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Polr cube ice extender

20K views 31 replies 12 participants last post by  codycleve 
#1 ·
I just came across these on the internet and was wondering if anyone had any real life experience with them.. I watched all the videos and they seem to work pretty well. Although their method is a little skewed due to the lack of thermal mass in the ice chest without the polr cube. Would have been better if they had put a container of plain frozen water of equal mass as the polr cube.. that being said I ordered a few to try out.. here is a link.. also no way connected to the company, just seems like a possible good product. https://getpolr.com/product/polr-cube/


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#2 ·
I don't know anything about the POLR product in the OP.

But my daughter is getting Blue Apron meals delivered.

They have these NORDIC ICE packs by TEMPERATSURE. These Ice packs contain water, ________ and Propylene glycol, (also called propane-1,2-diol, is a synthetic organic compound with the chemical formula C3H8O2. It is a viscous colorless liquid which is nearly odorless but possesses a faintly sweet taste. Chemically it is classed as a diol and is miscible with a broad range of solvents, including water, acetone, and chloroform. from wiki)

They ship the ingredients that need to be refrigerated in a bubble wrap with a couple flat containers of this extended ice.

They strike me as they would be worth saving for car camping but not on rivers.
Disposal of anything but water ain't right.

But I don't know much about this stuff and tend to be skeptical of anything labeled as safe by the manufacturer or business using said product.

I'm looking for answers too.
 
#3 · (Edited)
All this stuff has to do with "phase change" technology. Water changes phase (changes from a liquid to a solid and vice versa) at 32 degrees F. These products all manipulate the phase change to a lower temp. There is one product that changes phase at 18 F. The thing you have to realize is that that pack stays at 18 degrees untill its all liquid, only then does the temp begin to rise. Can you say freezer cooler. I bought a bunch of these last fall when I became aware of them. Artic Ice is one brand and they have various temp choices. Also a very durable package. Spendy. The other is called cooler shock. Its the 18 degree one. You have to ad H2O and seal the pack with a iron but the process is straight forward and works well. Cheap. Does not seem to be as durable. I have not used any of these but will this season a lot. I will be keeping the buzzards informed on this. Could possibly be a game changer. You can get these, wait for it, you guessed it, Amazon.
 
#4 ·
All this stuff has to do with "phase change" technology. Water changes phase (changes from a liquid to a solid and vice versa) at 32 degrees F. These products all manipulate the phase change to a lower temp. There is one product that changes phase at 18 F. The thing you have to realize is that the pack stays at 18 degrees untill its all liquid, only then does the temp begin to rise. Can you say freezer cooler. I bought a bunch of these last fall when I became aware of them. Artic Ice is one brand and they have various temp choices. Also a very durable package. Spendy. The other is called cooler shock. Its the 18 degree one. You have to ad H2O and seal the pack with a iron but the process is straight forward and works well. Cheap. Does not seem to be as durable. I have not used any of these but will this season a lot. I will be keeping the buzzards informed on this. Could possibly be a game changer. You can get these, wait for it, you guessed it, Amazon.
Thanks James.

NASA is working on this phase change tech also.
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/2077.html

I'm officially saving my daughters packs for Oregon Field Trials.
 
#5 ·
I will nerd out with you. I believe it stays cold due to latent heat being required to change state. Its the same concept that refrigeration and air use to "make cold". The difference there is that is a system contiously working to maintain temp. This is kinda just a super up ice cube (since the latent heat of the ice melting is why it feels cold, not just its thermal mass). How well this works, I don't know.
 
#6 ·
On a molecular level phase change is pretty dramatic. The energy required to change a individual molecule from a rigid structure to a liquid is huge with water, and supposedly they are improving on that. Cant wait to try them out. Be careful with the nordic ice packs as they are somewhat fragile.
 
