no more crying on the Florida turnpike, I BOUGHT A YETI!

brandy · Post by **brandy** » Thu May 29, 2014 3:56 pm

One of my struggles has been keeping food cold in coolers on Florida based overnight business trips. Year 1 of MC diagnosis I had a memorable business trip where I'd been out of town for a couple of days and was driving home and pulled over at a rest area on the Florida turnpike to make a GF almond butter sandwich. I was starving and it was 2:00 pm. I opened my cooler to get out my GF bread and my cooler held water sloshing around and the water had impregnated my loaf of GF bread. GF bread + water= mush. I cried and cried and ended up eating almond butter out of the single serve tube.

I've really struggled with the ice melt situation and keeping food cold, even with freezing 2 liters of water etc and throwing them in my coolers. I'm too exhausted to drive to convenience markets for ice at the end of a work day. A lot of Florida convenience markets are in sketchy neighborhoods and I don't feel safe.

I read Gloria's car fridge post and decided this year I would install a car fridge in my prius. I told the boyfriend I wanted to look at them at Campers World. Brooksville Campers World only had the large ones in stock. Lake City had smaller car fridges in stock. We went to Lake City as I wanted something smaller. The car fridges in stock at Lake City were still too large for my purposes. They would hold food for a family of 5 for a week. They ran $500-$600 plus the boyfriend said $200-$300 for install, battery, and extra stuff which I forget the details.

The Campers World folks told me to check out the Yeti coolers at the local bait shop. I bought this one. http://yeticoolers.com/tundra-35-cooler/ I love my Yeti 35! Ice will last a week in Florida in the 35. (Amazing!) The 35 will hold enough food for me for 2 nights and 3 days and if I planned well I could probably do 3 nights of food. There is a little mesh basket at the top for GF bread! Yea! It is also dry ice compatible--great for hurricane preparedness. It cost $300.00. The boyfriend thought I had flipped. I've already used it on three trips and it works great.

I also looked at the Roadie $250.00 http://yeticoolers.com/roadie-cooler/. I do not recommend the Roadie. The handle is poorly designed and I was not strong enough to flip the handle up. The roadie can only hold enough for one meal, i.e. one lunch, two people. When filled with ice and food a woman cannot pickup the roadie. It is too small for our purposes. I do not recommend.

The only negative to the Yeti is that I can't lift it when full but I put it in my prius empty, put my two frozen 2 liter soda bottles in, put in a sprinkling of ice, put in my food, then more food in basket. When I get to my destination I leave the cooler in the car and take food out as needed from my car. It works fine. I'm really glad I bought it and it has made business travel a lot less stressful. I'd recommend a bigger yeti for two people for two or three nights or more.

Two other cool things about the yeti is that it is bear proof for camping in bear country. My brother in law said they are very popular in Montana. It also has grippy things on the bottom so if I wanted to I could stand on the yeti in a boat and fly fish or fish as the yeti is non skid.

I'd recommend the Yeti for those in hot weather climates who do a lot of travel and/or camping as a stepping stone before a car fridge.

Gabes--the best car fridges appear to be made in Australia by the way.

Brandy

Sheila · Post by **Sheila** » Thu May 29, 2014 7:19 pm

Hi Brandy, I hear you! I travel from Palm Beach Gardens to Panama City, 7 1/2 hrs, and to North Carolina, a two day drive. My wonderful late husband bought a Coleman chest that plugs into the car and keeps food nice and cold. I also add a frozen soda bottle to help things along. He would lug the cooler into our motel and plug it in for the night. It is larger than your Yeti but it doesn't keep things cold for too long when it is turned off. I can't lift it when it is loaded. I have a spinal fusion that limits how much weight I can lift.

Your Yeti doesn't have a motor to keep things cool, it is just heavily insulated?? If that is the case, it can be left in the car overnight and that would be perfect. I'm going to investigate the Yeti, Brandy. Thanks for sharing.

Sheila W

Gabes-Apg · Post by **Gabes-Apg** » Thu May 29, 2014 7:49 pm

Brandy
The yeti sounds totally perfect for a MC'er on the road!!

Yeah, Aussies are slightly obsessive about our 'esky's'
I bought a second hand car/camping - fridge/freezer, it has given me a Fantastic 6 years of use, when I have been moving house or when I want to give the upright freezer a clean out.
It died during my recent move. :-(. RIP

New Zealanders call them 'chilly bin' s.

$300 is pretty good pricing, given how much you will use it.

UkuleleLady · Post by **UkuleleLady** » Thu May 29, 2014 9:30 pm

Brandy, smart purchase! I think yetis are awesome.

