The Best Way to Pack a Cooler
In high summer, there are a few things that are more frustrating than pulling warm beer or spoiled food out of the fridge. Keeping food and drinks truly cold in very hot weather may seem like a daunting task, but it can be done if you strategically pack your cooler. Here’s how to do it.
How to pre-cool a cooler
You don’t expect a room temperature freezer to keep things cold. A cooler pulled straight out of a hot attic, basement, or garage won’t be as effective either. Fill it the night before (or at least a few hours before the time) with a full bag of ice to cool it down.
To learn more about the cooler packaging, watch the video below:
Use block ice
Block ice melts more slowly than cubes and helps keep you cool for longer. It can be difficult to find at your local grocery store or gas station, but you can do it yourself if you plan ahead. Simply freeze the water on a baking sheet or in the refrigerator.
Before packing the ice cube, wrap it in a very large zipper or trash bag – this can at least slow the flow of water around the food as the ice melts. You can also place a piece of cardboard on top of ice blocks for extra insulation before placing food on or around them.
Freeze (or at least cool) all over again
Get the refrigeration advantage by freezing anything that can be frozen and chilling the rest. This works especially well with items that you don’t plan to use for a few days. Frozen foods can be used as ice packs and will melt slowly in the refrigerator so they are ready when you need them. Ditto for baby juice boxes, water bottles, and still drinks.
For other drinks, make sure they are refrigerated before placing them in the refrigerator if you wish to drink them cold.
Separate food and drink
If you have two refrigerators, store food in one and drinks in the other. Neither will be packed too tightly, which means you can store more ice in each and stack it easily (more on that in a second). Plus, you’ll likely open and close your beverage cooler more often, and if food is packaged separately, it will be protected from warm air longer.
Layers strategically
Stacking items in the cooler at random and dropping ice from the top is an ineffective cooling method and also makes it difficult to find what you’re looking for. You can help mitigate this by planning ahead. Put what you need last on the bottom and alternate food (or food and drink if you are working with the same cooler) with layers of ice.
Michael van Vliet of Camping Lunch Blog Fresh Off the Grid shared a helpful layering strategy with Mel Magazine :
- Place cube ice on the bottom of the cooler.
- Place the food you need last. If you have drinks (in the same or separate refrigerator), pack the cans tightly and horizontally, label side up.
- Spread out a layer of crushed or diced ice, 1.5-2.5 inches thick.
- Repetition.
This prevents you from digging around to find what you need, as you will be working from the top layer of the food downward. Van Vliet also recommends mixing different types of drinks in each layer so that people don’t have to rummage through the bottom of the refrigerator.
Keep the cooler closed
This is very important to keep things cool. The more air that enters the cooler, the faster the ice will melt and the faster food and drinks will start heating up. Try to keep the number of times the cooler is open to a minimum: for example, immediately take out whatever you need to make dinner, then quickly close it.
Obviously, you’ll also want to store the cooler in the coolest and shady place. While driving, keep it in the back seat, not in the trunk, and move it around the camp as needed to avoid the sun.
This article was originally published in August 2020 and was updated on June 25, 2021 to bring its content in line with the current Lifehacker style.