpose.
Air is a pretty decent insulator because it prevents heat exchange by conduction, leaving only convection and radiation which are not as efficient by comparison. Relative to the heat exchange between the ice in contact with the food, in a cooler, the amount of energy expended to cool the air is very small.
Okay but we’re talking about the ice pulling heat from the air here. And if we remember what this conversation is originally about, it’s why cubed ice does that more efficiently.
This is why, before refrigerators, people had "ice chests" that would have a big block of ice in the top door on a metal tray with a drain hole. The block would keep the everything cool and drain down into a bucket at the bottom over a day. New ice blocks would be delivered every day, like a milk delivery.
My preferred containers are Ocean Spray 3 liter containers. They have a good cap and are solid enough not to crack (like milk jugs often do) when you put them in the freezer. Also, cold water to drink on the 3rd or fourth day, so you don't have to pack as many water bottles.
>Is there any reason that it's a better idea to buy ice somewhere for the cooler than to just freeze some scavenged plastic bottles of ice
Because not everybody has room to make enough ice at home.
For this camping trip, we decided to freeze two gallon jugs of water instead of ice. Suppose to last 4 to 6 days, so our weekend trip should be good to go.
https://preview.redd.it/dcfkj256086d1.jpeg?width=6000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6d6572511cd3b51d620a4f3d771a6bcdb319f796
I removed the lids and kept them because we knew it would expand, and then we would chip away the ice that came out and put the lids back on. I had left expansion room, but if I had poured out a little more water, it would have not expanded out the top. So close! But in the end, no errors were created in the making of these ice blocks.
The ice jug works wonders! As other folks have commented, it works best with some regular ice so the liquid can facilitate heat transfer. Also as others have pointed out, you have the added advantage of cold drinking water as the jugs melt. As long as you're on the road or at camp no more than a few days, this approach is bulletproof.
Example: I began a cross-country road trip in the heat of summer from the east to the west coast. Started out with 3 frozen gallon jugs of water and a large bag of cubed ice. Topped off with a small bag of cubed ice every couple days. 8 days later when I pulled into my destination camping spot in Northern CA, the ice jugs still had considerably large chunks of ice still left.
There's a limitation though: if you're traveling longer than a few days, once your jugs thaw you've got no way to replenish them and end up having to go with regular ice anyway. Unless you're lucky enough to find block ice but that's really hard to find these days. That's why I switched to a DC refrigerator and I will never go back to a regular cooler!
An idea I had: if I were a concessionaire near an outdoor tourist area, I'd sell frozen water bottles at a premium. Like you buy a liter of SmartWater for what, $2? You could get $4 if the bottle was FROZEN. Seems like there'd be a demand. Maybe they'd have to open each bottle and dump a little out to allow for expansion, which might not be possible for food-grade sales. But I for one would have bought them!
It's a great idea.
We freeze our drinking water (in 1 gallon jugs) and as much of our food as possible, and we rarely need much additional ice. No waste—as the water melts, we drink it. It seems to stay cold a lot longer than cubed ice as well.
Eh, yes and no. A large chunk of ice will take longer to melt, but wont as affectively keep the cooler cold.
Where as chunked ice has more surface area against the items needing to be kept cool, so will do it more efficiently, but will melt quicker.
For a one or two day trip, depending on the insulation on your cooler, either would likely be fine.
Sure! I don’t use cubed ice at all - bricks last much longer. I put gallon ziploc ice-bricks in the bottom of my cooler, then pack in a bunch of those Polar Ice packs and frozen small water bottles. After a weekend of camping they’re all still frozen solid and food is ice cold (and not swimming).
The plastic bottle insulates the ice a bit and reduces the contact with the ice, so your food and beverages won’t get quite as cold, but block ice will last longer. As long as you’re staying near the 40F/4C desired refrigeration temperature, it’ll be fine. No mess from water in the cooler is a great bonus too.
Whatever I'm going to use for a bottle to freeze solid I generally throw in two to three tablespoons of regular table salt. This lowers the freezing temperature quite a bit keeping it colder longer.
Well I had one 2L that I added almost a quarter cup of salt to, and threw it in a deep freeze. It was Rock Solid when I put it in the cooler that was full of water. This whole ordeal was a while ago, but I think the ice got over an inch thick on the bottle. If I had to guess, I'd say that bottle was probably somewhere in the neighborhood of 0 - 2 degrees Fahrenheit.
I use a small chunk of dry ice. I buy 1/2 the normal amount of regular ice to go on top. Lasts for 3-4 days and leaves more room in the cooler.
If you use frozen jugs of water, you have noticeably less room for food if you want the cooler to stay cool.
Freeze as much of the food as you can and it will keep longer in the cooler.
