To buy or not? On the eve of the summer season, my husband and I decided to get a cooler bag. We are lovers of a wild vacation on the lakes with tents, and for such a vacation, a cooler bag is an indispensable thing. At first they wanted to buy a refrigerator for the car, but then changed their minds. The forums have read a lot of negative reviews from the owners of such refrigerators - it’s too bulky auto takes, but inside, on the contrary, is small, nothing is placed. In general, abandoned this venture. Began to choose a thermal bag in online stores.
Pleasure is also not cheap, and for a bag of the sizes we needed, I would have to lay out a hryvnia 500, plus cold batteries. But, in fact, a thermal bag is an ordinary bag with a heater sewn inside, which does not release cold and does not allow heat from the outside. My husband is an engineer by training, explained to me the essence of the idea. And we started experimenting - making a cooler bag from improvised means, and then testing it during outings on the weekends. I want to share the results with you.
To begin with, we went to the market and purchased insulation. The choice was made on foamed polyethylene glued with foil. It looks like this: Sold in all construction stores. Usually they glue it under the battery, with foil inside the room. And in the heating season it’s so simple device saves 30% of the heat that normally goes into the environment. There is a running meter of this material from 8 to 15 hryvnias (the price depends on the thickness of the polyethylene itself, we bought the thickest - 10 mm). Its width is 1.5 meters. Enough, as they say, with a head. We also needed tape (the wider the better). Well, actually, the bag that we planned to turn into a refrigerator. In principle, you can take a bag of any size - proceed from your needs.
The process of "transformation" itself took 20 minutes on the strength. First, they cut out such a “cross” from the heater. If you glued boxes in childhood, I think you guessed what was happening. The central square is the bottom of the bag, the sides are the walls, and the rest will be the lid. The foil should be inside the bag.When you cut, keep in mind that after gluing the box will need to be inserted into the bag, so make patterns 5-7 cm smaller than the actual size of the bag. We initially chose a blue bag with a width of 70 cm, but, looking ahead, I’ll say that the cut-out “refrigerator” did not fit into it, but went perfectly to my husband’s black meter sports bag. Now with the help of adhesive tape you connect the sidewalls, gluing both outside and inside. Glue well, do not spare tape. The walls should fit snugly against each other, otherwise you will not achieve the thermal effect.
Initially, we cut the lid of the bag whole, but the insulation does not bend well, so I had to cut it off and glue it with tape. So she became more comfortable. Now about where, in fact, the waste insulation. We decided to stick the remaining four pieces at the joints of the sidewalls: they bent each square in half at 90 degrees and fixed it with adhesive tape (with foil inside!). After that, the bag turned out to be double, which means that the thermal insulation has improved. The resulting design is placed in a bag. We have a box of insulation entered tightly. If suddenly there is a place left, I recommend readers of the World of Soviets to fill it with foam rubber or scraps of old cotton blankets. So the insulation itself will not tear, and unnecessary heat from the outside will not be picked up. In general, insulate, do not be shy. That's all, the cooler bag is ready. It remains to make batteries cold. The role of the batteries were plastic bottles. If the bag is small, take half-liter bottles, if more, then liter. Now we fill the bottles with a strong solution of table salt (6 tablespoons of salt per liter of water) and freeze. You can fill the old heating pads with saline and freeze them too. The nuances of using from personal experience I will say that: cold accumulators should be located every 10-15 cm, only this way the products do not heat up for a long time.
And if you wrap frozen foods or drinks in heating pads, they will begin to thaw no earlier than 12 hours. Wrap each product that you put in a bag in paper or newspaper - the paper will add a thermal insulation effect; Fold all the products tightly, try to avoid free space in the bag; Before closing the bag with a thermal cover, cover the food with paper and then a few towels. After that, tightly close the lid of the insulation, and then the lid of the bag itself; try not to open the bag unnecessarily, do not let out the cold. This bag keeps the cold up to 24 hours. The first time we brought some food and cold drinks in it. After 12 hours, the drinks were still cool, and after another 8 they began to warm. At the same time, even perishable products (eggs, cheese, ham) after 20 hours did not deteriorate. But we discovered the best way of loading on the second trip. We drove for two days, air temperature about 40 degrees with a plus. Products (highly chilled) were transferred with the same highly chilled drinks and frozen batteries. Warmers laid out on top, under the lid. The bag was in the car (I also wrapped it in a blanket) and for more than 30 hours the food was cool! In general, we are very pleased with the result. I don’t know how many hours a branded cooler bag holds, but ours “homemade"Exceeded all expectations. And just recently made a thermo-package. They bent the rectangle from the insulation and glued it with tape on the sides. In it we carry frozen fruits with cottages home (as a cold accumulator - a heating pad). Four hours in the heat, and the fruit does not even thaw. Maybe the idea of such an invention is useful to you. Use for health! And if you come up with how to strengthen the thermal insulation and extend the effect of the bag - write in the reviews.
