The TRUTH About Draining Your Cooler - According to Science

I did an ice retention challenge video a while back with almost 30 coolers and on a few of them I left the drain plug just a bit loose for the first day or so and so some of that melted ice water drained out and by golly people had words dozens of viewers of that video commented about how the leaking coolers had an unfair Advantage because everybody knows that if you let the ice water drain out of your cooler that the ice will last longer and yet dozens of other commenters said just the opposite everybody knows if you leave the ice water in the cooler that it will last longer and therefore those coolers that leaked had an unfair disadvantage confused much but wait the plot thickens so I took a poll on YouTube to ask you what you thought and the question was should you leave your melted ice water in your cooler in order for ice to last longer and your cooler to stay colder seventy percent of people think you should leave the melted ice water in the cooler and 30 percent of people think you should drain it so which is it to drain or not to drain that is the question gear up and get outside I decided to run an experiment so we could settle this starts out with two identical coolers and contrary to my better nature as many of you know who have watched my other cooler videos I even pre-chilled them for a few hours they both have the same amount of ice approximately 55 pounds I filled it to the brim but I also included 24 cans of my favorite beverage Coca-Cola I wanted to include some drinks in there to get a more realistic read on how it would work if you were actually using this camping so there's approximately a two to one ice ratio like most cooler companies recommend maybe even a little better than two to one in the Ice's favor both coolers are in the exact same environment they're just sitting in my backyard up against a fence that is North facing so they'll be in shade I have also put a thermometer in each cooler these are Bluetooth thermometers that I can monitor from an app on my phone so we can track what the temperature does inside then obviously I'm going to have one Cooler's drain plug sealed up tight for the duration of the test while the other cooler will have its drain plug loose and open that way water can drain out steadily and slowly as it melts and then I will be coming out and opening each cooler at least one time per day and probably a few times per day just like as if I were camping and using them Outdoors ultimately we want to look at two things number one does letting the melted ice water drain out make the ice that remains in the cooler last longer and number two does letting the melted ice water drain out keep the internal temperature of the cooler colder as well there is a difference of course I'm going to track these results and take note that while these are both Coleman coolers this principle should apply to any cooler or ice chest whether it's a Yeti or anything else since now we're just literally waiting for ice to melt I reached out to the customer service departments of six different cooler companies and I asked them one simple question which was is it better to leave the water in or to drain it out the responses were quite interesting so let's have a look at what they said starting with Yeti perhaps the most popular cooler brand there is that we all know and some of us love Yeti said this and I quote we recommend not to drain the water the water helps to insulate the remaining ice however exposed food and meat should be kept out of the water make sure the food is well sealed then they provided a link to an article on Ice retention in which it says invariable text don't drain the water Yeti makes it very clear their recommendation is to not drain the water with the claim that the water helps insulate the ice another reputable cooler brand that has been around forever in the United States and that is igloo and I quote as ice begins to melt if feasible leave the water inside your cooler the cold water keeps the ice chilled longer than the air that replaces it when you remove the water now this is sort of along the same thought process I had the air Heats and cools faster than water and therefore when you remove the water you're introducing more air which is more susceptible to heating up more quickly which could then potentially melt your ice faster so there's another point point for leaving the water in but they're not the only ones that responded if any of you watched the ice retention challenge video I did a while back you probably know by now that the Orion core cooler won that challenge and they said this the water acts as insulation so we recommend to let most of the water stay in the cooler instead of draining there's another point for leaving the water in then I reached out to our local cooler company here in Idaho Cordova Outdoors this is what they said we recommend you do not drain the water from the cooler period that would be another point for leaving the water in but then it starts to get a little more nuanced Arctic responded with this we would highly recommend to remove the water and refill the cooler with ice to ensure the cooler remains at the lowest temperature possible however if not possible we recommend not to remove the water and to keep the water inside the cooler as long as possible as air is the number one enemy of ice retention so they say do drain it if you can replace it with fresh otherwise leave the water in because air indeed is the enemy of ice retention so I guess there's a little something in there for everybody the final company that responded to my inquiry was Canyon coolers and here's what Canyon had to say we recommend draining your melted ice water because water will melt your eyes quicker because it is at a higher temperature there's a point for the other guys so those of you who wish to drain your cooler Canyon