#9 · (Edited)
Putting there liquid into a sturdier container would work. I had to Google what was in a blue ice pack and it turns out to be mostly water but it melts at about 0 degrees and due to a ton of latent heat needed to change its state it melts real slow and cold. Now Ice melting at 0 degrees sounds alot like salt saturated water. Zero degrees Fahrenheit is based on salt saturated water freezing.

I wish I had 2 identical coolers. I'd do an experiment.
 
#10 ·
I used nordic ice a bunch last year. One of those packs fits just so in my little engle day cooler. Keeps 12 beers cold all day plus cooling down a couple of warm ones. Refreeze seems real fast also. I have had a couple of blue ice packs over the years and their performance has not impressed me although they are bomber strong. No scientific tests mind you, just my impressions. The cooler shock if it had a bomber container would be awesome. But someone mentioned using a more durable container and it would work perfect for that. They come precharged with a granular substance and you add X amount of h20. Could easily be done in a nalgene or...
 
#12 ·
Nice to hear that these could be a good investment.. full disclosure I was doing a little boozing when I ordered a 4 pack and didn't really think things through.. the company is listed out of boise so being in salmon I should get them here before too long.. my first real trip is at the end of april so it won't be too much of a test for them.. I will make sure and post results and what I really think of them.. later in the summer I have a middle July main salmon and an August hells where I will know more..

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#13 ·
YETI Ice Comments

I have experimented with the various ice packs with limited results. SO recently I thought twice about these new YETI Ice packs that are out there now and all the rage, but dang are they expensive! SO I reluctantly bought a couple of the 4# variety to try out and took them on a trip down the Salt River earlier this month. It was warm out there with high temps in the 80's. I put them in the bottom of a YETI 50qt. cooler and then laid a thin bed of real ice under them and covering the top of the YETI ice

This ice etc., was in the cooler for 7 days total, including travel out to AZ and back, and seemed to work great and actually froze solid a dozen cans of lemonade I had laid over the ice in the bottom. When I got around to cleaning out the cooler back at the house, the YETI ice was no longer frozen in solid state but I still had ice in the cooler along with the partially frozen drinks.

I was impressed and thought that these YETI ice units might be a good idea to replace the old method of using frozen water jugs in the bottom of the cooler and these will also take up less space than the jugs and require less ice as the YETI ice seems to help keep what little ice you have frozen for much longer.

I should say that I am not a huge YETI fan, I think they are overpriced and not as great as Canyon Coolers which I also use but this YETI was a gift. These YETI ice units are definitely impressive. Next trip out will be a little warmer one and I plan to add a few more YETI ice to the collection and line the bottom of a bigger 100qt. Canyon Cooler with about 4 of them and then use less ice which should allow more space in the cooler and lighten the load too.
 
#15 ·
Ok, after taking a closer look at the polr cubes on my lunch break i notices that the plastic bottles have "Koolergel" stamped in the side of them. With a quick search of the internet I found this.

https://www.amazon.com/KoolerGel-Ic...UTF8&qid=1490987663&sr=8-1&keywords=koolergel

One $12 packet makes at lest 6 2 liter containers of ice extender. If this indeed the same stuff that is in the polr cubes you are essentially paying for the container.

In reading the reviews on amazon about the koolergel one person was talking about making 2" pvc containers that are capped.. if you could figure out your volume that seems like a pretty good way to make containers to fit your ice chest.. not sure in the cooling would be affected at all being in a pvc pipe though.
 
#16 ·
I googled cooler pack jell ingredients, they wouldn't share much but I did get 2 list. Water, sodium chloride, minerals, cellulose. And water, cellulose, blue coloring, ucarcide as a preservative. Not sure what the cellulose is, I always thought wood was made of that. I'm sure someone here should know. Help me out. I want to make my own.
 
#18 ·
The gist for me is to have a combination of both water and ice extender. And to have my water undrinkable because its still frozen at the end of a trip.. I have always packed frozen water jugs but never drank any of them because we pack water jugs and just refill along the way. that's the nice thing about the rivers in the north west. either their are places to refill or you can filter the water easily. Always looking for a way for that day six beer to be just a little colder.
 
