Arctic ICE Chillin' Brew Series - Reusable Long-Lasting Ice Pack (Blue) | Perfect for Coolers, Lunch Boxes & Sports Injuries

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/gChilln Brew Series (-2C) Heat storage capacity: 277 j/gAlaskan Series(+1C) Heat storage capacity: 301 j/gWater (0C) Heat storage capacity: 335 j/gAs 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 MadeIce cold drinksStrong and durableShape (when it fits your cooler)No water to drainNontoxicConstant -2c until the endCons:How long they stay cold. – cheap blue ice or frozen water bottles will last longer.High CostLarge 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/instructionShape (when it doesn’t fit your cooler)Lots of air gaps in cooler –may need to use in conjunction with ice cubesConclusion: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.I live in SW FL and yesterday the temp was in the 90s. I put 2 of these and a purple one in a thermal bag inside of a cooler, just in case I needed to refrigerate something before I got home. I never leave home without a cooler and ice. I use to freeze water in bottles but they were always melted before I got home. I forgot to bring these in last night and went out today to make sure I put them into the freezer for a beach outing tomorrow. The 2 blue ones, one was entirely melted and one was still partially frozen. They were both STILL COLD. Awesome find from recommendation of my brother.They come in various sizes to fit any ice chest.They stay cold, but for the price, they are not that bigI own several of these. I recently bought the small, lunchbox sized one for a lunchbox. The larger ones kept my soft drinks COLD in a soft sided cooler for 3 days last fall, with highs in the 70s during the day. This mini one has no problem keeping my poorly insulated lunchbox cold. They are expensive, but they are the best ice packs I've come across. They're also cheaper than the YETI ice packs. I have not seen any deterioration of the ice over the past two years.I bought 2, just in case...but this fits perfectly in the top and bottom of my igloo cool series 12qt hardshell personal cooler. I work 12 hours and commute lengthy trips daily. So this keeps everything perfectly cold all day, after 17 hours it's still at 39 degrees Fahrenheit when I unpacked it. A bit spendy, but we'll worth it. These are mediums.I put two of these in Artic 64 cooler with half a bag of ice and lots of pre-chilled beer and drinks.Ice lasted for over 4+ days.I still had plenty of ice when I got home and cleaned it out! Great if you have a deep freezer to recharge them but a good fridge should work fine. Recommend!!We had a 12 hour drive and wanted to have cold drinks, sandwiches and snacks in the car to save money and time. 2 Chillin Brews and a ziploc bag of ice in our cooler did the job! When we unpacked the cooler everything was still cold.... not just chilled! they were cold! The size was perfect to fit against the side wall of the cooler. My cooler will always have Chillin Brew plus ice from now on!For the money, I was expecting them to last longer than just a few days. Put three in an Igloo cooler box and three days later, had to re-freeze them. Slightly better than some others, but for the heavy price tag, a bit disappointing.I tested this along with a dollar store gel pack I bought for $4. I did the test in a very expensive and reputable cooler. Both packs started out about -10C on their surface. I don't know why this one advertises -2C when frozen. Both cooler packs warmed up about the same and after 42 hours this one was +2C and the cheap one was sitting at 0.5C. They both were pretty much liquid by then. So why would I spend 10x more for this one?I bought these because they fit perfectly along the sides of my coolers. They are nice and thin so they don't take up much space. However, they thaw pretty quickly. I would buy the colder "pink" models next time.I put in my two wheel freezer for more then 8 months and it works perfect,I recommend if you looking for this one.But I got small one and the same result. I'm sure if I need more I'm going back to the store because of the price and the qualityBought this product after reading reviews and watching video. I am really wondering were the reviews and videos came from cause I have found they are not at all accurate. This product does not work as hyped. These packs will not last more than 4 hours. I used cheap $5 ice packs prior to buying these and I have gone back to them cause they easily go for 12 hours in the same cooler and out of the same freezer. Save your money don't believe the videos or reviews.