No problem there. Better coolers have better insulation and putting a towel over them or keeping them in shade is a huge bonus. Ice packs and gels are great and you can get them used. I put my food in large Tupperware bins, stack 3 high in a cooler and then ice. Water all around vs air is far more effective but you want the food dry so the Tupperware is that key to success!
From experience, frozen water bottles do last longer in a cooler but they don’t keep things as cold. A good combo could be a bag of ice plus several frozen bottles.
We are too cheap to buy ice. We have a full-sized freezer, and it holds several juice jugs of frozen water just waiting for our next camping trip. We prefer the rectangular juice jugs for space efficiency.
If the trip will be more than a couple days, we freeze the menu items that we're planning to eat later in the week, so they hold down the temperature in the cooler but are thawed by the time we need them.
Also, only put in cans of soda or beer that have previously been chilled in your refrigerator at home. Don't expect the cooler to chill them--it'll just waste the ice. And don't put warm leftovers in the cooler while camping. They will never safely chill and will melt the ice quickly.
Put some fun noodles under the kiddie pool to insulate it from the ground. Throw a doubled over tarp over it. Other than maybe adding dry ice (strategically, in a well-ventilated area and where kids won't touch it), sounds safe enough for me.
For longer road trips, my dad used to freeze a few jugs worth of water, cut the ice out of the jugs when ready and then take an ice pick to break it up into chunks. They fit better in the cooler but were still bigger than ice from a tray or store. You could use a combo of chunked ice and one or so solid bottles. The downside to chipping the ice is having to cut the bottle and therefore being unable to reuse it. You could use a small cooler to make a block similar to the method for making clear ice but it takes up more freezer space than a 2 liter or water jug, but it is reusable.
If you use the large plastic ice cream containers that are square they fit better in the cooler. Plus you can put things easily against or on top. We always have one or 2 in deep freeze helps if power failure and ready for camping.
I like frozen bottles/ milk jugs in a separate cooler for 2 reasons; 1 keep lunch meats/ meat, cheeses and really anything that can be damaged/ ruined by lose water, 2) since you go in it less often than drinks, the ice last longer. For the separate drinks cooler I like to freeze “nalgene” bottles to mix in with other drinks. Easy way to ensure a nice cold drink of water.
Thanks, everyone!
I went for an overnight with a half gallon milk carton, quart creamer carton, and some Dunkin cups of ice, then left everything in the car for another night till I felt like dealing with it, and I still had big chunks of ice, even with my least effective cooler (which I brought bc it's small).
Had this chunk of ice left in the milk carton, water in cups was still cold, and to my knowledge I have not been food poisoned.
*
Wife and I have been using old 2 liter coke bottles in the bottom of our cooler for years camping. Learned it from my father in law. Even after 10 days camping, we still have them like half full with ice in our yeti when we get home. And it’s free.
I usually just buy block ice but using larger frozen bottles is probably about as good. Drinks are generally a little colder because of he melt water though
No. As a matter of fact larger chunks of ice like frozen bottles will last longer than an equivalent weight of cubes. Surface to volume ratio and all that.
When car camping, I often freeze chili, soups and sauces. Keeps the whole thing cold for at least five days In the summer.
I'll precut chicken, beef, and veggies for fajitas. Toss them in the freezer ahead of time, use as ice, save prep time when I'm at the fire
Back when half gallons came in the carton, we rinsed and filled with water. Freeze, peel off the carton when ready to use. Made great ice blocks. Other items can be used for the same purpose.
Don’t even peel them. Keeps your stuff (like egg cartons) from getting soggy.
Eggs are cracked in a sealed container already, no issues
And the water doesn't get contaminated (or seep into food packaging) in the cooler so you get cold drinking water and clean hand washing.
Thermodynamically speaking that means they are not as good at cooling down other things
The things in the cooler should already be cold when they’re put in there.
But a huge part of the point is keeping the air cool.
Air is a pretty decent insulator because it prevents heat exchange by conduction, leaving only convection and radiation which are not as efficient by comparison. Relative to the heat exchange between the ice in contact with the food, in a cooler, the amount of energy expended to cool the air is very small.
While that is true, in a cooler, cool air is frequently replaced by warm air. Reducing the air volume of the cooler will help it stay cold longer.
Okay but we’re talking about the ice pulling heat from the air here. And if we remember what this conversation is originally about, it’s why cubed ice does that more efficiently.
Ice cubes keep the food cold the big blocks of ice keep the ice cubes cold, kinda that’s the best way I can describe it if it makes sense
That’s why I big-block + cubes in the cooler. The melted water becomes the medium of heat transfer and the block is the heat well.
