Great question from Gary…
Hello Steve,
This is Gary from Wade’s Filling Station in Wisconsin.
I am off with my business finally, (just in time for winter here) but I am seeing an over expenditure in a couple of areas… the big one is ICE! Do you know about what the average is for ice expenditures per year, per month, ???
Do you know how if there are any guys/gals making there own ice, or even if they have gone as far as purchasing an ice maker? We looked at them, … a hefty investment at that. I was wondering if you could shed the light on that for us?
Sincerely, Gary Doepgen
Wade’s Filling Station
********************
I buy mine in bags and it does add up. I looked into ice makers but haven’t felt the investment was a good one.
What are you slingers doing about ice? How about cold packs? Let us know in the comments…
-Steve
I freeze gallon milk jugs. If I have to buy we have one place in Topeka that sells 20lb bags for $1.98. Best deal in town. Had ice Machines before they break down a lot.
Howzabout a chest freezer that will hold an amount of 5 gal. pails. (or any other receptacle you may use)
Fill them with water and when they freeze, turn em upside down over your ice chest wait till the ice falls out and go to work on it with an ice pick
I used this system for over 15 years.
Ice machines are extremely expensive and require maintenance.
Chest freezers are cheap.
so stosh what do you do to keep the ice from getting dirty i mean if i understood correctly you said to flip the ice chest upsidown and the ice falls out and then start chopping it up? Sounds like a great idea i always wondered how to make your own ice and i am just about to get started this month. thank you.
Hi,
I ran into the same problem. as far as ice to keep my coolers cold I take 1 galon plastic jugs of water and place them in my deep freeze. The freeze solid and will keep your cooler cool. I have two coolers and I use 5 1 gallonn jugs. After the ice melts, I refill them and freeze them again. it keeps my soda, meat , condiments and all cold without breaking me up.
Hi Steve,
Ice sure is a problem. At my local restaurant
supply store where I buy most of my goods (dogs,comdiments,paper,ect.), they offer free gel packs when you buy meat to keep your purchace cold until you get it home. They
suggest limiting 3 packs per item. Well,
they add up petty fast when you shop twice a week. I have half a freezer full.
These I use for the meat cooler and condiment cooler. They last all day.
For soda and drinks I still use ice, but I live close to an ice house and made a deal to buy his broken bags as well as regular bags. He charges me $3 to $5 deprnding upon the quantity.
He is usually very generous.
Works for me.
Tim
every day 2 20lb bags@ 2.68, which is just for 2 coolers of sodas. I use coldpacks for my meat cooler but I’m still not satisfied. Another dogger told me to look into “Yeti” coolers. Anyone heard of those?
My gig is located in a beach/fishing town, so I get my ice from a local wholesaler each day. They give me a real good price. 4 five lb bags for $3.oo. I also fill a few tupperware containers each night for backup. If yours is a brick&mortar deal then a machine might be a good investment.
What I do is to save old containers and fill with water and freeze. Saves tons of money. Jeff.
To Steve @ Hot Diggity Dogs:
I personally don’t know about Yeti Coolers, but here is the website.
I freeze all my hot dogs and sausages so they stay cold or frozen all day…no ice needed. Just make sure you have a quality ice chest to put them in and don’t forget your thermometer in the chest.
For the drinks I either use my commissary’s ice machine or buy a bag on the way to my location. For the condiments I get a block of ice and throw it in the freezer when I get home. Lasts for weeks.
Also, because my ice chest is permanent on my cart I don’t drain it every night. I stock my chest with drinks when I get home and the remaining ice in the chest starts cooling the cans for the next day. Hope that helps!
Stay Lucky
I have to agree with Tim (Dukes Dog House). I stopped at Restaurant Depot yesterday and always thought they charged for their gel packs. I only bought a few things but they offered me as many as I wanted when all I bought was two 5# packs of dogs. I parked the car for several hours and then drove home (120 miles) and when I got home the ice had melted but the gel packs were still cold and solid. These seemed to work better than the Blue Ice I bought several years ago that I keep in my freezer.
I also like the idea of the five gallon containers, I am picking up a chest freezer this week that will be dedicated to dogs, buns and freezing ice.
Skip
Hi skip i am a new vender and i wanted to know if freezing your buns causes the buns to freeze?
i use crushed ice from the local taco mayo store, they sale it to me for .98 per 20/lb bag. Maybe you could find a local resteraunt that would let you fill up on ice for a small price. The subway in our town has let me do that a couple of times as well, when the taco mayo was closed for renovations. Also i bought a seriously large cooler at a yard sale for 10 dollars, that will hold ice for 2 to 3 days. One last peice of advice, KEEP YOUR KIDS OUTTA THE COOLER!! mine are always in there with the lid open and that cant be good.
