15 Year Icey-Tek 40 litre cool box review by Shaun Harrison - Angler and Owner of Quest Baits

We bumped into Sean Harrison at this year's Essex Carp Show and he mentioned how he loves his Icey-Tek Cool Box. He has very kindly taken some time to write the below words and has also recreated a 15 year old photo. What an absolute gent! Check out his Facebook pages HERE and HERE and Instagram HERE. Thanks Shaun!

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15 Year Icey-Tek 40 litre cool box review by Shaun Harrison

Back in 2011 I bit the bullet and purchased my first Icey-Tek cool box. I’d hung my nose on one for a while, after decades of making do with cheap cool boxes that were never particularly effective. It wasn’t until I had purchased the Icey-Tek that I realised just how useless my previous boxes had been.

At the time, I was fishing Grenville in Cambridgeshire and this meant loading my food and bait on a Thursday night, or Friday morning, in order to be able to get away from work without any delay once my weeks work had been completed.

Anyone who knows me will be aware of my love of cooking fresh food outdoors, this has been a thing with me since way back last century. I see no point in putting up with make do food when I have plenty of time to prepare the same as I would eat, out of choice, at home.

Grenville was often like a big family gathering at weekends, never have I fished a water where so many couples shared a swim. This naturally led onto some rather different and enjoyable meal-time gatherings. I would usually carry extra ingredients should I end up cooking for others. My Friday night meal would be something fresh and my Saturday night meal something frozen. This was the only way I had been able to keep food fresh enough for long enough with the cool boxes I had used in the past. By Saturday night my frozen food would be thawed but still cold enough to be okay.

First time using my Icey-Tek box complete with two of their Gel Packs (the best blocks I have ever used) I was shocked to find that the Saturday night food was still a solid block of ice. I had never known this before. What is more, that session I had ended up without guests and the extra food I had carried was still icy when I arrived home on the Sunday evening!

The effectiveness of this box allowed me to simply carry fresh food, meat, fish or seafood to last the full weekend, without having to mess around with frozen bits judging when to thaw them out before cooking.

Here I am, 15 years on and still using that very same 40 litre box and 2 x large gel packs. I fish more than 100 nights a year, so 15 years of my use and abuse tells a story. I don’t look after my gear; I see the items I carry as tools to be used and that box sure has been used and still shows no sign of anything needing replacing. Everything on it is original. 15 years of my abuse is like many more years of most others. Probably a lifetime to many as I do get away every week.

I thought I would tap these words out as all too often we see reviews of brand-new bits of kit that have not been ‘lived with long term’. Well, this one has been and gets my full approval. Expensive yes, but these are in the premier league. It is one of those items I carry, that should anything ever happen to it, I would replace it immediately.

What more can I say?

Best wishes
Shaun Harrison

PS The label was peeled off very early on in its life for more stealth/blending into the undergrowth.