supports you it's pretty interesting to see the responses here clearly most cooler companies lean towards leaving the water in but let's get back to our test and see what we find out for ourselves it has been two nights since I put these coolers out here so a nice slow trickle on the cooler that is draining after almost two days just a few hours Short both coolers look pretty much the same on ice levels but what is the temperature doing inside if I look on my app here the cooler that is retaining water has had a low temperature of 32.9 degrees Fahrenheit a high of 37.2 degrees Fahrenheit at the hottest part of the day yesterday with an average of 35 degrees interestingly enough the cooler that is draining water has hit a low temperature of 33.8 degrees Fahrenheit a high temperature of 39.7 at the hottest point in the day yesterday the same time where the cooler that is retaining water got to 37.2 degrees and the average temperature in the cooler that is draining water has been 36.6 degrees Fahrenheit so that's only a couple of days but it's kind of interesting to see ice retention so far is the same but the average internal temperature of the cooler retaining water is slightly lower let's see if that holds for the rest of the test four days later I have finally found the good sins to change my t-shirt and it's time to check the coolers the two drain cooler is still at a steady trickle let's look inside ah so a significant reduction in the amount of ice okay looking at the temperature inside it has been an average of 39.8 degrees Fahrenheit in there and the high today is about right now actually 51.1 degrees Fahrenheit today the low temperature was 38.3 degrees so as the ice reseeds the high temperature it appears is increasing I imagine we'll see the same pattern in the not to drain cooler let's look at that one to drain as you're about the same level maybe a little bit higher just because there's more water volume in there so it looks like this overall the one with water has had I think it's still trending a little bit lower in temperature overall an average of 39 degrees and then today just over 50 degrees 50.2 the cooler that is draining water is trending about one or two degrees warmer in general than the cooler that is not draining water it has been five whole days now and let's see where we are at in the two drain cooler there we are still some ice but getting pretty low over the last day and the draining cooler the low temperature was 39.7 so that's creeping up a little bit and the high was 55 and that was just about right now in the warmest part of the day and then in the not to drain cooler here we go there we are there is still some ice but a lot of that is water obviously and in there we have we've had a low temperature of 37.8 and a high of 49.8 so the low temperature and the the cooler with water still in it is about two degrees cooler than the one that's draining and the high temperature is about five degrees cooler than the one that's draining so there's something about the air inside instead of water I wanted to learn a little bit more about the science behind this I dove pretty deep today researching this I've read some peer-reviewed scientific journal articles I've read blogs I've read q a forums but by far the most succinct article I found was on a website called thoughtco the author of this is Anne-Marie hellmanstein she has a PHD in science she has been a chemistry and physics teacher and she put it very succinctly on here answering the question which is faster melting ice and water or air and I quote assuming the air and water are both the same temperature ice usually melts more quickly in water the basic explanation for this is that there are more molecules in water that are more tightly packed than there are in air where it's more Loosely packed think of it this way in Idaho we have fewer than 2 million people over a huge area whereas in New York City there are millions of people within a very small area so you have much denser molecules in water than you do in air what that does is that allows more heat transfer between water and ice than between air and Ice simply because there is more active molecules interacting with each other just like there's likely to be more germ transfer between people rubbing shoulders in downtown New York City compared to people walking around in the middle of the woods in Idaho so this all bodes well for those of you who think that it's better to drain the water from your cooler however it's more complex than that remember that this principle is only Crystal Clear when the temperatures of both the water and the air that the ice is touching is the same but we know including from our own testing so far in this video that the temperatures of the air and the water inside of a cooler are generally not the same the air is going to be warmer we can assume that recently melted ice water is probably only a couple degrees above freezing whereas we've measured temperatures inside of these coolers during this experiment being as high as 55 degrees Fahrenheit well above freezing and we've observed that the air temperature inside of a cooler that is draining water is consistently higher than the air temperature inside of a cooler that is retaining the water air circulation and air tightness is also a key factor in how effective a cooler is at retaining ice and keeping your food cold inside and I didn't even mention all the possible variables that could be introduced based on the chemical composition of the water of the ice of the air of the Cooler's inner plastic lining oh at the end of the day because we use coolers the way we do opening and closing them taking them and introducing them in all kinds of environments whether it's a campsite the boat the back of the truck all sorts of variables that figure into the way you use a cooler it's not clear-cut as to whether or not it's going to substantially