HOUSTON – Whether you're camping, having a picnic or enjoying a day at the beach, keeping your food and drinks cold in the Texas heat is hard. The makers of the Chill Chest claim it can keep anything ice cold for up to 10 hours with no ice. The chest is super lightweight, weighing less than two pounds and folds flat for easy storage.
Consumer expert Amy Davis popped the sides in place in seconds and then went shopping for some cold treats. She filled the chest with two gallon tubs of ice cream, some ice cream sandwiches and some Creamsicle popsicles. She left the chest outside at 10 a.m.
"If this thing works as advertised, we should be able to offer our colleagues frozen treats in about 10 hours," Davis said.
After three hours, Davis checked the Chill Chest and found all of the ice cream soft and melted. She needed a straw for what was left of the popsicles.
Clearly, the Chill Chest is no match for Houston's heat, but we wanted to give the product one more shot. Davis brought it inside and filled it with frozen water bottles. The ice melted and leaked because the Chill Chest is not water tight.
She put the re-frozen treats back inside and waited. Five hours later, Davis opened the chest to find the ice cream mushy and melted.
"The secret is our temperature lock technology, with interwoven polypropylene cells that trap the cold inside and keep it there," booms the announcer on the commercial.
It sounds fancy, but our tests showed it wasn't much different than plain old Styrofoam.
The Chill Chest costs $39.99. Davis bought it on sale for half off and still paid too much.