Polar Bear Coolers

Mar · Post by **Mar** » Mon Jul 12, 2010 10:47 am

Can anyone tell me the best place to buy a Polar Bear Cooler and which size is carry on friendly for the airlines? Thanks for all your help!!

augie · Post by **augie** » Mon Jul 12, 2010 10:55 am

I buy them directly from Polar Bear - http://www.polarbearcoolers.com

I know that the 24 can size and smaller are carry on legal size. The 48 used to be, but with the trend of the allowable carry on size shrinking, you may or may not be able to carry it on.

The 24 can is a great size - that's what I'm carrying on the plane...TOMORROW!

SOonthebeach · Post by **SOonthebeach** » Mon Jul 12, 2010 11:55 am

Congrats on the trip TOMORROW Augie!! Send pics! I'm 3 weeks behind you and can't WAIT.

hartpump · Post by **hartpump** » Mon Jul 12, 2010 12:07 pm

question?? with the liquid restrictions on carry on items what are you taking in your cooler. Or more directly what is and isn't allowed to be carried on in a cooler?

augie · Post by **augie** » Mon Jul 12, 2010 12:16 pm

I'll be taking frozen meat, frozen vegetables, and cheese.

I haven't had any problem doing this the last three years.

Will just pack it tightly to eliminate "dead spaces". Everything that starts frozen will still be that way when we get to the rental. Some people use techni-ice to help keep things frozen, and if I were checking the cooler I'd likely do the same.

Others have reported being able to use techni-ice in their carry ons, but that seems highly dependent on the TSA screener you get. Since we're flying out of Miami and from experience our stuff will stay frozen without it, I won't bother/risk having it get confiscated.

crasherino · Post by **crasherino** » Mon Jul 12, 2010 1:31 pm

Augie's got it right - sometimes they confiscate the techni-ice, sometimes they let it go through. We had a situation where they just confiscated the packs on top and let the other packs on the bottom go through.

As long as its fully frozen, you shouldn't have a concern.

Also, there is usually a coupon code for polar bear floating around somewhere. We've bought a whole bunch as gifts over the past few years and we've always gotten some type of deal/discount.

olivias dad · Post by **olivias dad** » Mon Jul 12, 2010 1:48 pm

I think there is less issues if you actually check the polarbear coolers in vs. carry-on. I could be wrong but from what ive read...just a matter of if you want to pay for an xtra bag fee...

augie · Post by **augie** » Mon Jul 12, 2010 2:02 pm

olivias dad wrote:I think there is less issues if you actually check the polarbear coolers in vs. carry-on. I could be wrong but from what ive read...just a matter of if you want to pay for an xtra bag fee...

You can certainly have more latitude as to what you can bring if you check your bag, but you run the (small) risk that the TSA people might open it and not close it properly.

We're carrying on not only to save the checked bag fee, but to eliminate waiting for the luggage to make it to the carousel in the terminal as well. We hope to be on our way to get the rental car by the time most folks are getting their hands on their checked bags.

olivias dad · Post by **olivias dad** » Mon Jul 12, 2010 6:58 pm

Good luck, we'll be doing the check-in method next month - hope everything works out!

Tim from Chicagoland · Mon Jul 12, 2010 8:50 pm

Check out "ebags.com"
Other brands as well.

lprof · Post by **lprof** » Tue Jul 13, 2010 8:52 am

Tim from Chicagoland wrote:Check out "ebags.com"
Other brands as well.

When visiting "ebags.com" this VIOL website gets some credit (which helps keep this fun place running) if you click on "Luggage" in the - Forum Shopping Links - "sticky" post by Anthony....

Tim from Chicagoland · Tue Jul 13, 2010 9:13 am

I had no idea that they were a link. I posted their site because I have purchased there as was quite satisfied with the selection and price. Should I not post specific business sites in the future, instead just posting something vague like, "check out websites that sell luggage"? I don't want to appear to be a schill. I've noticed some posts where people have a link to their own business, unrelated to the topic. You click on these links expecting pics or something, instead you get their website. A bit uncouthe in my opinion. Is that allowed?

Tim

lprof · Post by **lprof** » Tue Jul 13, 2010 9:29 am

Tim from Chicagoland wrote:I had no idea that they were a link. I posted their site because I have purchased there as was quite satisfied with the selection and price. Should I not post specific business sites in the future, instead just posting something vague like, "check out websites that sell luggage"? I don't want to appear to be a schill. I've noticed some posts where people have a link to their own business, unrelated to the topic. You click on these links expecting pics or something, instead you get their website. A bit uncouthe in my opinion. Is that allowed?

Tim

No problem at all with your post! No worries!

There are a few shopping sites that benefit VIOL when we shop with them linking through VIOL... ebags.com is one - amazon.com is another (see top of this page).

Anthony has told me that posting links (or shopping info) as you did is fine, if related to the subject thread. Advertising one's own business in such a manner when related to the thread is not so clear.

Spam is frequently a problem here (and headache for Anthony).

LiamH · Post by **LiamH** » Tue Jul 13, 2010 11:26 am

You may know already.. But avoid dry Ice if flying out of NYC..

A couple ( in front of us) had their coolers flagged and where very upset to lose them because they used Dry Ice when they packed it...

- Liam

augie · Post by **augie** » Wed Jul 21, 2010 9:52 am

olivias dad wrote:Good luck, we'll be doing the check-in method next month - hope everything works out!

FYI - everything did work out great. We had six pieces of carry on luggage for three people - a mesh bag for all of our snorkel gear except our masks, a Polar Bear cooler (24 pack size) with frozen meat and some other miscellaneous foodstuffs, a camera bag, a backpack that held my son's and wife's laptops, and two carry on size suitcases.

I called Dependable as soon as we walked down the stairs off of the plane. By the time we got our complimentary rum shots, we waited less than five minutes for the van from Dependable. Plane landed at 2:30. After a trip to Cost-U-Less we were on the 4:30 car barge, and made it to Connections in Coral Bay before they closed at 5:30 to pick up our flat rate priority mail package that contained liquids and gels larger than the allowed carry on size.

On the way home the cooler, now devoid of meat, carried duty free rum purchased at the airport!

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