help to drain the water or to retain the water I mean really you're starting out the same either way in most cases right you're just putting ice in there you're adding food the contents of what you put in there could have an effect on it sometimes you don't want your stuff just to be soaked in water and so you do drain it for practicality's sake and it has nothing to do with ice retention ultimately it appears that the real benefit of draining or retaining is likely so small and so nuanced that does it even really matter thank you Dr hellmanstein I like hearing the Viewpoint of an unbiased professional in their field and if you like this video I would appreciate it if you hit that like button and consider subscribing to the channel for more in-depth gear tests and reviews like this thank you six days in let's see what the coolers look like today to drain still some ice in there not a ton but there is still ice not to drain still ice with lots of water it was one week ago today that I filled these coolers with ice and put them out here I'm ready for this test to be over I have a feeling this is going to be very close so for the record it is 10 30 a.m here is the draining cooler there is still some ice in there but it's sparse and the nut to drain cooler also still has ice how about them apples it is now noon noon and still some ice not to drain also still some ice oh boy this is down to the wire okay it is 4 45 to drain see a little bit of ice just kind of that chunk right there not to drain OMGs look there is one little nugget but I think we can call that done I mean that looks pretty done to me or right at the hour it's six o'clock and it has been seven days full since I added ice and look still a tad bit of ice in there one week I'm impressed and of course we already know this one is out but that water's still cold and it's still chilly in there I want to see this through until all that ice is gone okay it's 9 p.m right here with my flashlight let's see this party's over yet oh my gosh look there's still a little nugget it is 10 30 it is past my bedtime and I'm gonna check this sucker one more time and [Music] it's finished no more ice over the course of an entire week the cooler that was draining water did have a little bit of ice left in it about five hours longer than the cooler without water in the grand scheme of things that's not a whole lot and it tells even more of the story if we look at the actual temperature inside the cooler over the full week the average temperature of the cooler draining water was 44.3 degrees Fahrenheit the average temperature of the cooler that was retaining water was 41.5 degrees that's about a one degree difference in the lowest lows almost a Three Degree difference in the average temperature and almost a seven degree difference in the high favoring the cooler that does not drain water check out our website I'm going to put an article up there with more details and some charts that you can study if you're really into this and one other thing I wanted to note that I found pretty interesting is even in those final moments of the ice disappearing from the coolers there was still a noteworthy difference in temperature at 4 45 PM which is is about the time when the cooler that was retaining the water ran out of ice the internal temperature of that cooler was 49.5 degrees whereas at that same moment when the cooler that was draining water still had ice inside its air temperature at that moment was 58.5 degrees Fahrenheit so right there that's almost a 10 degree difference even though the cooler retaining ice still had some ice in it so you can see the outside air temperature has an even greater impact on the internal temperature of a cooler that is draining water so at the end of the day I think this is one of those ridiculous situations where everyone's right and none of it matters those of you who think it's better to drain water because that'll make your ice last longer are technically right although by a small margin because there's so many other variables going on inside of a cooler but those of you that think it's best to retain the water you're not wrong either because it looks like the average low temperatures will be cooler than if you do drain it however within those first few days it doesn't really matter when we look back to what the experts say and what the cooler companies recommend did I think Arctic probably had the best and most correct advice which was where possible drain the water and replace it with fresh Ice Air being the worst enemy of ice as Arctic put it but at the same rate if you can't replace that ice Arctic recommended you leave the water in where possible you can see that as more time went on there was more variability in temperature in the cooler that was draining water compared to the one that was not so what's your end goal if you want ice to last longer drain it if you want your food to stay colder for longer don't drain it but guess what the difference is so friggin small that it doesn't really matter so just do what you want you're stubborn so with all that nonsense what are you gonna do are you going to keep leaving the water in are you going to drain it out you're going to do something else let me know in the comments I'd love to hear

Channel: Outdoor Empire

Views: 295,152

Keywords: camping, outdoors, fishing, hunting, coolers, ice chest, cooler drain, cooler drain plug, drain cooler water or not, drain cooler water, camping cooler, yeti coolers, rtic coolers, orion coolers, cooler, best coolers, ice chest hacks, yeti, cooler hacks for camping, camping cooler tips and tricks, cooler drain plug hacks, ice retention, outdoor gear, coleman cooler, drain plug, ice cooler, ice, keep cooler cold longer, cooler ice test, beach, tailgating, picnic, science, ice water

Id: Sx7UZT5VphI

Length: 17min 23sec (1043 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 21 2023