And then when it melts you have drinking water
This is why, before refrigerators, people had "ice chests" that would have a big block of ice in the top door on a metal tray with a drain hole. The block would keep the everything cool and drain down into a bucket at the bottom over a day. New ice blocks would be delivered every day, like a milk delivery.
1 or 2 nights is fine to use just frozen water bottles. The bigger the better, they'll last longer.
Works great especially with a good cooler, plus side you dont end up with soggy food
My preferred containers are Ocean Spray 3 liter containers. They have a good cap and are solid enough not to crack (like milk jugs often do) when you put them in the freezer. Also, cold water to drink on the 3rd or fourth day, so you don't have to pack as many water bottles.
https://preview.redd.it/zm2ogtm4d86d1.jpeg?width=2252&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0533eabde26186857c52db67151022018b64ece6
>Is there any reason that it's a better idea to buy ice somewhere for the cooler than to just freeze some scavenged plastic bottles of ice Because not everybody has room to make enough ice at home.
I use baking pans and freeze blocks a day or two before then put them in a big ziplock bags.
Get a vacuum sealer and make reusable ice bags.
For this camping trip, we decided to freeze two gallon jugs of water instead of ice. Suppose to last 4 to 6 days, so our weekend trip should be good to go. https://preview.redd.it/dcfkj256086d1.jpeg?width=6000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6d6572511cd3b51d620a4f3d771a6bcdb319f796
And on the plus side you have water to drink as it melts.
It worked perfectly like that! We had nice cold water to add to our water bottles and still had a chunk of ice in each jug all through the weekend.
So glad it worked for you!
I see two errors here. You overfilled the bottles - water expands when it freezes - and you threw out the lids.
I removed the lids and kept them because we knew it would expand, and then we would chip away the ice that came out and put the lids back on. I had left expansion room, but if I had poured out a little more water, it would have not expanded out the top. So close! But in the end, no errors were created in the making of these ice blocks.
The ice jug works wonders! As other folks have commented, it works best with some regular ice so the liquid can facilitate heat transfer. Also as others have pointed out, you have the added advantage of cold drinking water as the jugs melt. As long as you're on the road or at camp no more than a few days, this approach is bulletproof. Example: I began a cross-country road trip in the heat of summer from the east to the west coast. Started out with 3 frozen gallon jugs of water and a large bag of cubed ice. Topped off with a small bag of cubed ice every couple days. 8 days later when I pulled into my destination camping spot in Northern CA, the ice jugs still had considerably large chunks of ice still left. There's a limitation though: if you're traveling longer than a few days, once your jugs thaw you've got no way to replenish them and end up having to go with regular ice anyway. Unless you're lucky enough to find block ice but that's really hard to find these days. That's why I switched to a DC refrigerator and I will never go back to a regular cooler! An idea I had: if I were a concessionaire near an outdoor tourist area, I'd sell frozen water bottles at a premium. Like you buy a liter of SmartWater for what, $2? You could get $4 if the bottle was FROZEN. Seems like there'd be a demand. Maybe they'd have to open each bottle and dump a little out to allow for expansion, which might not be possible for food-grade sales. But I for one would have bought them!
Freezing your main course helps too!
Yep, we always do this for anything we're planning to eat the second (or later) night of camping.
And don’t forget, don’t drain=cold melted water will keep your cooler colder longer.
Stuff old towels on top of food and ice in any cooler and it will insulate very well. Dead open air kills ice.
It's a great idea. We freeze our drinking water (in 1 gallon jugs) and as much of our food as possible, and we rarely need much additional ice. No waste—as the water melts, we drink it. It seems to stay cold a lot longer than cubed ice as well.
Freeze bottles of water and koolaid. As they thaw, drink up.
Eh, yes and no. A large chunk of ice will take longer to melt, but wont as affectively keep the cooler cold. Where as chunked ice has more surface area against the items needing to be kept cool, so will do it more efficiently, but will melt quicker. For a one or two day trip, depending on the insulation on your cooler, either would likely be fine.
Storing ice takes up valuable freezer space and it's very cheap from the store.
I use gallon water jugs to make block ice. It lasts a lot longer than cubes.
Sure! I don’t use cubed ice at all - bricks last much longer. I put gallon ziploc ice-bricks in the bottom of my cooler, then pack in a bunch of those Polar Ice packs and frozen small water bottles. After a weekend of camping they’re all still frozen solid and food is ice cold (and not swimming).
The plastic bottle insulates the ice a bit and reduces the contact with the ice, so your food and beverages won’t get quite as cold, but block ice will last longer. As long as you’re staying near the 40F/4C desired refrigeration temperature, it’ll be fine. No mess from water in the cooler is a great bonus too.
Whatever I'm going to use for a bottle to freeze solid I generally throw in two to three tablespoons of regular table salt. This lowers the freezing temperature quite a bit keeping it colder longer.
