To drain or not to drain.

Yes, you most definitely should drain the water as the water melts the ice.

Reason the water is at a higher tempreture to the ice. That is why it has melted.

If you are cooling by 'conduction' (having your products immersed, in physical contact with your cooling medium - ice or 'slush') then the extra volume may be required.
however if you are cooling by 'convection' (having your products cooled while not in contact with the medium eg the tinnie sitting above the ice) then the removal of the water will help the ice last longer.

We have found the following to be a useful scenario.

Place one or two blocks of ice in the bottom of the esky. Load esky and then poor as much party ice over it as you can. If you are base camping put the esky somewhere cool, try half burying it in sand under a shady tree covered with a wet towel.
If you are offroading use more blocks and less party ice.

so in answer to your question, eventually, in most cases it is best to drain the water, unless it will lower the volume of the cooling medium to the point that your products will no longer be exposed to such medium.

there ya go.

chopper

If you have unlimited supplies of ice, I agree that the water should be drained.
BUT there is another side : If you have no replacement ice, by draining the water, which theoretically is almost 0 degrees, what are you replacing it with? Warm air at outside or room temp which can be as high as 25 degrees? This will cause the remaining ice to have to cool down the beer AND the medium (which is now air).

When in bush, cold water should not be drained - thats my vote

WHAT I HAVE DONE IS TO PUT IN A FALSE FLOOR IN MY ESKY SO THAT THE MELTED ICE LIES UNDER THE BLOCK. I JUST USE A RUBBER MATT THAT IS ABOUT ONE INCH THICK. THIS MAKES THE BLOCK ICE LAST A LOT LONGER, BUT YOU HAVE TO DRAIN THE WATER OUT DAILY. MY BLOCK ICE THAT I MAKE MYSELF ( ABOUT 30CM CUBED) LASTS FOR 12 DAYS BY THIS METHOD. THE SECRET IS THAT THE ICE MUST NOT BE IN THE WATER. HOPE THIS SETTLES THE BET..

From the EverKool website under esky's/ice boxes,

"Ice will melt less quickly if melted ice-water is left in the ice box."

From personal experience, beer is colder when in iced water. Reason......the can/stubbie is in contact with cold water and ice over it's entire surface, whereas in just ice, there is a considerable amount of the surface exposed to air. Of air, water, ice, the air is the warmest medium. Always! (until the ice has all melted)

So leave it in a slurry.

SK

Interesting logic being bandied around, Its actually the volume as well as the temperature differential, Which will stay hot longest? - a cup or a bucket of boiling water?? while the ice may melt faster if its in contact with the water it usually melts faster anyway beause its not at minus18degrees right through anymore, the esky still has a bigger volume of cold inside which will take longer to warm up.

Another trick question for ya
Yer up in the high country just poured a hot cup of tea and a flamin trout has just take the line and you gotta go reel him in BUT - you want the tea to be as hot as possible when you get back.

Do you put the milk in before you go or when you get back??
ie Which will be the hottest - the tea which you put the milk into straight away or the tea you put the milk into when you get back??

Debate that one

Kezzzza

Lyds is right with the hot stuff. With the cold stuff: What I do is take an another small esky and store the next lot of drinks in it. When you drain the water off from the esky with ice in it, you tip it into the small esky to pre-cool the drinks. That way you don't waste any "coldness". Mal T.

Some interesting reading. a few good tips brought forward like Mal's idear of using the water to pre cool cans as it seems to be a waste to throw out something cold in a hot envornment.

Thanks.

try drinking rum , it is a lot easier to drink once all the cold water and ice is gone than to be stuck with hot beer ..Peter

Kev, beer is at its optimum temperature 2 to 4 degrees so by all means keep your ice water until all ice has melted, then top up with new ice, studies conducted for the Australian Hotels Association by Monash University show that to bring a 6pk of cans from room temp 22degrees to the recommended 2 degrees takes on average 1x 3.5kg bag of party ice. Baileys / Evercool recommend for the maximum efective use of ice in their products,prechill if possible and keep the ice water.

I heard Carl k on triple J awile back talk about the tea trick .
You add the milk first as it increases the volume therfore cooling slower.

Kev.

For those with poor taste, you could always drink pommie beer.

Ice no longer applies.

who cares as long as the bloody beers cold

Drink faster - it solves all problems !
Seriously, have you ever been able to leave your hand in the slurry for longer than a couple of minutes?
Eskies these days are so efficient that the ice in my Bailey/EvaKool lasts near on a week in the full Pilbara sun. Can't complain too much about that.