Interesting Cooler

Former Member

Coleman has the "Party Stacker" coolers that I've come to really appreciate over the past couple of weeks. Small, cheap, and totally without seams or ridges inside to catch food. They come in two sizes worth noting, a 25qt and a 33qt. The 25 will hold exactly one case of canned beverages and ice, while the 33 will hold exactly two cases and ice.

But I bought them to use as a hot box for ribs and chicken. I cooked up a mess of chicken last week and tossed them into the cooler with sauce to hold before service. Worked great. You may not want to add to your cooler collection, but I like to keep things compact and these did the job well, for less than $20 for the 33qt, and $15 for the 25qt. I had to order direct from Coleman since there were no dealers in my area, but shipping was cheap.

I think the 33qt model would hold 20 slabs of spare ribs to give you some idea.

5/7/092:09 AM

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ribdogMember

Those do look interesting, Todd. And you could use different colors for different meats. Going to have to check those out.

5/7/099:09 AM

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Former Member

Before I ordered I had hoped they would hold a full size hotel pan, the holy grail of the cooler world. "Missed it by that much" as Agent Maxwell Smart used to say. But will hold 3 half pans with room left over on the end for a few beans or other hot side packed in quarts. So in addition to hotbox use, I'll use these for office deliveries since most orders will fit nicely.

It seems like Coleman or Igloo would get a clue as to the hotel pan size issue. I can imagine a lot of caterers beating a path to their door for these Party Stackers at even twice the price if they would hold a full sized pan.

Here's a link BTW:
Coleman Party Stackers

5/7/0912:06 PM

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tomMember

Yep,that's why we liked our Carlisles ,even better than the Cambros,for the extra pan.

Of course,as Todd knows,if you didn't buy a bunch of cambros,you wouldn't have to go to work.

5/7/094:18 PM

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Former Member

Not to beat a dead horse, (and no, I really don't own stock in Coleman) but I did a couple of pool openings this past weekend and the shallow version of this cooler came in very handy. It is just the right depth to hold a deep half pan. Packed with ice around the edges, it held slaw and potato salad all day at safe temps. As soon as the rush was over, I put the lid back on and it was closed and cool, ready for the next person. Even when open, the pan was below the lip of the cooler keeping it largely under the thermal layer.

Pool parties are difficult around here because they usually want you to serve for most of the day, and for cold foods in particular, this can be dangerous. You can't keep enough ice in a chaffer to last for more than half an hour and even then it doesn't do much for the sides of the pan, but with this cooler you're good for 6-8 hours.

5/15/092:36 PM

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tomMember

Thanks Todd.

Being on the coast in S Fl we have some heat issues/pools ,as well.

Folks don't understand,but we actually stay cooler than your area.

Good thoughts ,for what some of us to know to be inexpensive solutions.

As we know,at the price,if it works,if we don't have storage,we can always throw them away.

One job pays for/costs a lot.

5/15/094:33 PM

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Former Member

Free shipping through Memorial Day too. I forgot to mention that.

I just ordered a few more. Last time shipping on 4 was just $10, but every penny counts these days.

I needed more because I'm trying not to be so linear. Business is real weird this year, coming in spurts, so I want to be able to do more than one event at a time, to make up for down time between bookings. Parallel, non-linear catering so to speak.