6 Genius Cooler Hacks

Super Charge Your Camping Cooler
6 Great Cooler Hacks

SUPER POLAR BEAR TUBES
You may know a polar bear tube is a PVC pipe with water inside it and the ends sealed. You store them in the freezer and put them in your cooler when it’s time to go. They are a reusable, space-saving, high-efficiency, no-mess solution to keeping your food cold while camping. You can make SUPER polar bear tubes by adding ½ cup salt per gallon to the water in those tubes. The salted water freezes at a lower temperature so the ice in the tubes lasts longer.

To make your own Polar Bear Tubes, measure the internal dimensions of your cooler and determine if you want the tubes to run the long way or the short way in the cooler – you may want some of each. Also measure the internal dimensions of the freezer where you’ll store the tubes when not in the cooler! You want them to fit easily in the freezer, too.

Cut PVC tubes one inch shorter than the length you measured. Use either 1 ½-inch or 2-inch PVC pipe. Remember, the larger the mass of the ice inside the tube, the longer it will last, so larger tubes will stay cool longer than smaller ones.

With an appropriate sized cap and PVC cement, seal one end of the tube. Follow directions on the cement for drying time, then fill the tube just over ¾ full (80 percent is about right) with salted water. The empty space allows expansion of the freezing water without breaking the tube. A mix of ½ cup salt per gallon of water will result in a solution just a bit more salty than seawater. It will freeze at about 28 F rather than 32 F.

Carefully seal the open end with cap and allow to the cement to cure with the tube standing upright so the water doesn’t reach the cement. Decorate the tubes anyway you see fit. Make them unique, because you want to keep track of your SUPER tubes. Once the cement is cured, put the tubes in your freezer, and they will be ready for your next outing.

MAKE A GREAT GRIPPY BOTTOM
When you throw a normal cooler into the bed of a pickup truck or on the wet deck of a boat, it slides all over the place. It gets banged up and wrecks stuff around it. Heaven forbid, you should want to stand on it to get a better view of … whatever. A few large anti-skid pads strategically placed on the bottom of the cooler quickly eliminate all those problems.

To ensure good adhesion to the plastic, if the surface is rough smooth with some sandpaper or emery cloth. Then use rubbing alcohol to clean off the places where you intend to attach the pads.

BUILD A FALSE BOTTOM BONANZA
Those Super Polar Bear tubes you made in Hack #1? Another great use for a couple of them is to support a false bottom in your cooler. That way if you use regular ice in addition to the tubes or any of the frozen food thaws, the run off drains to the bottom of the cooler but the contents stay high and dry above it.

Making a false bottom is so easy! Get a length of that white, coated wire shelf material. Cut it down so it fits in the bottom of the cooler. Zip tie two or three polar bear tubes between the wires and lay the system in the bottom of the cooler. Voila! You’re done. No more nasty melt water and who-knows-what-else slurry contaminating your camping food.

WORLD’S MOST IMPORTANT COOLER HACK
The best thing you can do to preserve ice and keep everything colder is put an added layer of insulation at the top. A couple of custom cut pieces of foam insulation work well, but even better is a flexible foam pad (like the backing on mouse pad) that can lay over the top. Then when you open the cooler you lift up only the end of the pad you need to access what you’re after.

The more insulation, the better. Take whatever material you decide to use for your cooler pad and cut to size so it fits snugly just at the top of the cooler. If you go for two layers, cut the inner layer in half and glue it to the single top layer. This makes a “hinged” lid so you only expose half the contents to that nasty warm air when you open it.

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[michaelleamy]

I like to add a 3rd and 4th lid as well. Most of the time my friends and family will get discouraged by the extra lids and give up. Ensuring my beer stays cold longer.

[sebastienbolduc]

Frozen water bottles can be used instead of cooling packs. And you can drink the water when it thaws. I have been doing the rack thing at the bottom of my coolers for a few years and it's great! I use different coolers for different items. If you have beverages you want them in the ice cold water; however, meats or other things you don't want floating around in that even if they are sealed in bags. It depends how picky you are with the cleanliness of your food items. The racks keep your food from coming into contact with the water.

