Keep Your Food and Drinks Cold for Days: Tricks for Your Cooler

I know what you're thinking: "I've been packing a cooler for years, what's the big deal?"

The big deal is keeping your food cold and fresh for as long as possible. That's where Kona Slim Extra Large Ice Packs for Coolers and Kona's new Blue Ice ice packs come in.

These will keep your cooler cold for days. The Kona Blue Ice comes prefilled with a dry-ice cooling powder. You add water to activate it, then freeze it.

Back to the basics

The first step in efficient packing is having the right cooler. It should hold as much ice as possible and leave as little empty space as you can manage. You don't want to waste ice chilling air.

Once you've got the right cooler, pre-chill it. Stash it in the coolest place you can until you're ready to pack. A good trick is to freeze water in old water or milk jugs and set them in the cooler the night before. Extra ice packs work for this too. It pre-cools the interior walls and the insulation.

Before you pack, pre-chill and prep your food and drinks. Cut dead weight by preparing food in advance and ditching unnecessary packaging. If you can, put already-cold beverages and foods into the cooler.

When it's time to pack, leave as little airspace as possible and layer ice or ice packs on top of the contents to fill the cooler to capacity. The less air in the cooler, the longer everything stays cold. Top it off with ice or ice packs.

A few more ways to make the ice last

Keep the lid sealed, insulate the outside with a blanket or sleeping bag, or get creative and wrap it with insulation like the photo below. And keep it out of direct sunlight.

Pack it this way and you can keep your food and drinks fresh and cold for a good long while.

And take a look at Kona's Slim Extra Large Ice Packs for Coolers (they work great as a top layer, a bottom layer, and as dividers) and the Blue Ice ice packs for your next trip.

Stay frosty.