Waeco cool ice box

[[2574]]

I've had one of these passive ice boxes for a year http://www.attwoolls.co.uk/Camping-...ridge/Cool-Box/Waeco-CoolIce-13L-Coolbox.html and I thought those of you anticipating the long hot summer ahead (!) might appreciate hearing of actual performance.

The box is passive - there is no electrical input, it's just a well insulated box. We just store ice in ours. We buy two bags of ice from the marina which two thirds fills the box. We then get the following performance -

Day 1 (24hrs), ice remains frozen
Day 2 some water but mainly (4/5ths) still ice
Day 3 fair amount of melt water but a lot of useable ice
Day 4 still some useable ice but much meltwater
Day 5 pretty much all water

For us this works well for convenience and zero power draw, it leaves the fridge and freezer unit free for food and also keeps meltwater out of the fridge. Recommended.


Rob

 

[William_H]

Yes around here where it does get hot most people I know do exactly as you do. Perhaps this is due to geography that mostly people do 1 to 3 days voyages and not much longer but ice especially in milk bottles frozen at home seems to do the job. good luck for a good summer olewill (just about to haul boat out for the winter maintenance)

 

[Spyro]

If you want to avoid melt water just freeze a large plastic bottle filled with water or as said a couple of old plastic milk bottles. Pop it in the box. Like you I've found it will stay as ice for a couple of days at least.

 

[dancrane]

Handy piece of kit. Interesting that the overall displacement of the box is nearly 30 litres...the fact that more than half of its volume is insulation, must be why it performs so much better (and is so much costlier) than Argos cheapies, which seem to be just double-skinned plastic boxes, sometimes without any insulation at all.

Funny how those big lightweight boxes are usually in dark, heat-absorbing colours too.

 

[Ru88ell]

I'm into my second season with my Waeco Cool Ice. I've not used loose ice for a while now; I freeze a couple of 1lit bottles of mineral water instead. I've just come home (last night) after leaving home on lunchtime Thursday. I still had cold milk yesterday lunchtime (4 days) , and the contents were still cool this lunchtime (5 days). Cans of cider were too cold to hold on Saturday evening (2.5 days).

I always try to remember exactly where everything is inside the box, so I only open it for a second or so at a time.

http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?356032-Waeco-Ice-Box

 

[[2574]]

I've not used loose ice for a while now; I freeze a couple of 1lit bottles of mineral water.....

We don't use ours as a substitute fridge but as an ice store for (sorry about this) G&T and the suchlike. Hence loose ice.

Rob