It’s a scenario we have all faced. You take the time to prepare a nice lunch the night before work. When it's time to eat, you discover it's the wrong temperature and not at all appetizing. This is the reason selecting a quality lunch cooler is a must if you want to eat good food at work. A quality lunch cooler also does more than keep food at the right temperature. It is a portable pantry that keeps food safe and sanitary. Weather it is a busy train commute, a breakroom that is not climate controlled, or an eat outdoors scenario. A lunch cooler is a must. This guide will share the most important elements to keep in mind when selecting a lunch cooler that fits your work day perfectly.
Evaluate Your Comics and Daily Responsibilities
Before you start to consider a style, focus on the cooler’s functional design for your average day at work. What is your preferred method of commuting to work? This question has a significant impact on the type of cooler that will work best for you.
You probably value portability if you walk, bike, or take the bus to work. Look for a soft-sided cooler that is lightweight, has a comfortable shoulder strap, or has a soft handle that won’t throw you off balanced when you’re carrying it. Choose a cooler that has a compact design that will either slip right into the space you have in your backpack or that has its own carrying system. If you drive to work, you have more choices. You can go with a cooler that is slightly larger or is a little more rigid, but keep in mind that you’ll have to walk it from your car to your desk. The cooler will need to have a secure handle, and the same goes for weight. Consider the last leg of your journey. It can get very difficult to carry a big, heavy cooler through the office, and you’ll have to go through the hallways.Then think about your workplace storage options. Do you need to store your lunch in your bag or at your desk or do you have access to a shared fridge? If you have a fridge available to you, a small, insulated lunch bag should be fine to keep your food cool for the length of your commute. But if you do not have fridge space, you will need to bring a lunch cooler with ice pack space and much better insulation to stay cooler for longer. This way, your cooler will be a help, not a hassle.
Insulation and Temperature Control Should be a Priority
The primary purpose of a lunch cooler is to keep your food and drinks at the temperature at which you want them. This is highly dependent on the type of insulation the cooler has. Not all coolers will keep food cool (or hot) for the same amount of time.
Here we praise the insulating foam like we praise any hero in the story This insulating hero foam is the most common insulating foam and is used in soft side coolers Here foam insulation like in the larger boxes used to slow the heat exchange is used. It slows the heat exchange. This foam keeps your food protected from the heat of the outside. For any workday needs a soft sided cooler with an insulated foam is sufficient. But if your workday contains lunch items that you cannot refrigerate, the insulation should be effective to keep food cool for several hours and an ice pack is recommended.
To get the chillest food possible, you need to invest in an ice pack. Some cheap coolers rely on ice packs, but a good ice pack partnered with an insulated cooler does the best job. Modern-day, reusable ice packs are fantastic! They are designed to be leak-proof and stay frozen for hours, so you don't have to worry about your lunch food getting soggy. When looking for ice packs, consider the size and shape. The best kind of ice pack to have is a thin flat one, as those fit best on the bottom of your cooler and are the most powerful and long-lasting. If every cooler has good insulation and you have a good ice pack, your lunch will be perfectly chilled.
Choose the Right Size and Capacity
As with most things, size is important. Goldilocks-ing a cooler to find that sweet spot is important, but so is remembering that bigger is not always better. If a cooler is too large, it's just going to be heavy and awkward to carry, and if it's too small, you'll be left hungry.
Think about what you normally take for lunch. Just one container and a drink? Or do you take several containers, fruit, snacks, and an extra large water bottle? Lunchboxes are measured in liters. For personal use, lunchboxes are usually between 5 and 15 liters, and 5-10 liters is recommended for an overall basic lunch. It may be a good idea to think about the containers you usually use and if they would fit comfortably in the cooler you are planning to buy. Ignoring the space an ice pack would take and just cramming everything into the cooler can increase the likelihood of compromising the cooler’s insulation. Room for a ice pack is important.
You should also think about the cooler’s internal space. Some coolers are a single large pocket, while others are more organized and have things like elastic loops for utensils and other separate pockets that keep drinks from falling over. Features like these can help you stay organized and keep your food from being mixed together too much during your commute. Having a cooler with a more organized internal space just makes packing your lunch to take to work much more pleasant.
Assess Toughness and Simple Maintenance
Lunch coolers have a lot of work to do. Even by themselves, they're packed, unpacked, dropped, and picked up repeatedly every work day. As a result, they must be able to handle this fairly busy daily work schedule.
For coolers with soft sides, the outsides will most likely be constructed with durable materials like tear resistant polyester or nylon, which will be able to withstand rough conditions while being handled. Zippers should be fully functioning, durable, and able to glide without snagging. If a product is well made, it will have extra stitching at the handles and other places that see a lot of stress. Materials should be easily cleanable by hand, or even machine washable for extra convenience.
Moisture-wicking, watertight, interior linings are equally important as well. It helps to stop likeness of materials soaking through to the seed the interior lining protects. The fine inner lining helps protect against moisture build-up from condensation from melting ice packs. Mold build-up and unpleasant odors from moisture are boundary to be stopped. For a smooth, fast and easy days wipe out and clean with a damp cloth, and linings and interiors that can be turned inside out and rinsed will be of your daily clean up. Choosing a Cool Raw meal from food grade materials that thwart hazardous leading the your food are added a durable and makeabliltiy are of the lunch coolers a long term investment.
Don't Forget Functionality and Style
While technically the specs are important, the absolute final reason will be due to cool whether your personal work flow and taste. The small functional detail enhancements are of great worth to the experience.
Having extra features on a lunch cooler can make someone's lunch break even better. What are some extra features on a lunch cooler? Some lunch coolers have external pockets that are perfect for holding extra items like keys and wallets that you do not want to touch your food. There are also lunch coolers that have drink bottle pockets that keep water bottles insulated and cold. If you are the type of person who puts a lunch cooler into a bigger bag, look for a lunch cooler that has a nice simple, minimalistic look.
Since you have to use the cooler for lunch every day, you need to love the style of it. There are so many styles for you to choose from, like a minimalist design and a colorful design. Whatever resonates the most with you will make carrying lunch a little more enjoyable because of the style you chose. The most perfect lunch cooler is the one that has all the functions needed and the one that puts a smile on your face when you use it.