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How to Keep A Cooler Cold the Longest [3 Smart & Easy Tricks]

As the summer season approaches, it is a common sight to see majority of us going to hill stations, boating and picnics. While the scorching sun does little in demoralising most travellers and picnic goers, its heat can surely impose a food safety hazard due to the high temperature. 

Therefore, it is essential to keep our food and beverages fresh and cool for as many hours as possible. This is the reason why people often look to find out how to keep a cooler cold the longest, especially during summer. 

Here are some effective tips and tricks (which some of you may have not heard of before) from us helping you to keep your food and drinks cold & fresh with your cooler box.

3 Smart & Easy Tricks to keep your cooler cold for the longest period of time

1. Balloons at Your Help

This tip is perhaps one of the cleverest ones when it comes to keeping your cooler cold for long hours. Just grab some balloons, inflate them with water, and put them inside the freezer.

Do take note not to fill them too tight because some space should be left for expansion during the freezing time. While packing your items in the cooler box, place the frozen balloons around your food.

As the ice in the frozen balloons take more time to melt, the cooler will stay cool for a longer period of time and your food and beverages will not spoil. What's more? Your leafy green will not turn soggy and still able to maintain its crunchiness.

2. Pre-Freeze Both the Items and Cooler

This is perhaps the easiest technique used among us to preserve drinks. What you can do is just freeze your cooler prior to use. By doing so, the temperature level inside the cooler is retained for a longer period of time even before adding the ice into the cooler.

It is also recommended to refrigerate your drinks and other food items before putting them inside the cooler. Do refrigerate them for some 2-3 hours. Usually, cold drinks remain cold in a cooler for more than an hour or two without the ice but this depends on the outside and inside temperatures.

3. Place Ice on Top

how to keep a cooler cold the longest

Many of us adapt the habit of putting the ice at the bottom of the cooler while the food and drinks on top. While this strategy does keep your items cold, it does not reach up to its whole frame upwards, as the cold effect then ends up concentrating on the sides and bottom. 

Scientifically, cold air goes downwards. Thus, it is wise to put ice on top of all things packed in the cooler.

Placing all the items at the bottom first and then putting ice atop means allowing the melted ice to go down to the cooler’s bottom. This will enable cooling on the whole frame of the cooler, which helps in retaining low temperatures for a longer period of time.

Find out how to keep your ice from melting too soon in a cooler.

Final Thought

In a nutshell, our tips above are the easiest to follow and you will surely be able to keep your cooler cold for a long period of time. Remember that it is very important to keep the food fresh and cold in a cooler box as this helps to prevent bacteria growth which is very unsafe to be consumed. 

Last but not least, we hope you enjoyed our article and if you are looking for a reliable cooler box for your camping trip, check it out here!

Douglas Keister

I am an adventure fanatic that loves nature and adventure sports like kayaking, camping and water sports. I have been doing this for almost 10 years now and have learned quite a few tricks. With my experience, I hope to provide you with the most reliable and accurate information for your next adventure.

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