CathyMe. · Post by **CathyMe.** » Fri May 30, 2014 5:11 am

Great idea Brandy and thanks for your review as well! I"m going to check these out and see if the roadie might work for us when we take the motorcycles for road trips. This would be ideal for me to pack some meals/snacks that I can eat.

Chrisdat · Post by **Chrisdat** » Fri May 30, 2014 5:45 am

Great review. Gas anyone ever shipped their food in a cooler via an airline? I am going to Florida, and wanted to take frozen food, on the airplane in a cooker, via checked luggage. I know I'll have to pay, but just looking for any feedback from someone who has done this. - Chris

brandy · Post by **brandy** » Sun Jun 01, 2014 7:06 pm

Chris,

I regularly see checked taped coolers on the airline luggage conveyors. I don't know what the rules are however.

Sheila,

The yeti is insulated well. (Uses only ice.) It has a refrigerator type gasket seal at the lid. You can check them out at a place like Bass pro shop, a bait shop or boat stores. I left mine in car overnight and during the day at conventions. I try to park in the shade and put a sun shield on my windshield to lower the temps.
I precooled my yeti several days before departure--brought yeti into my house from hot garage and put frozen 2 liters bottles in to precool per yeti instructions.
A lot of my food was frozen upon departure....meat loaf slices, mashed sweet potatoes, udis bread, paleo muffins etc.

Sheila · Post by **Sheila** » Sun Jun 01, 2014 8:13 pm

Thanks, Brandy. Being able to leave the cooler in the car is perfect. I was reading reviews of the Yeti coolers and one man commented that his wife couldn't open the latch on the cooler. I had surgery on my right hand in September and it isn't very strong and I will be traveling by myself. Was your cooler difficult to open?

My plug-in cooler was pretty expensive and it's very extravagant to buy another one. I'm going to have to think about it.

Thanks, Brandy.

Sheila W

Polly · Post by **Polly** » Mon Jun 02, 2014 9:07 am

Thanks, Brandy. I'm going to order one.

Polly

carolm · Post by **carolm** » Mon Jun 02, 2014 6:47 pm

Hi Brandy, I had been looking a few months ago for a cooler or car fridge so that when we travel I don't have to worry about whether the hotel will have a refrigerator in the room. Not only that but some hotel fridges barely get cold and I've had to throw some food out for fear it wasn't cool enough.

I just got home from 4 days in KC, helping my daughter move. I kept my food cool with ice and it went okay but it was something I had to attend to often. I'll definitely check out a yeti. It would pay for itself in no time.

thanks
Carol

MaggieRedwings · Post by **MaggieRedwings** » Tue Jun 03, 2014 5:09 am

Yeti is by far the best cooler on the market and they are worth every cent. Have used for years and would settle for nothing else for overnighting.

Love, Maggie

brandy · Post by **brandy** » Tue Jun 03, 2014 3:39 pm

Hi Sheila,

Yes it might be difficult for you to open. There are two rubber straps about 18" apart that you have to pull down on at the same time with left and right hand and then left the lid up. Suggest you check one out on site somewhere before purchase. The rubber straps help keep the seal tight.

Carol,

I really want a compressor car fridge but I'll probably look into that in several years. (They will even freeze.) The over the road truckers seem to use them a lot.

The yetis are really popular with males under the age of 25 in the south. They put them in the back of their pickup trucks, add a bag of ice and Mountain Dews or Pepsi and have cold beverages for a week on one bag of ice.

Post by **tex** » Tue Jun 03, 2014 5:56 pm

Brandy wrote:The yetis are really popular with males under the age of 25 in the south. They put them in the back of their pickup trucks, add a bag of ice and Mountain Dews or Pepsi and have cold beverages for a week on one bag of ice.

I couldn't help but notice that you didn't mention keeping beer cold, as a suitable use for a Yetti. I can understand that though, since here in Texas, the beer usually doesn't last long enough for the ice to melt, even in a cheap cooler.

Tex

nerdhume · Post by **nerdhume** » Wed Jun 04, 2014 3:57 am

Tex, as a fellow Texan I can verify this to be true.

I couldn't help but notice that you didn't mention keeping beer cold, as a suitable use for a Yetti. I can understand that though, since here in Texas, the beer usually doesn't last long enough for the ice to melt, even in a cheap cooler.

carolm · Post by **carolm** » Wed Jun 04, 2014 7:32 pm

LOL you two. I also thought Brandy was being diplomatic. We know what's really in those coolers.

But then again, you are undoubtedly right--- it wouldn't last long enough.

C.