Esky's what makes a good one

Kev,

Adequate insulation makes a difference.

I don't know how much importance the plastic casing compared to a fibreglass one makes, but I have had "a few" eskys over the years.

An "igloo" from Coles or somewhere. Pretty useless apart from keeping the water inside.

A coleman (polysomethingorother) which I still have. Not too bad and I still use it from time to time. Get two to three days out of it before the ice has melted.

An Evakool. (Fibreglass) The best there is I believe.
I freeze a couple of containers of water and end up with two slabs of block ice that fit side by side in the bottom of the Evakool. After placing pre-chilled beverages on top I generally include a bag of crushed ice to surround said beverages and have got four to five days practical use out of the ice. The block ice stops the crushed ice from defrosting too quickly.

Bill.

Yeah mate have three, one 100L, 80L and 12L. Live in Kimberleys and they dont do to bad, using block ice though. Only used them sheets once with the 12L and they melted pretty quick, though they were only frozen for couple of hours. The eskies probably arent as good as the $400 ones but they get the nod from me. Check there website out they often have good deals on there. I think it is www.Techniice.com. Come in alot of sizes too. We often go camping for two nights and use only the 80L for all the food and drinks (beer) and the 100L for fish and crabs with plenty of ice. We drain a little water everyday but we come with plenty of ice still.

Hi.

I have 2 Tropical eskies, which work very well once you have them cooled down.
Not sure if you can get them down your way.
Have a look at the web site below

http://www.campco.com.au/cool-11.html

Rob

i've got 2 evacool eskies and reckon they are fantastic, 1 X 120 ltr and 1 X 47 ltr i think it is.
the 120 ltr esky we used after a 30th birthday party once, filled it with left over beers etc and ice and closed the lid and left it under the house in the shade. opened it the next saturday and still had ice inside, drinks were ready to go for the bbq we organised to get rid of left over alcohol.

what makes a good one????

lets see....a plug that comes out of it that goes into the ciggie plug!!

na really....good handles!

Hi Guys,
12 months ago we bought a 65L off eBay from a mob called Big Chilli.
It was A factory second. Wouldn't know it to look at. It does a great job, We freeze 4x5l ice cream containers a good week before we need them, and only have to buy 1xbag of ice every second day to top up and we drain the water off a couple times a day.
We also have a 50l 3way chescold. Between them life is pretty good
Yeah research it.
they do job.

Kev, I reckon buying a cheap ice box is false economy.
You finish up buying ice a lot more often than you would with a good quality ice box.
Then the cost of the ice is more than the difference between a good and a not so good one.

Also you run the risk of having hot beer when you run short of ice.

I have got an igloo brand, I don't think it's the one that Coles sell, but I can buy spare handles or spare hinges or catches for it if I ever break one.

Block ice easily last 3 days in mine. 54 Litre is a pretty good size I think, not too big to lift, and doesn't take up too much room in the car.

Dave

Hi Kev

I have two of these, a 60 litre and a 100 litre...reckon they are pretty fair value actually and very tough. Wouldn't buy the 100 litre again, that is just too big an esky really. Delivery was quick and cheap ($20)

I use the ice sheets as well, but block ice works best. Performance? well kept my stuff cold for about 8 days (with block ice) on my yacht...I am in Townsville.

Hiya Kev


You want the best esky around - Evakool

You just want a decent one,well they are everywhere


Cheers

I've had my 65L Evakool esky for a long time now and it's the best esky I've seen for keeping food/beer cold.

I freeze down a 10L plastic bottle of water (I use the Frantelle brand as it has a convenient handle on the top and tis the esky perfectly) for a bout a month before going any to create a huge block of ice. Because it's so thick it takes ages to totally thaw out. What I find is that after four days I've usually got about 80% of the block left so all I have to do is refreeze overnight the outer layer of ice that has melted and then I've got another 4-5 days.

No messy water in the esky this way.

G'day Kev, I have bought a 40 L one from the same bloke on Ebay. Nothing the matter with it. Colour blue, metal & elastic closing. keeps ice for 5 days no worries. I have seen exactly the same box in fancy camp shops for $300, I paid $65 delivered.
It came with a heap of that ice stuff but unless you have a way of refreezing it on the road, not much use. May be ok for daytrips
but I havent tried it. Little tip....if you go the Ebay way, set your top price & stick with it. They go off everyday & with a bit of patience you can score a cheap one.........oldbaz.

I have 2 techiniice boxes as well. A 60l and I think the other is a 120l. The 120 is huge and as a result I don' actually use it very often. The 60 is perfect for what I need and the ice lasts for many days. Also fits in the boot of VT for the trips into town shopping. The tropicals and those blue ones from BCF don't seem any where near as good. Seems like those others have no foam in the lid and sides! Don't get too carried away with your bidding on ebay. I got the 60l for $42 and got mi mum to pick it up :) Bargain.

Leroy

Hi,

Just for info, I have an 'ICEKOOL.' It is a icebox similar to the techni ice one but is a cheaper version of the EVAKOOL firbreglass. Same builders similar insulation but without the fibreglass cover. Have a look on the EVAKOOL website I think they will have a link. Mine was $150 at the Melb 4x4 show a few years ago. THe handles etc are the same as the EVAKOOL.
Cheers
Steve

I got a 65 and 70Lt Big Chilli coolers off ebay also like someone else posted above, I use 3 2Lt juice containers as ice bricks, When we went to West Kunderang, took the 70lt with all the food and drink,used juice bottles and threw in 2 bag of ice as it was the first time we used the cooler and really didn't know what to expect. The ice lasted till day 5 with draining, mind you there was little water to drain each time as the ice didn't melt quick at all. The juice bottles lasted and the ice lasted for 5 days and was more than happy with it all. As post mentioned above they are 'factory seconds' but there was nothing second about them and got both coolers for a total cost of $165 bucks and saved postage by picking them up myself. (they are on the Gold Coast).