[zzzzzz]

the sticky feet was a good idea. but, I like that my cooler slides easily, it makes it easier to grab and pull. I never seem to have room for it to freely slide around in transport, i'm usually packed with gear holding everything in place. but it's nice when loading/unloading to be able to set it down and slide where I need it to be.

[nonyadamnbusiness]

7. Make sure everything that goes in the cooler is as cold as it can get before it goes in. 8. Pre-cool your cooler, 9. Keep it out of the sun and in the coolest place you can.

[TheHyena-rubz]

The zip tie and non moving pads were simple but genius ideas. Thanks

[shawnr]

instead of just making a lid from the reflective stuff. Cut and fit and form a complete liner. Did this last year after seeing it somewhere else. Worked extremely well. Another tip if you are taking along bottled water freeze them. I have yet to have one break. But as they melt they turn back into water supply. Great for packing around food no melted ice water ruining the food.

[EspenFrafalne]

For camping, smaller coolers can be packed inside a backpack, before you stuff a sleeping bag around the cooler for extra insulation. During night time, when you need the sleeping bag, you could place the cooler inside a jacket. On weekend trips, you can also freeze certain food items that you do not intend to use the first day, to help the freezing elements last a bit longer.

[oysterjohn]

Freeze the bottom layer of beer cans, as the ice above melts it refreezes when it gets to the super cold alcoholic beer at the bottom, making for one big block of ice and beer cans. You can't drink the bottom layer of cans for a few days until they thaw out, but it really makes for a long lasting cooler if you're out in the boonies. You occasionally loose a beer during the deep freeze process. Been doing this for years for those week long trips.

[bobw.]

We’ve all been there, I just freeze some 2 liter juice jugs . No muss no fuss, and you can drink ice cold water when you need it.

[privategramcracker]

These tips will be a great addition to my canooler!

[Werloxali]

Came to see someone cut a cooler in half. I was lied to.

[steelmill]

Always sprinkle a liberal amount of salt on my ice after the cooler is full works really well

[troymi]

Very very nice, love these ideas. Good video.

[davidfultz]

The single best thing you can do is pick up some low expanding foam. The kind used around doors and window because it wont bow the jam or sill. Next, pick up a drill bit the same size or JUST a hair bigger than the tube thats attached to the can of foam . Drill holes into the edge of the cooler lid and unload one whole can of foam into the hollow lid. Wait 10-15 minutes for the foam to stop expanding.Drill additional holes to peer into the lid to see what areas have been missed. While looking through the holes, shine a bright light onto the lid to help with this. It is normal for the foam to expand back out the holes. Keep a rag handy for this, be careful, unhardened foam is VERY VERY sticky or wait for the foam to COMPLETELY harden and simply scrape it off. Trust me, filling that hollow lid with foam is priceless! Enjoy !🖒

[meanerkat]

I usually just take some liquid nitrogen with me to keep the cooler topped off. Works pretty good. And the kids like playing with it.

[timothythomas]

Funny I have been using the last tip I thought of a couple yeas ago. I ship a lot of stuff for my work. And always have the foil covered bubble envelopes. That added I noticed the soft lunch bag my wife has is similar material. So I cut a piece of foiled bubble mailer to fit and the flimsy bag stays cold ave of 8 hours or more depending on season. fold

[matthewshannon]

Church Key!! Fantastic!! Took me back yo my childhood..😂😂😂

[haemin]

I've added the first thing in the video (pvc pipe thingy) and styrofoam underneath the cooler lid.

[shanesaw]

What is the ratio of salt to water for the supercharged polar bear tubes?

[fiendishthingy]

I have also seen where someone put a small styrofoam ice chest inside a cheap cooler to give it extra insulation on sides and bottom (styro lid optional, depending on cooler dimensions). Even taking up only part of a large cooler that way leaves room for dry stuff. Or maybe put extra ice in the styrofoam ice chest insert? Or maybe use panels of styrofoam that come as protective packing for electronics/other as temporary cooler insulation? Does any of this sound reasonable?