I have a 920 XP. Just wondering if anybody has insulated the built-in cooler and how he did it. Ice doesn’t last long in South Florida in the summertime
I have a 920 XP. Just wondering if anybody has insulated the built-in cooler and how he did it. Ice doesn’t last long in South Florida in the summertime
pre cooling the night before works great, I use frozen bottles of water, next morning remove some and add ice or leave some for drinking, have seen ice last 24 hrs after fishing a day in 95 degrees.
also helps to have drinks and water cold first
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I usually freeze 6 regular sized water bottles, then put those in along with 4 unfrozen ones and a few sodas and then fill with ice and leave enough room for my sandwiches. Have been out from 6am - 4pm with 95 degree highs and the frozen bottles were still 3/4 frozen at 2 and had ice in the cooler yet.
Also helps to use ice from a freezer ice maker over gas station ice, lasts longer in my experience.
Pre cooling the night before helps a ton as well. **You have to do that with any cooler to get it to hold ice as long as advertised**
Fish have fins, they swim
I lined my cooler with “dynamat “. It’s closed foam insulation used in hot rods to keep heat out of the cockpit. Get the thermal stuff and not the sound deadening stuff- I also replaced the factory lid insulation with the dynamat . Big improvement but not perfect. I’ll have to try pre- cooling it next trip out
Lucky maybe but mine seems to work pretty well. Did not precool 10 lbs of ice and 10 cold bottles of water in the cooler boat has been sitting outside95+ 7 hrs later still had almost half the ice.
pre cooling and add cold items is the way to go. I normally do that but spur of the moment thing
I bought my boat used and the previous owner had cut some 1/2" foam board insulation to fit in there. 1 in the bottom with a hole for the drain and then 1 piece for each side. Seems to work alright. I'll fill it in the morning, fish all day and might still have some the next morning, just depends.
Thanks guys
I like the idea of putting a soft cooler in there, just have to figure out which size to get
Pre Cooling (as already mentioned), inserting drinks that are already cold, and using quality ice. That's been the ticket for me in South Mississippi on the Gulf Coast. Those good sized cubes from your refrigerator are the best ice to use. The ice you get at the store or these Ice Machines is crap.
I fished an afternoon tournament this past Friday and it was hot! I didn't even pre-cool, but put in cold drinks and good ice. At 9:00 p.m. that night, I had very little ice melted.
The thing about coolers is that they hold heat as well as they do cold. If the boat is sitting in an unconditioned garage or outside, the cooler will easily be over 80 degrees before you add ice and will melt the ice super quick. So as others mentioned pre-cooling the night before helps.
Another way I have done it (I am in South Florida as well), is throwing the ice in top of my drinks and drive to the lake usually is about 1hour for me, in the summer by the time I get there the ice has melted (but has pre-cooled the cooler.) So I will carry another bag of ice in a cooler in the truck and put that one in the boat when I get to the lake and it will last all day.
Another tip a friend showed me is to not take the ice out of the bag, shove the bag of ice in the cooler, if your boat has a big enough cooler. It should last all day.
I can't remember which size, but California Cooler makes on that fits right in and it works really good. I have one just can't remember which size. I measured mine and bought what I thought would fit and it fits like a glove. Keeps ice.
There was a thread years back in the Phoenix section, might search and find the size.
My guess others then California cooler would work too.
I'll check it out
This one looks pretty close.....I like that idea as well
https://www.amazon.com/California-In...cx_mr_hp_atf_m
2019 721 ProXs 4S 250
2B599739
Thanks
I think you guys are making it to difficult. I freeze 5 water bottle. Morning of fishing, I plug the cooler drain, load the cooler with 5 frozen bottles, 5 chilled bottles, 1 chilled coke and 2 chilled gatorades. I get one bag of 10lb ice and dump half in the cooler and leave the remaining ice in the bag (to refill my insulated cup through out the day) and put it on top of everything. Last weekend it was 93 degrees with 75% humidity and after 10 hours I had drank everything except 2 bottles of water and they were still half frozen. The remaining ice in the bag was still more than half of when I put it in there. The ice I had dumped in, was 50/50 of ice/water.
Tip: freeze different brands than chilled ones. I freeze ones with clear lids and chill ones with blue lids. That way I know to drink the blue lids first... OK, maybe I'm making it to difficult but It does work.
pre chill is the deal, I have put refrigerated Gatorades in in the morning and at the end of a tournament on a 95 degree day the Gatorades were half frozen from the Ice Cream maker effect, keep the plug in the cold water helps
this was after a 9 hour club tournament in July , ice was from the fridge at home that morning 2 hours before getting to the lake and picture was at the ramp at weigh in
2016-02-21 18.51.12.jpg
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I didn't take a photo, but this past weekend it was crazy hot on the water. I knew I'd need extra capacity for some Gatorades. So, I carried my YETI 20 hard cooler. I pre-cooled my boat cooler and my YETI the night before. I used store purchased ice in my YETI and ice from my Refrigerator in the boat cooler. All drinks were cold when I put them in also. At the end of the day my boat cooler had more ice remaining (actually a good bit) than the YETI. Now, before you call BS on that, I put the lower quality ice in the YETI assuming it would be able to handle it vs. the boat cooler. I used higher quality ice in the boat cooler.
I use 3 of the 6 can freezer blocks. They lay in the bottom perfectly. Lay drinks on top and cover with ice. Keeps cold all day.
2017 Phoenix 819, Mercury 200 Pro XS, 80 Ultrex w/ iPilot Link, Helix 10SI console, Helix 10 DI bow
Ive used mine once, I carry an rtic soft side cooler and use the boats as a trash can . when's its a 115+ and water temps are in the high 80s, nothing works
2014 Phoenix 721
250 SHO