We have a hot (or maybe cold) debate about ice coolers going between myself
and a couple of friends. I swear by my 58 qt Coleman Xtreme but one friend
has a 60qt Frigid Rigid and the other went nuts and bought a 55 qt Icy-Tek.
The Icy-Tek and Frigid Rigid are built much better than my Coleman but the
Icy-Tek cost twice as much as my Coleman and the Frigid Rigid cost almost 7
times as much. Naturally my friends are desperate to prove that they didn't
waste their money. :-)

I have set up a challenge. We will load all three with 20 lb of ice. After
3 days we will drain and weigh the melt water. Now here is where the
controversy comes in. The Frigid Rigid and Icy-Tek are permanently
installed so we can't run the test side by side. I will set up my Hobo data
loggers to monitor inside temps and set the external sensor outside to track
surface temperature of the box. All the boxes will be kept shaded from
direct sunlight. I figure that the area between the two temperature traces
(difference in temperature x the time) times the capacity will give us a
relative heat load for the test and the weight of the melt in pounds times
144 will give us an idea of the heat that actually made it through the box.
Dividing one by the other should give us a number that indicates relative
performance.

Am I on the right track there?

--
Glenn Ashmore

I'm building a 45' cutter in strip/composite. Watch my progress (or lack
there of) at: http://www.rutuonline.com
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