Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I wanted some high end ice packs to go along with my high end coolers. What sold me on Artic Ice is the claim they last 60% longer than ice and the MADE IN USA. The Chilln Brew do a great job at keeping your drinks Ice cold because of their negative 2 degree temp. But what I found is that they don’t last as long as I had hoped. I ran several test in order to get them to last longer but they simply won’t keep frozen as long as the cheepo blue ice packs or frozen water bottles. After a lot of testing and research I simply cannot get these pack to keep longer than ice. So I looked into the chemistry of PureTemp. Pure Temp is the liquid inside of these packs that store the energy. On their website they have all the technical info posted. Below is what I found about their Heat of fusion properties. J/G(Heat storage capacity) of Artic Ice and of plain ol water: Tundra Series(-15C) Heat storage capacity: 301 j/g Chilln Brew Series (-2C) Heat storage capacity: 277 j/g Alaskan Series(+1C) Heat storage capacity: 301 j/g Water (0C) Heat storage capacity: 335 j/g As you can see water has much better Heat storage capacity than all of the Arctic Ice. This means that regular ice has more stored cold energy than Artic Ice therefore will keep your cooler cold longer. All of my testing proved this to be correct as well. Pros: USA Made Ice cold drinks Strong and durable Shape (when it fits your cooler) No water to drain Nontoxic Constant -2c until the end Cons: How long they stay cold. – cheap blue ice or frozen water bottles will last longer. High Cost Large size gap between Large and Extra Large packs. I believe Artic Ice could benefit from making a size in-between 2.5lbs and 5lbs for medium size coolers. Lack of info/instruction Shape (when it doesn’t fit your cooler) Lots of air gaps in cooler –may need to use in conjunction with ice cubes Conclusion: If you have a specific need to keep you cooler at negative 2c with the Chilln Brew or -15c(Tundra),+1c(Alaskan) then these packs would be good to regulate a constant temperature other than freezing(0c) of water. But if you prefer your cooler to be at freezing then plan old ice will last longer. Not only will ice maintain freezing longer it will also fill in all the voids and airspace allowing you to maximize your coolers efficiency. Using frozen water bottles allows you more space in the cooler as you can consume them as they thaw. For me I spent a ton of time trying to figure out proper size, fit and series. All with results that didn’t meet my expectations. Unfortunately I have decided to return all of the Arctic ice I bought and will stick with cheap blue ice, frozen water bottles and cubed ice. I really wanted this product to work as described. I have an appreciation for a small American company that makes there product in the USA. Iam also willing to pay a premium for this. Im giving them 2 stars because I think it’s a quality company and a quality product if you require and temp other than 0C. But it did not live up to claims of keeping frozen for 60% longer than ice. Original post: I originally bought the green Alaskan packs but I didn’t think they kept my drinks cold enough so I returned them in for the Chilln Brew. I think the green packs would be great for food. But just not quite cold enough for drinks/beer. I’m very happy with the temperature of Chilln Brew. They do a good job of maintaining their temp -2c until the very end even if there mostly liquid. I bought 4 of the Xl(5lbs) panels, 4 of the large(2.5lbs) panels and 1 medium(1.5) panel this is roughly a ~200 investment. This is a lot of money and I’m still deciding if it is worth that. I bought them to use in my canyon 22, yeti 45 and Pelican 65 coolers. I live in AZ and the summer heat here is torture on coolers if I can get cold drinks for a weekend here Iam happy. I’m out 4 wheeling, camping, quading, hiking every weekend and I really put my coolers to the test. Cheap coolers and Ice packs just don’t hold up to the temperature and rough terrain in the desert. These are well made and durable ice packs. They don’t bulge when frozen like the cheap blue Ice. They also have a nice handle that helps you get them in and out. Some have dark blue liquid and other are light blue almost a water down look. I’m not sure if this has anything to do with performance or just a different batch with a different amount of food color. But with the cost of these I would think the quality control would be a bit better. I have email them in regards to this and this should not affect the performance. The 5lbs packs last a long time, much longer than the large or medium size. Since the XL seem to last the longest I want to use these when I can. There is a graph on Chilln Brew website that claims to stay below 32 degrees for 69 hours and 93 hours below 40 degrees. Although it give no criteria to how the test was performed. Other than “high Performance cooler test”. Well what cooler? What size? How many Icepacks? How many drinks? For these results I can only guess it was a large cooler full to the brim of Chilln Brew in a climate controlled room. But who knows exactly? I had a very difficult time trying to figure out what fits for what cooler online. I want mine to fit tight and flat as possible to maximize the space and reduce air gaps. But this is not always easy. The lack of info online made this difficult, lucky I was able to find them at Sportsman’s and tested the size out on their large selection of coolers. There is a big size gap between 2.5lbs and the 5lbs. Also there is a lack of instruction online. A few demonstration videos on YouTube but nothing to help you pick the size or the amount or even how to pack the cooler. Here are my results after owning for 2 weeks. I tried to get as close as the recommended can capacity and ice. Or use the 2:1 ratio. But sometime this was difficult due to the shape and size of the packs. *Igloo Ice Cube 12 Qt (14 can capacity) (my daily Lunch Box) 1 large and 1 med pack with 6 drinks and small amount of food. 90% thawed by the end of the day. Not much different from my 3$ ice packs. *Canyon 22 (manufacture recommends 16 cans plus ice) I used 1XL upright and 2 large packs flat on the bottom and 16 drinks. This combo fit pretty well. 1 full day inside my truck and the ice was about 75% melt when I got home. The temps inside my truck can reach well over 150 when parked in the AZ desert. I was pretty impressed with this. Canyon is one of my most used and liked cooler I have. *Yeti 45 (manufacture recommends 26 cans 20lbs of ice) I found the yeti 45 was an odd size to get to fit. I tested this at sportsman’s and the Large packs did not fit flat on the bottom of their display cooler. But when I got home they did fit flat on my cooler although they are tight. I can fit 2 large flat on the bottom and 2 Xl upright if at an angle in order to fit all 26 cans. 1 XL will also fit in the bottom. But this is only 15lbs of ice not the recommended 20lbs of ice Yeti recommends. This lasted all weekend inside my house but I have yet to test in real world situation. There are a lot of air gaps between all the cans and the ice packs due to awkward set up. I’m guessing if you used cubed ice you could get the last 5lbs and close all the gaps. I think Artic Ice could benefit from making a size in-between 2.5lbs and 5lbs for medium size coolers like this. *Pelican 65 the XL fits like a glove. You can almost fit 3 XL flat on the bottom but it’s about ¼ in too wide. So I used 1 large and 2 XL in order to cover the whole bottom. 2 XL on each end and 2 large on top. This fits extremely well. I have yet to test this beyond the sizing. Most likely I will be using these packs in conjunction with ice cubes for this cooler. It will be hard to get the recommended amount of ice without using ice cubes as well.