# More cooler ideas



## Anish (Mar 6, 2009)

1) Make a cooler cozy out of a water heater blanket, a piece of plastic and some gorilla tape or duct tape. This will make even a crappy cooler great and a great cooler better than anything on the market. Cut the water heater blanket into pannels that would be just a little bigger than the sides and top of the cooler. Then do the same with the plastic sheeting. Once that is done, run the tape around all edges of each pannel so that the fiberglass insulation is completely enclosed (don't want kids getting into that). Then, tape all pannels together to form a box. If you did this right (and if my instructions aren't completely confusing :lol you should have a cover that you can slide over your cooler. Trust me, this works GREAT!

2) This one is really helpfull if you have kids. Use seperate coolers for food and drink. As those of you who have kids know, just like with the fridge at home, kids are constantly in the cooler looking for something to drink. This way, your food is not being exposed to heat, your ice isn't melting all over the place, and the kids aren't digging all over uprooting things you have strategically placed in the cooler. 

3) I already wrote about freezing your own ice for camping but, we make sure to freeze extras and load a cooler with only frozen bottles. This way, if things happen to melt a little quicker than you expected, you will have plenty of ice.

4) Zip lock bags. Nothing goes in our food cooler without being put into a zip lock bag first. I am far from squeamish, but one of the few weaknesses I have is old food or juice from leaking meat packages. ACK!! I can not tell you how many times I have had to totally clean out a cooler because of a package of burger leaking all over everything. Nobody wants food poisoning while camping and cross contamination of food can be a real hazard! Not to mention, mustard, ketsup, and pickles are far from fun to deal with if someone forgets to close the top completely.

So far that's all I can think of :lol:.


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## HardWayMike (Nov 24, 2010)

Anish, these are some great ideas. When we go we keep a flashlight in the same zip lock bag as the TP. That way if nature calls for the ladies at night they don't have look for both in the dark. Have you ever had the hunges for the lid on one of those older steel coleman coolers break off? Any tips as to how I should go about fixing it? Thanks for the tips so far, keep them coming. I love this thread. Mike


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## retiredsailor (Feb 25, 2007)

Ref: Cooler hinge i used a metal epoxy that i bought from a plumbing store you can drill thru it after it hardens! I think if you put some between hinge and outer box it would be repaired forever hardens quickly


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## Oakley (May 19, 2003)

Because everything in a cooler tends to slide around when you root around in it, I made two vertical dividers out of plastic cutting boards. Cut them in the same cross section as your cooler (sometimes the sides taper from bottom to top). Then you have three, side by side compartments so not so much stuff slides over top of each other. If your cooler is not very long, only use one center divider.


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## Anish (Mar 6, 2009)

HardWayMike said:


> Anish, these are some great ideas. When we go we keep a flashlight in the same zip lock bag as the TP. That way if nature calls for the ladies at night they don't have look for both in the dark. Have you ever had the hunges for the lid on one of those older steel coleman coolers break off? Any tips as to how I should go about fixing it? Thanks for the tips so far, keep them coming. I love this thread. Mike


I like that and we will be using that in the future!!!! :lol:

As for the hinge thing, I have absolutely no idea . Where on the hinge is it broken?


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## Lizette (Dec 10, 2010)

Such as a helpful tips and ideas.


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## whatever (Jan 13, 2011)

i find nylon strapping (old seat belt ) makes great make shift cooler hinges and lasts forever:d


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## alex-v (Mar 24, 2005)

Just wanted to mention that if the cooler is not an antique model you could check and see if the manufacturer still makes replacement hinges for it.

I know that Coleman makes and sells the hinges for all of the plastic coolers that I have bought, been given or found.

Speaking of found I came across a 20something plastic Coleman this afternoon. The inside was clean looking and smelled clean. The white lid was dirty but I have seen worse.

We will fill it with water and add a 1/3 cup of bleach and let that sit for 2-3 days. Then drain and rinse and let dry. The cover will be sprayed with Bleche-Wite and then scrubbed and rinsed a couple of times. It will look like brand new and materials (bleach and Bleche-Wite) will cost about 10 cents.


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## oldgeezer (May 27, 2012)

...DIY beverage cooler...seriously, I have a friend that pulls one of the socks off his foot and puts his beer in it...:coco:


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## dmavdmav (Jan 17, 2005)

HardWayMike said:


> Anish, these are some great ideas. When we go we keep a flashlight in the same zip lock bag as the TP. That way if nature calls for the ladies at night they don't have look for both in the dark. Have you ever had the hunges for the lid on one of those older steel coleman coolers break off? Any tips as to how I should go about fixing it? Thanks for the tips so far, keep them coming. I love this thread. Mike


Broken hinges(plastic)... I got an old leather boot. Cut out the same size and fixed them w/ss screws. 25 yr old coleman cooler still working


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## oldgeezer (May 27, 2012)

dmavdmav said:


> Broken hinges(plastic)... I got an old leather boot. Cut out the same size and fixed them w/ss screws. 25 yr old coleman cooler still working


I get them fishin all the time.


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## TScott27 (Jun 1, 2012)

Will be implementing the flashlight with TP for next camping trip. I'm might sure the wife would love it. Thanks!


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