Cooler Shock Reusable Ice Packs for Cooler – Strong, Reusable, Premium Ice Pack and Lunch Cooler Set for Long Term Use – Cools Faster Than Ice -…

I bought these after a friend HIGHLY recommended them. He’s been using them for a few years (pretty much weekly, plus a few beach runs and hunting trips). I bought a new cooler and he reminded me of them so I picked a few up in anticipation of some outings this spring/summer.

I bought a 3 pack of Large and two 4 packs of Mediums as I have a variety of ice chest sizes (20qt rotomolded, 30qt soft, 100qt Coleman 5 day). I usually use the 30qt (BYOB parties), but typically a few times a year take them all for several day outings. The large ones don’t fit well (or at all) in 30qt or less. It will fit in the 30qt, but will be much more of a headache to work around.

It took me about 30-45 min to fill all 11 packs (measuring water, sealing, shaking, all the instructed good stuff).

I didn’t have any issues sealing these packages. Some reviewers had issues tightening down the lid all the way. After installing a few, it seems like it could be related to pressing the rubber plug so it was flush with (or very slightly recessed in) the fill port. I didn’t have any issues screwing the cap down all the way, but I suppose I have fairly decent hand strength.

The “Large” size were a bit more of a pain to fill than the medium Cooler Shock’s. After I filled the first one, sealed it, and shook it, I could feel undissolved powder on the bottom edge of the pack. This was NOT an issue I noticed with the mediums which seemed to dissolve quickly on their own. To solve this, before removing the lid, shake the package so all the powder goes toward the spout, fold the pack so the edges are touching (dont crease it or anything, gripping the shorter edges together so there is a bend in the middle provides enough resistance to keep the powder from washing to the opposite side). Then, remove the lid, begin filling, and release the bottom edge after the folded pack begins to appear mostly full, allowing the rest of the pack to fill. Doing this seems to allow the powder to dissolve more fully.

The Large packs will stay colder longer as it’s a more solid block of ice than the Mediums, but use what’s appropriate for the cooler size.

Ice Chest TIPS!

Ice packs like these work fine alone, but I’ve found it’s better to add cold water (and potentially some ice) to your cooler to more quickly and efficiently transfer the cold from the ice packs to your cooler’s contents. A full cooler holds lower temperatures for longer (and water takes up space between products), especially if it there’s constant traffic in and out.

Place the packs between the products in your ice chest, and NOT against the walls. Placing the cooler pack against the walls of your cooler transfers more of its cooling potential to the wall of the cooler instead of first radiating through the products.

Pre chill your goods: Freeze what you can if you’re going to be out for a few days or more. Refrigerate everything else for 8-12 hours before. You want your cooler to KEEP things cold, not waste a bunch of the cooling capacity on cooling room temperature products down.

Pre chill your cooler with ice and water 8+ hours before you fill it (I typically do this the night before with some lunch size ice packs we’ve collected over the years, filling the cooler with enough water to fully submerge the ice packs.. about 2-3″ of water). Many use this method with what they call “sacrificial ice” .. but the water is usually still ice cold, so I just dry off the ice packs, return them to the freezer and stock the cooler with the few inches of water still in there.

“…But these are supposed to save you money on ice!” I intend to continue to use ice and water with these packs (less water / more ice when it needs to stay colder longer), but this should cut WAY DOWN on the amount if ice I use in my ice chest. Typically I’ll stop at the grocery store or gas station for a few bags of ice to toss in the cooler before headed out to my destination, but now I can use an ice tray or two from our freezer with a few Cooler Shock packs for the majority of my outings.

I’ll continue to play with it and amend this accordingly.

I got the lunch pack size and the large cooler size. I can’t say I have used the large ones much yet. I got them for camping to keep my stuff cold without the wetness of ice.
PROS: Keeps the cooler cold without the mess of melted ice. The Mylar construction seems to conduct the heat into the pack for cooler the cooler or out of the pack in the freezer. For my lunch pails, I travel a lot so I must keep it in my car. its still pretty cold with some frozen areas when I go grab it for lunch. Mine get rotated out so they sit in freezer for 2 days between use. they keep things pretty cold and I like them! If you use in conjunction with ice, it helps keep the ice longer.
CONS: Filling them seems a bit inconsistent. The recommended water amount it too much for some and not enough for others. I’m not sure why, maybe my measuring was inconsistent.
Overall, I recommend this product or something similar.

I spent 50 nights camping in my camper out west this summer. I ended up buying 2 sets of 3 of these. I can leave my house and they will keep things cool for a week in a large cooler. At that point, I find places that sell the 10 lb blocks of ice for cheap. This gets me through the rest of my trip. I made it 17 days on the last trip out west and only needed to purchase three 10 lb blocks. I keep the packs in the cooler as the 10 lb blocks tend to extend the life of the ice packs for the trip. Definitely better than using frozen milk containers that take up too much room and aren’t as effective.

Any rating less than five stars must be for totally ridiculous expectations. I have six of the large, four of the medium, five of the small, and just ordered two of the hard sided ones. The reason I have six of the larges ones is that I originally bought one set of three and one of them didn’t mix up well (kinda like wet sand on one end) but still seemed to work and I emailed the company just to ask them about it….they sent me a whole new set the next day! Our typical use is to load up a cooler for a day on the lake and go out to an island for the day. In this situation I’ve never had one even start to thaw out and you have to insulate food to keep it from freezing.

I’ve put a few in a 52 quart Igloo Quantum cooler with a frozen ham and frozen turkey, driven seven hours with the cooler in the bed of the truck, and when I got to where I was going the cooler was so cold on the inside that the outside of it was sweating. Taking the cooler back home empty with just the shocks inside and the cooler walls read 21 degrees.

A truly amazing testimony was just last month when I brought six flats of strawberries home to South Carolina from six hours away in south Georgia. I had three coolers and plenty of cooler shocks with me, but the flats wouldn’t fit in the coolers and I didn’t want to move the strawberries. So, I made two stacks of three flats which came out of the farm’s cooler and wrapped them with cut cardboard boxes (just a single layer) and taped them.. I put a cooler shock down each side of the taped up boxes against the sides of the flats, then folded and taped the top of the cardboard over. This was in the back of my truck under a topper for six hours. Although not really hot (in the 70s) it was very humid. When I got home, the shocks were half thawed but still 19 degrees where solid, and the strawberries were 35 degrees!!!

BTW, the cooler in one of my photos is a 50 quart Igloo Overland and it has slots in the sides that were practically made for the large cooler shocks. They will slide down in the slots and make great compartments. It’s amazing to use these things and have stuff come out the cooler COLDER than it was when it came out of the fridge.

Amazing product, easy to set up & keeps cold for 48 hrs, fits into the small freezer part of a fridge (great for when staying in self-catering) Great value product. Highly recommend.