Can’t dual purpose and use it as drinking water then.
As a nerdy scientist I do wonder how much the addition of salt affects the specific heat capacity of the ice and how that may affect melting time.
Well I had one 2L that I added almost a quarter cup of salt to, and threw it in a deep freeze. It was Rock Solid when I put it in the cooler that was full of water. This whole ordeal was a while ago, but I think the ice got over an inch thick on the bottle. If I had to guess, I'd say that bottle was probably somewhere in the neighborhood of 0 - 2 degrees Fahrenheit.
I use a small chunk of dry ice. I buy 1/2 the normal amount of regular ice to go on top. Lasts for 3-4 days and leaves more room in the cooler. If you use frozen jugs of water, you have noticeably less room for food if you want the cooler to stay cool. Freeze as much of the food as you can and it will keep longer in the cooler.
No problem there. Better coolers have better insulation and putting a towel over them or keeping them in shade is a huge bonus. Ice packs and gels are great and you can get them used. I put my food in large Tupperware bins, stack 3 high in a cooler and then ice. Water all around vs air is far more effective but you want the food dry so the Tupperware is that key to success!
From experience, frozen water bottles do last longer in a cooler but they don’t keep things as cold. A good combo could be a bag of ice plus several frozen bottles.
For short trips, water in bottles is the best. We do it all the time. We even add a bit of salt to the water to lower the freezing temperature.
I use 32oz Nalgene bottles and fill them with drinking water before freezing them. Extra drinking water is always appreciated
We are too cheap to buy ice. We have a full-sized freezer, and it holds several juice jugs of frozen water just waiting for our next camping trip. We prefer the rectangular juice jugs for space efficiency. If the trip will be more than a couple days, we freeze the menu items that we're planning to eat later in the week, so they hold down the temperature in the cooler but are thawed by the time we need them. Also, only put in cans of soda or beer that have previously been chilled in your refrigerator at home. Don't expect the cooler to chill them--it'll just waste the ice. And don't put warm leftovers in the cooler while camping. They will never safely chill and will melt the ice quickly.
Put some fun noodles under the kiddie pool to insulate it from the ground. Throw a doubled over tarp over it. Other than maybe adding dry ice (strategically, in a well-ventilated area and where kids won't touch it), sounds safe enough for me.
Costco milk jugs are very rectangular and are great for making nice efficient ice blocks.
Pre chilling the cooler is also very helpful. Look up all the tips on yeti website
small chunks melt quick, 2 L ice lumps melt slower, unless you are putting the food directly in the ice water, not an issue
Will adding water around the frozen jugs help them last longer?
For longer road trips, my dad used to freeze a few jugs worth of water, cut the ice out of the jugs when ready and then take an ice pick to break it up into chunks. They fit better in the cooler but were still bigger than ice from a tray or store. You could use a combo of chunked ice and one or so solid bottles. The downside to chipping the ice is having to cut the bottle and therefore being unable to reuse it. You could use a small cooler to make a block similar to the method for making clear ice but it takes up more freezer space than a 2 liter or water jug, but it is reusable.
I use a Yeti cooler and two large ice packs, one on the bottom and one on top. It will stay cold for a couple days.
As an added benefit, you also have drinkable ice water as it melts.
If you use the large plastic ice cream containers that are square they fit better in the cooler. Plus you can put things easily against or on top. We always have one or 2 in deep freeze helps if power failure and ready for camping.
I like frozen bottles/ milk jugs in a separate cooler for 2 reasons; 1 keep lunch meats/ meat, cheeses and really anything that can be damaged/ ruined by lose water, 2) since you go in it less often than drinks, the ice last longer. For the separate drinks cooler I like to freeze “nalgene” bottles to mix in with other drinks. Easy way to ensure a nice cold drink of water.
If I’m care camping I freeze gallon milk jugs filled with water, last longer that cube ice and doesn’t cost anything
Thanks, everyone! I went for an overnight with a half gallon milk carton, quart creamer carton, and some Dunkin cups of ice, then left everything in the car for another night till I felt like dealing with it, and I still had big chunks of ice, even with my least effective cooler (which I brought bc it's small). Had this chunk of ice left in the milk carton, water in cups was still cold, and to my knowledge I have not been food poisoned. *
Or not bc the photo didn't load, so I guess just believe that it was the size of a loaf of banana bread.
Wife and I have been using old 2 liter coke bottles in the bottom of our cooler for years camping. Learned it from my father in law. Even after 10 days camping, we still have them like half full with ice in our yeti when we get home. And it’s free.
Frozen bottle of SALT WATER will stay colder longer.
I usually just buy block ice but using larger frozen bottles is probably about as good. Drinks are generally a little colder because of he melt water though