Freeze-dried Meal Coozie

[latremorej]

Whoa! That's a big dang coozie!

 

[Bothwell Voyageur]

A reflective sheet/blanket laid over the top would give the same reflective benefits. Maybe try one of those windshield heat reflectors, you can pick them up very cheaply in Walmart.

This is similar to the "cool tarps" used by tree planters but they are really pricey though probably more durable.

Aside from the fact that it's cheap and easy to make Reflectix is likely not the best material for a meal coozie.3/8" evazote would likely have a higher R value.

Something like a mini sleeping bag with a vapour barrier liner would be optimum. I use a polyester mylar insulation called Insul-Bright to make mine, bit easier to work with than something like Climashield.

I prefer the fabric coozies over Reflectix as they are easier to stuff in a pack and expand easily when water is added to the pouch.

 

[Guest]

A reflective sheet/blanket laid over the top would give the same reflective benefits. Maybe try one of those windshield heat reflectors, you can pick them up very cheaply in Walmart.


Aside from the fact that it's cheap and easy to make Reflectix is likely not the best material for a meal coozie.3/8" evazote would likely have a higher R value.

I use a polyester mylar insulation called Insul-Bright to make mine, bit easier to work with than something like Climashield.

I prefer the fabric coozies over Reflectix as they are easier to stuff in a pack and expand easily when water is added to the pouch.

Having used a simpler, unimproved Reflectix meal coozie for years now I can attest that it keeps rehydrating pouch meals too hot to eat for longer than needed.

I use a refletix coozie as well. I have also used my single wall version (same as yours but no velcro, i simply tuck the flap into the main body) while on the ice, fishing in the teens to single digits. In my experience, the single wall version kept the food too hot to eat, even after about 30 minutes.

BV, I did and still do use a reflective blanket (post #33 here) for covering various coolers

http://www.canoetripping.net/forums...cussions/diy/47898-diy-soft-side-cooler/page3

It works and folds up flat, but tucking it around the cooler or staking it down (I added corner grommets) is a bit of a pain, and I can’t stake it down securely in the canoe.

For the mostly experimental coozie on the big Igloo I wanted something with a top cover that no-fuss raised and lowered with the lid.

I’m not expecting much additional R value from the Reflectix. For improved insulation the Igloo has ½” minicel glued onto all six sides, but that also changed the cooler from cool white to gray. Most importantly for ice retention I added gasket material between the lid and cooler body, so it seals tightly, and replaced the flimsy OEM plastic latch with a tighter more secure metal version.

I have never heard of Evazote, Insul-Bright or Climashield.

Insul-Bright at least seems available at fabric stores ($6 - $8 a yard), and Climashield from Ripstop by the Roll ($11 a yard).

If one of the advantages of the fabric alternatives is the ability to hem/sew a coozie that is lost on me, Mikey don’t sew.

 

[latremorej]

Mike, I didn't suggest it earlier due to the fact that 1) velcro outside isnt ideal, and 2) I used sticky back industrial strength velcro. But...

I had some limited success in making a simple topper from refletix to sit atop my cooler to shade from the sun. I used 4 squares of that velcro, 1 on each corner to hold a single sheet of reflectix on top. Worked well for day one in the canoe and seemed to help the ice stay hard but by day 2, the sticky back started to fail. One good gust of wind and I was chasing that sheet down the lake! The leftover residue was worse than duck tape residue. I had 4 permanent dirt spots on top of that cooler for a few years!

With that said... your idea of a whole cover may stay in place much better, all form fitted for a good friction fit!

Jason

 

[Guest]

I have a thing about taking extra stuff that has a single purpose. . I just wrap the meal with my fleece vest to keep it warm. Works good, but spilling on it is a concern. For dubble duty, how about a removable ensolite paddle holster?

 

[latremorej]

I have a thing about taking extra stuff that has a single purpose. . I just wrap the meal with my fleece vest to keep it warm. Works good, but spilling on it is a concern. For dubble duty, how about a removable ensolite paddle holster?

Ha! That is a pretty darn good idea, actually!

my cooler 'cover" was actually dual purpose. Since it was simply a flat sheet of reflectix with duct tape edges, the plan was to use it as a sit pad on shore when the cooler could be placed in the shade. Turned out that it became just a sit pad on that one and only time out.


Jason

 

[Guest]

I used 4 squares of that velcro, 1 on each corner to hold a single sheet of reflectix on top. Worked well for day one in the canoe and seemed to help the ice stay hard but by day 2, the sticky back started to fail. One good gust of wind and I was chasing that sheet down the lake! The leftover residue was worse than duck tape residue. I had 4 permanent dirt spots on top of that cooler for a few years!

With that said... your idea of a whole cover may stay in place much better, all form fitted for a good friction fit!

Jason, the Velcro is attached only to the warp-around coozie, not anywhere on the low energy poly plastic cooler body.

