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Best way to keep cooler cool?

Travel Info
For a road trip, what's the best way to keep a small cooler cool? Ice broken up into it, or a refreezeable ice pack?

Thanks :)

Travel Tips

I prefer to freeze some bottled water. I usually open a few bottles and pour out a bit of water and then freeze them. This keeps the other items cold and at the end of the day you still have some cold water to drink.
Others

I'm actually a product manager for a company that manufactures coolers. The best bet is dry ice...dry ice keeps it colder than anything but you have to wrap the dry ice and keep it from touching the inside of the cooler or your food. Second best in block ice. Now the rest get dicey..it depends on the size of the cooler (how many quarts) and what you're trying to keep cold but I'd probably go with crushed ice. The most BU's of energy are created when ice melts to water which makes crushed iced a bit better than refreezable packs. However, remember to drain your cooler...keep about 1/2" of water and drain the rest...if you don't, then your ice will melt faster...it will certainly cool items to a lower temperature but it will also melt your ice very quickly.

Also, there are different thermoelectric coolers that are currently on the market. These coolers are "active" coolers meaning they use power to cool items. You can plug them into your 12V (i.e. your cigarette lighter) and they will power the cooler via motor and fan to keep your products cold. They're pretty inexpensive and available at all the large "Marts" and Sporting Good Retailers.

Happy Road-Triping!