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It’s a .5 gallon plastic igloo thing that’s sold everywhere. Now that it’s hot outside, the ice and water melts too soon. I’ve switched to putting only ice but that still melted and stopped being cold too soon.

Is there something I can wrap it in that would be somewhat practical? What are your thoughts? Thanks!

It’s a .5 gallon plastic igloo thing that’s sold everywhere. Now that it’s hot outside, the ice and water melts too soon. I’ve switched to putting only ice but that still melted and stopped being cold too soon. Is there something I can wrap it in that would be somewhat practical? What are your thoughts? Thanks!

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[–] • 2 pts (edited )

Have you tried putting salt on the ice? That will lower the freezing point of the water and make the ice colder. Not sure if that will make it stay colder longer though, it may just get colder, but for less time (so may be counter productive).

Do you add water to the ice? I would think that adding (cold, as cold as possible) water to the ice would increase the amount of time that the whole structure remains cold. This would be because the increased amount of water increases its thermal mass, taking more heat energy to increase the temperature of the water/ice. So, I think having as much ice in there as possible, then filling the gaps with water that is as cold as possible would maximize the cooling time.

If it's being heated from the outside, wrapping the entire thing in something that is insulating should also slow the melting of the ice. This could include insulating it from direct radiative heat (sunlight) and conductive heat. Some bubble wrap would probably be effective, not sure if practical though.