The wrap around “friction fit” seems very secure. I am liking the concept of running pieces of Velcro vertical vs horizontal the opposing side for a tight taut wrapped fit

P7250020 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Having the cooler handles left outside the coozie should help keep it windblown restrained as well.

P7270023 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

I have a thing about taking extra stuff that has a single purpose. . I just wrap the meal with my fleece vest to keep it warm. Works good, but spilling on it is a concern. For dubble duty, how about a removable ensolite paddle holster?

Turtle, I am fond of multiple application gear uses as well, and hadn’t given those meal pouch coozies much thought beyond rehydration heat retention.

Whadda ya know, any of those meal coozies will hold my usual pair of 40oz and 27 ounce Kleen Kanteens in insulated storage.

My dromedary bags are OEM insulated, but a simple slip-in water bag envelope would be a piece of cake to make for off-season trips. Maybe help prevent boiling half-frozen Slurpie water for breakfast and save some fuel.

Reflectix is hardware store available, $10 for a ten foot long by 24 inch wide roll. The big Igloo Maine cooler was an open-able lid design experiment. I want to make some form fitted Reflectix top-lid coozies for the day 10L and 20L insulated dry bag day pack coolers, which I have tested-proven in ice retention.

Those dry bag coolers are my go-to, on day 10 L day trips or the 20L on multi-day outings. Those coozies could be design trickier; I know I want an easily open-able top cover “lid”, and want the day pack shoulder straps left accessible.

 

[Bothwell Voyageur]

Just a thought and maybe you have already dismissed the idea, but what about making a insulated spray deck that fits to the load area of the canoe and keeps everything cool without having to insulate individual items?

Reflectix is great stuff. I do use it a lot. Makes good pot cozies wher you are fitting to a fixed shape and I have made liners for my barrel organisers to keep food cool.

 

[Guest]

Just a thought and maybe you have already dismissed the idea, but what about making a insulated spray deck that fits to the load area of the canoe and keeps everything cool without having to insulate individual items?

I know folks say that full covers keep your legs warmer on cold days, but on most of our spray covered canoes have partial covers, bow back to a front thwart, stern up to a foot of so behind the seat. They don’t keep much heat trapped, but I have noticed that, on hot sunny desert rivers running cold with distant snowmelt, it is noticeably cooler under the partial covers.

The cold water temperature transfers through the hull, the cover keeps the sun out and the gear load becomes a cold sink.

Partial covers are unfortunately similar on off-season trips in cooler weather, not much trapped heat under there, and no sunshine on my boots. Eh, it’s easier for me to dress for cold than for hot.

I have a partial, partial cover, an opps mismeasured piece of coated Packcloth with snap rivets that was intended as a “cockpit” cover for in camp use to seal up the entire canoe. Miss-cut too short to work in that guise on that canoe, but when I find the right dimensioned boat I mean to install it as simple center cover for cooler or maybe shaded doghouse area.

It is too nicely made a short center cover, beautifully hemmed and sewn with spaced female snaps; all I need to do is install a handful of male snaps below the outwale, and that’s an easy peezy task. Might make a nice platform with paddle straps and clips for a map case as well.

I has ideas.

 

[Seeker]

I use an old Kool-Aid jar for my rehydration vessel, and a DIY blue foam camping mat coozie (and duct tape) to insulate it. works great, no crunchy spots or half-done meals. Only takes about 25 minutes for most meals, stirring about halfway through.

 

[ppine]

I rarely eat freeze dried backpacking food even on backpacking trips. Equipment is lighter now so I carry some heavier food.
Most of our river trips in the West have some lining but few portages, I usually bring a small cooler and real food. On longer trips say over 60 miles, we sometimes can find a town with a store for ice and other things like a couple of beers.

 

[LanceR]

I know that this thread has a little dust on it but thought it a good thing to dust it off and add a few things.

We've made any number of pot cozies, meal pouches etc but haven't yet made anything as nice as the ones sold by antigravitygear.com (at least for single layer reflectix)

https://antigravitygear.com/shop/pro...ar-pouch-cozy/

They have ripstop fabric bonded to them, the edges a wrapped in sewn on fabric tape and the top flap tucks under an elastic strap. The pictures are of the larger 2.0 version sized for 2 person and larger meals. It is large enough to hold two two-person meal pouches with maybe a little room to spare. There is a 2" deep gusset in the bottom formed by simply folding over the reflectix and stitching through it. The gusset is 4" wide on the inside when fully spread. The interior of the pouch is -1/2" wide by 8" high.The one picture is of the gusset and another is of the way they treated the end of the tape by folding it back and running a bit of a bar tack on top of it as they stitched it up.

We made a few similar with tape and found that taping the material that would be the gusset before folding the rest of the pouch up and taping the edges helped keep everything in place.

So, maybe there are some ideas here that will help....

The food service industry had insulated covers for caterers who use coolers and other stuff in the filed. The next time I'm in the local Restourant Depot I'll see if I can get some pics of how the deal with seams, access flaps etc.

Best Regards to all,


Lance