Proper YETI cooler usage

[Pkfish49]

I hope this is the right forum for my question.
 

I spent the money on a YETI Tundra 45 cooler.  I'm about to escape the city and go on a four day fishing trip.  At the end of the day, I clean and vacuum seal the fish.   I like to have ice both under and over the bags, but if I fill the cooler with ice after the first day, I’m going to have to dig out some top ice every night and then repack it.  I bought the YETI so I don’t have to do a lot of work.  When I get back from the lake, the last thing I want to have to do is lift the thing into the bathtub, and take the time and effort to repack ice. 
 

Is it advisable to do the following?  After the first day, line the bottom of the cooler with ice, put the fish in, and add enough ice to cover the bags. On subsequent nights, add a little more ice, put the fish on, and them cover it with more ice.  Is my plan bad, because one needs to completely fill the empty space with ice, in order to achieve maximum cooling? If not, can I do something like fill the cooler halfway with ice the first night, put the fish on top, not caring about covering the top of the fish with ice, and just add more fish on top, at the end of the other days?
 

Experienced campers and anglers please chime in.  What is my best plan of action here?  If it makes a difference for the answer, the cooler will be kept inside a hotel room.

[Mobasser]

I would put ice in the bottom, then a layer of your fish. Then repeat. If you have some melted ice, drain off the water and add more ice. Your fish will stay cold

[jbsoonerfan]

What is the weather going to be like where you are going? A YETI isn't much better than a regular igloo if it sets out in the sun in 80 degree weather. I have 3 YETI coolers so I have drank the juice. You need to pre-cool it first. I would do this with dry ice and then either put a membrane of some sort on the dry ice and start with your layering method or toss the dry ice and start with ice on the bottom and then start your layering. Just remember, the more you open it and the longer you leave it open it is just going to get warmer. I am not one who packs meat out of a hunting area so I can't vouch for their ability to keep meat cold for days on end. But they won't keep a Keystone Light cold for days if you don't add some ice to it.

[Pkfish49]

4 minutes ago, jbsoonerfan said:

What is the weather going to be like where you are going? A YETI isn't much better than a regular igloo if it sets out in the sun in 80 degree weather. I have 3 YETI coolers so I have drank the juice. You need to pre-cool it first. I would do this with dry ice and then either put a membrane of some sort on the dry ice and start with your layering method or toss the dry ice and start with ice on the bottom and then start your layering. Just remember, the more you open it and the longer you leave it open it is just going to get warmer. I am not one who packs meat out of a hunting area so I can't vouch for their ability to keep meat cold for days on end. But they won't keep a Keystone Light cold for days if you don't add some ice to it.

One day, it will get to 65, the rest of the days won't get past mid 50s. Cooler will be inside all the time though, and away from any direct sunlight.  Only going to open it once a day, just long enough to add the day's catch.  Plan is to keep it cold until I get back home and then put in a proper freezer.   Not sure if I'll be able to get my hands on any dry ice, but can pre-cool with normal bag ice.

[jbsoonerfan]

You should be fine then. It won't be frozen, but I assume you just need it cold enough that it doesn't spoil.

[Pkfish49]

9 minutes ago, jbsoonerfan said:

 but I assume you just need it cold enough that it doesn't spoil.

Correct - I'll write back after the vacation to report how it went.  Not targeting too many Bass this trip, but I'll be sure to post a lot of pics in the Other Fish Species - Other Species Latest Catch thread. 

 

Thanks!

[Deeare]

I’m assuming you’ll have a refrigerator in the hotel room.  Freeze 12 or so water bottles.  12 oz size and put 6 in the cooler with the ice.    They will  help keep the ice from melting.  Replace or switch out the water bottles each day.  I do this on my trips and it helps a lot.   

[Pkfish49]

14 hours ago, Deeare said:

I’m assuming you’ll have a refrigerator in the hotel room.  Freeze 12 or so water bottles.  12 oz size and put 6 in the cooler with the ice.    They will  help keep the ice from melting.  Replace or switch out the water bottles each day.  I do this on my trips and it helps a lot.   

Appreciate the advice, but there are a few issues:

 

1 - The room has a refrigerator, but no freezer compartment. 

2 - I don't want to keep the refrigerator too cold, because I'm going to try and store Baby Nightcrawler Worms in it, and I've frozen and killed worms before with too cold refrigerator settings.      

[Tony johnson]

I pre cool the cooler then I use ice and the cooler shock icepacks... the ice packs stay cold for 4 days when I go to the desert in 80 plus weather

[Bird]

Another trick that was told to me which I've used on 3 - 4 day camping trips is to freeze water balloons. 

Couple of frozen chunks the size of softballs will still be there after 4 days. 

[CountryboyinDC]

I think for your purposes, where you're only using the cooler for vacuum packed fish, I would just have the cooler pre-cooled (I keep a couple of 2 soda bottles in my freezer to do this), and then add the ice in layers over the fish, draining the water and adding more ice (and hopefully fish) daily.  The high end rotomold jobs keep ice longer, but if you're staying in hotel, ice access is probably not as big an issue as if you're canoeing 10 miles in to your campsite.

[Pkfish49]

4 hours ago, CountryboyinDC said:

I think for your purposes, where you're only using the cooler for vacuum packed fish, I would just have the cooler pre-cooled (I keep a couple of 2 soda bottles in my freezer to do this), and then add the ice in layers over the fish, draining the water and adding more ice (and hopefully fish) daily.  The high end rotomold jobs keep ice longer, but if you're staying in hotel, ice access is probably not as big an issue as if you're canoeing 10 miles in to your campsite.

Appreciate all the advice about pre-cooling.  I would not have considered this.  Getting ready to go.  I just put six 1.5L bottles of Evian in my freezer (made sure they fit in the cooler first) and will pre-cool the YETI with it before I travel on Saturday morning.  I'll be adding 19.842‬ pounds to the 23 pound cooler, but I might as well get used to it, since at the end of the trip, the ice and fish will weight more.  I hadn’t considered the hotel ice machine, but given the small amounts it puts out at once, will probably be too much of a pain to use.  I’m lucky that there is a gas station/convenience store directly across the street that sells five-pound bagged ice.

[Armtx77]

4 hours ago, Tony johnson said:

I pre cool the cooler then I use ice and the cooler shock icepacks... the ice packs stay cold for 4 days when I go to the desert in 80 plus weather

Prechill with a 20lbs bag of ice and fill with water.

 

With Temps you are looking at, shock packs or a 20lbs bag of ice will be more than enough.

 

Wanna get fancy? Drop a couple pounds of dry ice in there, wrapped up in a bath towel.

[nosdog2]

You need to make your ice with Dasani or Pellegrino water, it will last longer in the Yeti.  All kidding aside, pre-cool it.  With those temps and a few days it will be fine.  

[Pkfish49]

Just got back.

 

Writing to report that all worked out well!  Before I took off for the lake, I put the six bottles of frozen Evian in the YETI to pre-cool.  After the first day's catch I removed the still frozen bottles, put in a layer of ice, put the vacuum sealed fish in, and covered with ice.  I put the frozen water back in.  I repeated the process the next two nights; filling it up with whatever amount of bottles fit in.  The last night, I completely filled with ice. After the drive home, I put the fish in my apartment freezer.  

 

Very Impressed with the performance of the YETI Tundra 45.  Almost no pure water after almost four complete days.  

 

If I instead purchased a portable freezer and something with the compressor malfunctioned, I could have possibly wasted the lives of the fish, which would have been heartbreaking.