I was looking for something better than a standard cooler to hold my BBQ. I'm not ready to spend the money on a real Cambro but I do enjoy cooking food and taking it places. I found this Polar Tech Thermo Insulated Food Carrier on Amazon for $84.
My overall impression is that it does work good but seems way over priced. Its basically a styrofoam cooler with a vinyl cover and the vinyl cover prevents the lid from totally sealing (it has a recessed lip that should mesh up) . The straps do hold the lid fairly tight but I guess I would expect better for something of this price.
I've only used it one time and held a pork shoulder for 4 hours! I used a microwaveable heating pad on the bottom then stuff towels on top of the foiled pork. It should also be noted that 2+ of the 4 holding hours were in a hot car with windows up in 90F+ ambient temp on a sunny day in Chicago. Here is a timeline of the day I used it to bring some pork butt to work for lunch.
7 AM - Pulled pork from WSM @ 195. Foiled. Put in vehicle and drive to work
8:00 AM - Pork 185. Arrive at work and park. Outside temp ~80.
9:00 AM - Pork 174. Still sitting in my truck with windows up.
11:15 AM - Pork 165. Almost lunch time. 90F outside. Brought inside, unwrapped, and pulled. Still moist with good solid bark.
I definitely will use this again next time. I'm curious how much sitting in the hot vehicle helped hold the temp. Will I be able to get 4 hours again? I wonder how this compares to a standard cooler? One nice thing about this is the size. It almost fits a half size pan perfectly. Most of my coolers are very large rectangle shape that isn't ideal for a smaller piece of meat like this.
My overall impression is that it does work good but seems way over priced. Its basically a styrofoam cooler with a vinyl cover and the vinyl cover prevents the lid from totally sealing (it has a recessed lip that should mesh up) . The straps do hold the lid fairly tight but I guess I would expect better for something of this price.
I've only used it one time and held a pork shoulder for 4 hours! I used a microwaveable heating pad on the bottom then stuff towels on top of the foiled pork. It should also be noted that 2+ of the 4 holding hours were in a hot car with windows up in 90F+ ambient temp on a sunny day in Chicago. Here is a timeline of the day I used it to bring some pork butt to work for lunch.
7 AM - Pulled pork from WSM @ 195. Foiled. Put in vehicle and drive to work
8:00 AM - Pork 185. Arrive at work and park. Outside temp ~80.
9:00 AM - Pork 174. Still sitting in my truck with windows up.
11:15 AM - Pork 165. Almost lunch time. 90F outside. Brought inside, unwrapped, and pulled. Still moist with good solid bark.
I definitely will use this again next time. I'm curious how much sitting in the hot vehicle helped hold the temp. Will I be able to get 4 hours again? I wonder how this compares to a standard cooler? One nice thing about this is the size. It almost fits a half size pan perfectly. Most of my coolers are very large rectangle shape that isn't ideal for a smaller piece of meat like this.
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