Coleman 50Qt Xtreme Wheeled Cooler Hard Shell Passive Cooler - Blue/White

I purchased this product through Amazon and read the reviews a lot in deciding which coolbox to buy and how to use it.Having just returned from a 4 night camping trip I thought I would add my own comments to help others.First of all pre cool the box, I froze 2 bottle of water and put in 2 days before which did the trick really well, I placed 2 cans of coke in there and they were as cold as the ones in my fridge after a day! This got the temperature of the box down nicely and I was surprised that the bottles still had ice in them when I took them out.Now the box is big and yes the walls are thick making its capacity not quite seem as big as it should be but this is surely what makes it work so well.For keeping items cool during my trip I used 2 x ice boards 400g by camping gaz 2 x 200g ice blocks by camping gaz and 2 small ice blocks (used previously in a coolbag that I had in my fridge) yes they take up room but if you get the right sized blocks it makes it a bit easier (the 400g camping gaz fit perfectly). Finally I pre chilled everything and even froze a pint of milk for added coolness in there.Over the trip the box has worked unbelievably well, the blocks hung on well with some even being slightly frozen on day 3, whilst I've been away I was lucky and had nice weather too!! - despite the thaw in the blocks the items in the box have remained 100% cool and items such as milk have remained as fresh as in a fridge, basically the thickness of the walls retains the temperature and ensure box carries on working, when I've returned the items remaining are all as should be.The only down side (and this is really picky) is that any new items purchased while away didn't cool down as quickly as before (beer basically!)thankfully coop had a fridge section where these could be bought prechilled!A great coolbox, and I would highly recommend - I do have to say that Amazon's courier (YODEL) were horrific - non delivery on days prescribed and basically they lie to you but overall an essential camping purchase.N.B. It does seem for that extra edge of performance ice is the way forward and I will try this next time - though this may not fit well with my OCD style of packing the box up!!!

Used this for the first time this weekend on a camping trip. We used two Thermos Freeze Boards (800g), packed it full of food and then tipped in a bag of crushed ice. Now it wasn't the hottest Bank Holiday weekend ever but I packed this on Friday morning and by the time we got home on Monday afternoon there was still ice in there and everything that was still in there was fridge-cold. You need to remember to drain water out of it each day if you're using crushed ice and to put anything that isn't sealed into a water tight container or bag but apart from this it was great. It is quite large and the capacity inside isn't massive but that is because its extremely well insulated. We had considered buying powered cool box but based on this one weekend I won't bother. On longer trips if you get the freeze boards re frozen (most campsites offer this service) and top up now and then with a bag of ice this would easily last a week or longer. Very pleased with it :). The 800g freeze boards also fit it very well on their side and take up a minimum of space. By the way it also doubles up as a seat as its very sturdy!

Before I bought this coolbox, I read many of the reviews as well as reviews of many other alternative cool boxes. I was struck by how much the reviews varied but most products seemed to be more positive than negative. The main theme, understandably, was how long they kept food and drink cold or frozen, as the case may be, and opinions varied hugely from only a few hours to several days. Given an identical, undamaged product, they cannot all be right. I chose this particular box because of the mainly positive reviews and because it had wheels.My experience was definitely somewhere between the two extremes. My first experience was to use the coolbox for a long journey over about 36 hours. I had 8 ice packs, but these were mostly small (four about 15 x 10 cms x 1.5 cms, two about 15 x 10 x 3 and two about 25 x 15 x 3) and I then packed frozen food (including a pack of ice cubes, various meat items, some frozen peas and two 600 ml bottles of frozen chicken stock) at the bottom with the ice packs surrounding it and then various items of dairy and other perishable food products (milk butter cold meats etc) on the top. At the very top I put two very cold 600 ml bottles of Pepsi max. The box was completely full. I did not pre-cool the box (other than leaving it in the coolest room with the lid open). Many have talked about pre-cooling the box but unless you have a very large chest freezer, which is largely empty, I see no way of doing this. The box is too big for most domestic freezers even if said freezer is totally devoid of contents. In the winter you could just leave it outside of course but in the winter there is less need to pre-cool anyway. In summer pre-cooling the box is close to impossible for most people I would suggest.I found that after 36 hours the food remained very satisfactorily cold. The frozen food was still frozen but with evidence of the very beginnings of a thaw. The pack of ice cubes and the bottles of chicken stock were still pretty much frozen solid with only the slightest evidence of slight thawing on the very outside. The meat products had a very slight give to them when pressed firmly with the thumb compared to their rock solid form with no give whatsoever when fully frozen. The peas had suffered the worst and these showed greater evidence of thawing around the outside of the pack. However, even these were still mainly frozen.On the whole I was pretty much satisfied with this but sometimes I do similar journeys over 48 hours and then I think the results might have been less favourable. In particular, I think the notion that frozen food would stay frozen for up to 5 days is a bit fanciful. I am not familiar with the physics of these things but I assume that the box is more efficient when completely full and I suppose more or larger ice packs is also preferable compared to those that I had (but of course the more space taken up by ice packs the less space for contents.)I opened the box only twice on the journey and then for less than 10 seconds each time for the purpose of retrieving the Pepsi Max. This drink was still ice cold so I really cannot complain about that. The box was stowed in the boot of my car and was never in direct sunlight. Ambient temperatures varied from about 10 degrees up to 32 degrees but mostly in the range of 15 to 20 degrees C.I had exactly similar results on a return journey. My overall conclusion on the performance of this box is that it is good, even very good, but not spectacular. If you want to keep frozen food properly frozen in a way which is safe from the possibility of bacterial infection my view is that 36 to 48 hours is about the maximum period for this box and possibly less in high ambient temperatures.On other features of the box it seems to me very solidly built. The wheels work very well to haul a full box along. The lid fits very snugly. Indeed I found it quite difficult to open but in a way this was reassuring. The box shape is a little bit unwieldy, but that is unavoidable I suppose. When full it is heavy to lift but their are good grab handles on the sides to facilitate lifting. The box is tall enough for large bottles to stand upright. My only real compliant is a minor one. It would be useful if there was some kind of catch on the pull-handle so that when fully retracted it could be locked into place. I found myself habitually using the retracted handle to help lift or handle the box but, in so doing, the handle continually extends so that you get nowhere. The lid will not open with the handle extended which makes this problem worse. I am sure a simple catch mechanism would overcome this little difficulty.