[campingforfun]

Another quick pointer for camping newbies. When filling up your food cooler with ice, use block ice as it will last longer than cubes of ice.

Also try to put the drinks in a separate cooler to keep the ice on the food longer. The cooler for drinks tends to get opened all the time and only causes the ice to melt fast.

The food cooler should be kept in a shady spot in order to avoid spoilage and bacteria. Do not bring along too many perishables such as meat unless you have a fridge.

 

[grace]

Having a refrigerator does help with keeping things longer for when you need them. We used ours all the time, and had a separate cooler for drinks. We fill it up all the time with meat and Koolaid.

 

[mailfire99]

For coolers there is no doubt about the block ice. It will last for days. What we always did was take milk jugs, rinse them out really good, fill them with water and freeze them. There is your block ice. I have also seen people do this with the one gallon ice cream buckets too

 

[grace]

I have never heard of using milk jugs and ice cream containers for ice. Using things twice is very great way to recycle and be green. Just kidding !:rotflmao1:

 

[ctfortner]

oh yeah we have done the milk jugs before too. Matter of fact, we even rinsed out some of the paper/cardboard milk cartons and froze them too. after its froze i just tear off the cardboard and have a nice little block of ice.

My father in law uses the ice cream buckets all the time. The 1 gallon buckets make a nice size block of ice

 

[grace]

I used the ice cream gallons before we got our new refrigerator. But our new one has double doors and less freezer space in it. Isn't that amazing? We used to have an extra freezer in the garage. But we got rid of it.

 

[mailfire99]

Yeah, we looked at one of the double door freezers, it seemed like you lost space just because its divided I guess. Get you some milk jugs, they dont take up too much room :thumbup1:

 

[grace]

Loss of freezer space with double doors is not good. I can fit milk jugs in - probably about 4 or 5 of them easily. The ice was badly needed when the hurricane hit us and we were without power. We went 10 days without power. The neighbors across the street had power. The Minors had a generator. It was used for them and the people next door to them. Our neighbor brought me ice chest (with cubed ice) and two milks in it.

 

[glfortner]

Another good tip is to start with the drinks cold. If you can put them in the refridgerator before you leave the ice won't melt as fast.

 

[coolerinsulator]

Anyone use Dry Ice?

 

[antigua]

We have a deep freezer in the basement and we always buy the 2 Litre size milk cartons for freezing the water in those. I can fit a few in there without any problem. They do a great job. As for dry ice, I never used it myself. I don't think I would. You'd need gloves to get drinks out. We have a fridge that we put all of our food in and a freezer. I love that. Ice cream and freezes for the kids. The cooler we bring is for all the drinks. From wine, beer to drink boxes and pop. We end up buying more ice while we are camping but the blocks last a long time.

 

[xisle]

Great ideas! Man, I'm glad i joined this forum!:thumbup1: X

 

[kev]

Save your one gallon milk jugs, wash them out very well, fill a little over 3/4 with water and put in deep freezer. Its going to take a couple of days to freeze all the way. When you need a block of ice, pull a couple of these frozen water jugs out and put into your ice chest.

When the ice melts, you can drink the water from the jug.

Do not fill the milk jug all the way with water, leave a little room for expansion of the ice.

 

[cassiem]

Milk jugs are the way to go. Done that for years, provide 2 essentials, ice and then drinking water.

 

[kiteri]

Oh my gosh... how foolish do I feel that I never thought of drinking the water in the gallon jugs when it thawed????

Then again, I haven't been as diligent as I should be washing out my jugs to drink out of them later.

I will have to give this a try!

 

[ctfortner]

Yes, if using milk jugs, holy COW!! wash them out immediately. Dont let them sit out a few days first to marinate.

 

[racecple]

We use milk juggs as well but have found that sunny D juggs work wonderfully.They are thicker and last longer.We also use the water after the ice melt for drinking and cooking.Also for water for our dog.Also putting them in your freezer helps with lowering power costs when it is not full.Also we freeze Kool-aide in the juggs and get out of having to make that for the kids.