#20 ·
If the POLR ice is just that gel stuff in a custom container, I'd be tempted to do it myself. Its kinda tempting to make a urethane or similar bladder that is a few inches thick and fits in the bottom of a cooler (maybe two so its easy to freeze in a normal freezer) and fill it with that stuff and lay it on the bottom of the cooler.

I will say it was super nice to take a swig of ice cold water in the middle of August in the Grand Canyon. When they started getting mostly water, I took one on a mid day hike we did and it was awesome.
 
#21 ·
So I used 4 of these in a 55qt canyon on an o wyhee trip... Not the best test as it was pretty cool most the time... First picture is at 8 days second picture is at 14 days and the last picture was at 20 days.. ice was gone at 21 days.. it did really extend the life of my ice...

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#22 ·
Just got back from 8 days on the D and used cooler shock exclusively instead of ice. Not a scientific test by any means but the packs themselves had frost on them until day five or six. I was impressed. They are much colder than the Artic Ice beer chillin packs that are rated for 28 degrees. I also like the fact that they are only about an inch-inch and a half thick. You can put them on the bottom and sides of the cooler and still have plenty of room for food and stuff. I'm contemplating doing more controlled garage test soon and I'll keep you all posted. Cody, do the poir cubes list their freezing/melting temp? Thanks.
 
#23 ·
Well this sounds interesting. I am going to get some of the koolergel stuff and add to my blue screw in ice freezer jugs that go in my 2 Gott coolers. I still have one of the older smaller 80 quart models in good shape that has the 3 jugs that screw into the lid. I also have this huge one that has the lid screw in jugs and the divider jugs for my work boat. PS. if you have a big enough boat this 150 quart cooler is the best cooler around of its size for the price. I got mine from sportsman warehouse for $140 with the freezer jugs included. Looks like its hard to find them on line with the freezer jugs included.


http://www.homedepot.com/p/Rubbermaid-150-qt-Marine-Cooler-FG2B8001TRWHT/202260813
 
#30 ·
Well this sounds interesting. I am going to get some of the koolergel stuff and add to my blue screw in ice freezer jugs that go in my 2 Gott coolers. I still have one of the older smaller 80 quart models in good shape that has the 3 jugs that screw into the lid. I also have this huge one that has the lid screw in jugs and the divider jugs for my work boat. PS. if you have a big enough boat this 150 quart cooler is the best cooler around of its size for the price. I got mine from sportsman warehouse for $140 with the freezer jugs included. Looks like its hard to find them on line with the freezer jugs included.


Rubbermaid 150 qt. Marine Cooler-FG2B8001TRWHT - The Home Depot
are the Rubbermaid coolers the same quality as the GOTT coolers?

i was considering getting the 102 qt Rubbermaid...
 
#25 ·
#27 ·
I guess the proper question would be when does it change from liquid (gel) to solid (brick)? Once its a brick it will get colder. Interesting that they dont publish that phase change point cause that means a lot. Sorry you froze your veggies Elk and isn't that a eye opener in itself. What were the temps like outside? Jury's still out but I'm leaning towards "this stuff is the shit".
 
#28 ·
I couldn't find that info anywhere.. I thought that is what you where after so I looked for it... for veggies I like to put the foil bubble wrap over all my ice and colder products and put the veggies on top... You can see my foil in the pictures I posted.. works great... I just ordered some of the kooler gel powder and three 1 gallon lifestack water jugs... think they will fit great in the bottom of my bigger coolers..

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#31 ·
I tried the Koolergel on a trip last week on the Lower Salmon and it does indeed appear to make Ice last longer. I would say the regular ice blocks we had lasted at least 2 days longer with a couple of jugs of the koolergel also in there. In another cooler, the Koolergel jugs seamed to make some dry ice last longer than I would have thought. Next time out, well roll 1 cooler with koolergel and one without to see what happens.
 
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