Tom Conroy
Thinking about getting a new cooler? Of course, you are. A good hard cooler is one of those home essentials that feels like a unicorn. Most people either don’t have one or they’re still using a relic they inherited from their parents. Enough of that nonsense. Do yourself a favor and get what I’ve learned might be the last cooler I’ll ever use in my lifetime: the Ninja FrostVault™ Hard Cooler.
SHOP NINJA FrostVault™ COOLERS
The FrostVault not only preserves ice and keeps everything at food-safe temperatures for days, but also offers a separate Dry Zone that receives the same cold temps, so you can keep food cold without sogging it out.
Don’t have any reusable ice packs? Don’t sweat it. My workaround has been to fill sturdy freezer bags with ice cubes. I’ve found that they stay almost entirely frozen up to 3-4 days.
Plus, my cooler has turned into a beautiful tapestry of stickers reflecting years of travel and brewery visits:
Also, I named my cooler “Dalton” in honor of Road House. If you’ve seen the movie 30 times like I have, you know why.
Long road trips? No problem
Every year, my wife and I visit my parents down in Florida for about a month every winter as a work-cation. Since they only have one car to use, we made the decision several years ago to drive down rather than fly. That means we can pack a lot of extra supplies, including anything out of the fridge.
Normally, when we go on a long trip, we meticulously eat through all the perishable foods in the fridge in the name of food waste. That’s why we’ve dubbed ourselves “the masters of food management.” With our FrostVault, whatever food we want/need to bring to Florida will stay cold for the entire 2-3 road trip.
SHOP NINJA FrostVault™ COOLERS
And then the storm hit…
In case you missed it, Milwaukee got hit with a “thousand-year storm” this past August, which dumped an unbelievable amount of rain on the area and filled many old basements with water. Thankfully, our basement only sustained small water leaks here and there, but the real trouble was losing power for almost 24 hours. This was especially bad timing, as we had just gone grocery shopping the day before and had a fridge full of food that could potentially spoil.
As soon as the power went out, we sprang into action, filling our FrostVault with all the ice that we had in the freezer before organizing the most vulnerable perishables into the cooler. Once again, this cooler delivered, and we ended up not having to throw anything away.
After almost two years of use, I figured I’d stop having my mind blown by the FrostVault, but its performance and durability astound me every time.