How much ice should we be using?

[SleepingGrizzly]

Hi there,

My wife and I recently purchased a Legend 35.5 and until now never used an ice box (our previous boat had a fridge). So, we have a few questions. How much ice does this take or should it take to keep things cool on a daily or weekly basis (elsewhere we've read 50 lbs/week or 10lbs/day)? We're assuming it's weather dependent. Are blocks or cubes better? We have access to both. Do we dump cubes into the trough at the bottom or is that for catching melt water? Are we further ahead keeping the drain plug in most of the time?

Anything you can tell us will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[MetricMountie]

Congratulations on buying the Legend, my wife and I purchased a 1992 model four years ago and a really happy with it. In answer to your question of how much ice to use we generally ice the box this way: We buy two blocks, one is placed under the shelf in the ice box and the second block next to the 1st but in the main area of the box. We then fill the shelf area with items that need to stay cool but not cold, we block the area between the shelf and the main area of the box with a 1/4 in. piece of starboard place the cold items in the main area and fill the remander of the box with cube ice. As an added bit of insulation on top of the cube ice we place a piece of bubble wrap which works well at holding the cold in the box.

We leave the trough open and just let the melted ice drain into the bilge for pump out. The two blocks and the cubes will last approximatley 5 to 6 days if you limit the openings and closings of the icebox doors. We know where the items we want are stored so that helps when it comes to retreiving a cold beer or the mayo for a sandwich. Hope this helps.

 

[Benny17441]

Our previous boat had a cooler and used it in many occassions. We used to leave the drain open even though it lead to a loss of cool air as we figured it was worst to have water sloshing around. We have always relied on pre-prepared foods or meats to simplify the cooking chores and we would freeze these items prior to sticking them on the cooler. We would freeze gallons of water as they could help hold temperature as well as provide drinking or cooking water. We would place our provisions and then drop 20 # of cube ice. Now drinks like beer , cokes, and small bottles of water were moved daily to a small portable cooler to limit the number of times the boat's cooler had to be opened. We could safely go three days without having to restock ice.

 

[SleepingGrizzly]

Thanks very much for the advice. We're making this work.

 

[robertsapp]

Regarding the drain plug - for shorter trips, say four days or less, we always plug the drain, because even when the ice melts, it is still cold water, which is, well, cold. The thermal mass helps keep the ice box cool. But for longer trips, we've actually found that after replenishing ice three or four times, the water gets so deep that it starts to become a problem (everything drowns) so we leave the plug out and just accept that we're allowing a lot of perfectly good cold water to drain out.

 

[DianaOfBurlington]

I agree with what Robertsapp said. My cooler is an Igloo '5-day' campers' cooler, not a marine model, that actually does hold some remnant of ice for five days, kept in the shade of the boat. I modified it with dividers to hold cube ice in the back end so taller things can be stood upright in front. I also fitted a drain plug in the bottom which does need to stay plugged. As Robertsapp says, at least cold water helps in keeping things, well, colder. But I do drain it each time I replenish the ice.