storing your cooler inside hexayurt - reflectix or no?

[ConnieH]

This will be the first year we will bring a big cooler with food (usually do the dried food thing and just bring a "6 pack" cooler for drink ice). I have a big old Coleman cooler, it does ok on weekend camping trips, but have thought about wrapping it with reflectix to improve the insulation. Since we'll be storing the cooler inside the hexayurt, is reflectix necessary? Would another type of insulation be just as effective, or in other words, are the reflective properties of the Reflectix worth anything inside an already reflective and insulated structure?

[Korwedge]

The hexayurt will keep your cooler cool enough (provided you have enough ice/dry ice). I don't see a need for reflectix on the cooler, although it wouldn't hurt.

I keep my beers chilled (not ice cold) inside of my solar powered homemade swamp cooler!

[FIGJAM]

Hi Connie.

Use an old blanket or quilt.

Double layer on the ground, then bring it up the back and over the top, then down the front.

Enter the cooler by folding the front up and open the lid. simple.

[Canoe]

Your cooler will gain heat from:
* hot air around it, conducting
* hot ground it's sitting on, conducting
* hot air/objects, radiating heat to the cooler
* sunlight, converting to heat on the cooler (why white works better)

If the cooler is inside a hexayurt: no sun, limited not so hot objects, air is cooler than outside the hexayurt and the ground is much cooler than the ground outside (less so right beside a sun-ward wall).
In fact, the ground should be cooler than the air inside the Hexayurt (if not beside a sunlight wall), such that the cooler sitting on the ground should absorb less heat as any heat contacting the outside of the cooler has a chance to conduct away into the cool ground (60F?). By all means use insulation on the sides and tops of the cooler. The more the better, but you're already in the best possible situation for the cooler. If your floorplan allows for the cooler to be on the North side of the hexayurt, I'd considering not having insulation between the cooler and the ground.
I often wondered if a small box, not tight fitting, of the silver foam core board made to surround a cooler would improve cooler performance meaningfully. If in a tent it certainly would; if already inside a hexayurt? And without a bottom if inside a hexayurt?

[gyre]

Heat flows to cold.

That's it.

Insulating from the ground is still not a bad idea.

Reflectix or foam or quilts will still help.

[ConnieH]

I appreciate the ideas and info! I would like to raise the cooler off the ground a bit, so I can get the water out of the drain plug easier, but maybe I can deal with this another way - thinking about putting my bagged ice in a tub that will fit inside the cooler, then any melted ice will be just in the tub, not the cooler, and easier to remove. The floor in the yurt is always refreshingly cool (one thing I love about hexayurts!), so leaving it on the ground does make sense. I was making my shopping list and wrote down reflectix, then thought, why go to the expense? I have an old sleeping bag that would make a good cooler coozie.

[Canoe]

Heat flows to cold.... insulating from the ground is still not a bad idea. Reflectix or foam or quilts will still help.

Insulating from the ground when the ground inside the hexayurt is cooler than the air inside the hexayurt?
Or are we trying to keep the 60F ground insulated from the cooler's colder interior?

My bad. I think it's that the priority if you had limited insulation, would be to insulate from the air first before insulating from the floor. But insulating from both the air and the ground would help. I'd suspect something like a silver-foam-board box with a lid would provide the best performance?

[gyre]

Ground is denser than air so capable of transmitting energy faster, unless the air is being circulated.
And yes, it's heat from the ground to the cooler.

I don't usually have a riser to put coolers on, but it's a good idea.

I used another cooler last time.

[Canoe]

Ground is denser than air so capable of transmitting energy faster, unless the air is being circulated.
And yes, it's heat from the ground to the cooler.

Yes, very much My Bad.
I was distracted by the fact that the ground is so much cooler than the air. The ground is a lower-than-air-temperature heat source, but, it is still a heat source to the cooler, and has a large thermal mass too.
Yup. Very much my bad.

Insulate all sides of cooler.

[Canoe]

look at: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=46041

[slvrnmph]

I've kept a cooler in my hexayurt the last two years and using just ice it did great. I only had to get ice every two days or so and the cooler was always right by the door where it could get blasted with hot air when the door was open.