Get Your Coolers Off The Ground

[alexamonkey]

Years ago we were setting up & took a little loo long to move our pile of soda and beer flats out of the sun. They started exploding.

[trilobyte]

I've never used temp guns, and I've certainly not dug 5 feet into the playa, but I have run my hands through the playa under the structures I've built, a number of times. The well-shaded ground is significantly cooler in late morning than it is in the late afternoon. If the ground doesn't heat up (and I've just been imagining things all these years), then raising the coolers off the ground would be completely unnecessary and even counter-productive, wouldn't it? (Since the air would be warmer than the ground)?

Looking at just my own coolers, they're the same ones we've been using since 2006. We've always kept them in the shade on the playa, and this year they went through ice at a significantly faster rate. We're careful how we use them (if anything more careful this time than years past, since we were sensitive to ice melting faster), the only real variable being that they were on a cooler table elevated 1 foot off the ground versus a table elevated 3 feet in past years. And so far nothing that's been said provides another explanation as to why the coolers went through so much more ice than in years past.

@alexamonkey - we use bus tubs as well, love 'em.

@TheCO - sounds like a great strategy. We pack the end of week stuff in the freezer cooler as well, and other than checking it every few days it stays taped shut (the cooler has a good seal, the duct tape reinforces a bit plus serves as a visual reminder not to open). This was the first year we've ever had to re-ice that one.

@UglyDougly/essjay - still no change in behavior from years past. If anything, should have been less of an issue as we (gasp) went through less beer.

[BBadger]

Hmm, we did go through a lot of ice this year as well. It was hard to compare with last year, as we were only around for the later half of the week. I wonder if the calmness of the playa this year contributed to less cooling? It may also have been just the air that was warming up the coolers. We had a big Igloo water cooler we'd use for ice nearly always elevated and shaded, so that we could dispense cool water. We'd pour ice into it to keep it cool, but despite that it'd warm up (not warm, but not cold like before) after a day or so. One small insulated cooler we used for non-potable water remained very cool however, even though it'd stay on the ground.

I think we'll just invest in some more insulated coolers this year, and save on bags of ice. Even that $320 cooler, it holds about as much as 2.5 other coolers that cost $60 each, sans shipping, so you're essentially paying double, but in a single solution, which usually keeps things cooler, possibly requiring no additional ice for the entire trip. It's also insulated, ruggedized, and if used just for BM, over a few years it might pay for itself (assuming using shitty coolers). The price benefit diminishes if buying other insulated coolers of course, but hell, people assume that a lot of their stuff they bring to BM is disposable, and if it lasts multiple trips, it's keeping more value than a cheaper disposable item.

For a thermometer, I'd bring one of those probe-based types, as the gun-type will only get the very surface. I've used those gun type ones, and you need to make sure that heated air or steam and stuff doesn't contribute to the reading.

[Ugly Dougly]

Years ago we were setting up & took a little loo long to move our pile of soda and beer flats out of the sun. They started exploding.

Wow.
Beer AND explosions.
I'm in love.

[Bob]

Sure, an IR gun is quick & dirty, and whatever its potential inaccuracy, relative errors should be minimal. Could get air temp pointing it at a white cloth or something.

We kept our extra canned beer on the ground under a dropcloth, and it was quite an acceptable temp at breakfast.

[theCryptofishist]

Years ago we were setting up & took a little loo long to move our pile of soda and beer flats out of the sun. They started exploding.

Wow.
Beer AND explosions.
I'm in love.

(I'm glad someone else was impressed, and yet that little sorrowful because I didn't have the chance to say: And it was so cool, that we've always done that to a six pack every year since.)

[Sail Man]

Our Coleman extreme 6 day works the best out there. We just elevate it on a cpl 2x4's, keep it in the shade and it kept ice like a champ. I have a smaller igloo version, a maxcold and it didn't keep ice nearly as good, using probably twice what the coleman did.

[NessaZee]

Our camp had a semi-truck trailer this year, it was cool enough under there that one needed a blanket for an afternoon nap.
my 10yr old coleman extreme cooler (small...30L) was stored under there -on the ground- and there was still remains of the block of ice (purchased in winnemucca) come the end of the week. it was perfect! we used hemp shower curtains to keep the sun out from underneath, the trailer was parked N-S.

will definitely do this again if we bring the truck next year.

[Eddie]

Anyone try doing both the on the ground and off the ground coolers together just to check whether one holds better than the other using the same type of cooler with the same amount of ice and the same food\drinks in them?

If it works for one person and not for the other the difference may be attributed to the type of cooler they are using.

In the camping world you learn quickly that heat is robbed from your body quickly by sleeping on the ground, this is why you use sleeping pads. Not sure if the same or the opposite would be true in order to insulate something cold like a cooler.

Maybe a cheap closed cell pad cut to size under the cooler would help insulate the cooler from heat coming up or it might have the complete opposite affect and insulate the cold air coming up from the ground.

Actually, now that I think about it, if you want to freeze your ass off camping the easiest way to do it is to sleep on an air mattress or a cot, you're warmer sleeping directly on the ground (with a good quality pad). So maybe raising a cooler would in fact keep it cold.

I'm going camping this or next weekend, I'll try both and see what happens.

While I'm here, if someone is looking to buy a cooler and you want a lightweight soft cooler you can't do better than polarbeatcoolers.com (before you ask, no I don't work for them). They are guaranteed to keep ice solid for 24hrs in 100 degree heat. They come in solar reflective as well.

I use em for motorcycle trips.

[Triken]

We were buying ice every day until the end of the week, when I put the cooler in a large silver plastic bag. That made such a difference in preserving the ice!! (cooler was on the ground in the shade)

So, for AZ decompression, I had one of those bags for each cooler, one for food with frozen blocks (the plastic type) and one for cubed ice to drink as it melted (spout at the bottom of the cooler.)

The ice never melted enough to drink or make my coffee with, and the blocks were still frosty 3 days later when I got home. The cubed ice lasted until the next Thursday in my garage with the silver bag around it. (six days! not bad!!)

This plastic is like the 'space blankets'... one could duct-tape a custom cover for one's cooler...
just sayin'....

[FIGJAM]

Be fair Triken.

I froze my nuts off and they were'nt in the cooler!

[Triken]

True... it WAS cold... much colder than the playa.
But the playa cooler (in the bag) and the ice in my warm garage for a week were enough to convince me that it makes enough of a difference that I'll certainly be using the bags every time I need a cooler!

(In my little house on the mountain, when I had a propane fridge, I could put food in the fridge to keep it from freezing overnight ... just a thought for your poor frozen nuts...)

[unjonharley]

I make a cooler cozy from dollar store windshield reflectors and a Goodwill blanket..

Was doing this long before going to Burning Man..
This year I'm putting a cozy on a Igol drink cooler.. I can make my own shaped ice. 5Gallons of ice water.. Will have to add water to start the melt..

[graidawg]

If I remember my absently gained infomation from half watching TV a few months ago, one of the best insulators is static air, so i would guess a sealed box to stand your cooler on would be the best choice, though wrapping it in a reflective insulated cloth would be wise too, and of course not opening the damn thing except to get what you need out.
is it worth mentioning pre chilling the stuff to go in it also saves on ice?