I’m not in the biz yet, but how about getting a cheap/used refrigerator with an ice maker in it? Stick it in the garage and just let it crank out ice. I’d probable put an inline filter on the water line just because. Instead of having it fill the little ice trough that comes with it, rig a large ‘funnel’ (maybe from a cut off upside down water jug) and have it fill a larger bucket or even right into a cooler (if it’d fit inside). It may not make or store as much as a real ice machine, but would be more affordable and cheaper to repair or replace if necessary. Also, a side-by-side model would hold more than a top freezer model.
I used 1 gallon paint buckets from the dollar store. Took them from the freezer and ran water over bottom for 4-5 seconds, popped right out.
Put these in bottom of cooler. In meat cooler, I just used them, but in soda coolers I added small bag of ice over top for looks. The chunks of ice carried the bulk of the cooling and kept the sodas cool overnite making it easier the next day.
Ice is a huge problem or expense for me, as we also do snow cones and lemonade, along with fruit smoothies all which require a lot of ice. We work with our local ice plant to buy ice, 30-40 20 lb bags at a time at wholesale cost, we also have three freezers and keep it stock piled up, we are currently looking to purchase a small 300-400 lb machine to supply our ice needs. But ice is a problem, if you are workinig a show that has ice availabe it is normally very expensive, so I have in each trailer a chest freezer and carry 8-10 5 day coolers with me, have found the ice you purchase in the self service bins while cheaper in price is not frozen solid and will not last as long or make good snow cones.
1. pre cool items like soda’s, water, condiments, etc.
2. restaurant depot gives away gel ice packs that are intended for use while transporting food related items home, use and reuse them to keep your ice last longer. I always have my plastic ice chests with 5-10 packs in them.
3. When in doubt go to Mcdonalds, in the phoenix area most mcD’s sell ice 10 lb $1.59
your in and out in a flash.
4. Remember quality ice will last longer because it is frozen faster and colder than our home refridgerators can,
joe
We used to get 1 gal cranberry juice jugs which were more square in shape and freeze them. They would lay down 2 wide in our cooler and we put our supplies on the jugs then use 1 – 20lb bag of ice to top it off. Would stay cold for days. Just refreeze and repeat.
To answer Steve at Diggity Dogs, yes, the YETI brand cooler is an awesome choice. Its a lifetime cooler. They are expensive, but worth it for keeping things cold for multiple days. Would be a great choice for your primary meat, condiment cooler. Not necessarily for drinks because of all the ‘opening and closing’ all day, and they tend to get heavy when really loaded down, plus, Ice will not hold up in any cooler when its open all day. The YETI brand are built in Texas, very reputable company and its an incredibly high quality product. You get what you pay for with the YETI.
My husband came up with using the 64 ounce v8 bottles. They are harder than most plastic containers and stay frozen longer. I also use gel pacs to cover top of condiments b cause they are easier to move around.
I use freezable containers they work ok. I still buy ice sometimes.
HOWDY FOLKS:–i do not sell hot dogs per say as you folks do–BUT–i do vend polish sausage and philly cheese steak–funnel cakes–fresh cut taters–depending where you are it might be potatoes in your area–but here in the south its called taters–anyway about the ice problem you are experiencing–sounds like there are a lot of good ideas–if you are near a restaurant depot they have free ice packs for the meat you purchase [but sometimes i forget the count and have to start over with the count] ha–ha–.we contact the local convient stores and gas stations and if they have an ice maker we buy it by the cooler full and they charge us $2.00–or $3.00 per cooler–or we do like someone else suggested freeze plastic jugs or tupperware containers–1 last suggestion check on the internet or ebay.com there are sellers that are selling small ice makers for home use real inexpensive and look at the guarantee if its a year or more weigh the difference if the purchase price would be to your advantage to buy one–good luck and hope you folks that sling dogs for a living do very well and make tons of money….Ray.
Like Tim at Dukes Dog House, I’ve picked up many, many free gel paks from Restaurant Depot. My store lets me take as many as I want so every time I’m there I pickup a small box of them. I now have hundreds of these. I keep about 3 shelves in my freezer full of these at all times. Because these are free they are the lightweight or disposable type but they can be used many many times. When they get dirty I just put them in the dishwasher. If they get a hole or spring a leak I just toss them out.
When I built my EZ Built I installed the extreme cooler that Steve recommended. In it I put down a layer of ice paks and then my meat, chili & cheese. Then I go around the out side of the food the best I can with more ice paks, fill in any gaps, and finally cover everything on top with a layer of ice paks. The key to ice paks is using enough. If you put frozen food into your cooler and follow a similar pattern as above you will find that the food you didn’t get to in the bottom of your cooler will still be frozen at the end of the day. Even in 90+ degree whether.
As for my drink cooler I buy bagged ice when I need it but I also have my wife bag up ice from our ice maker in our fridge. At night she’ll check on it and when the bin is full she dumps it into a bag and stores them in our upright freezer. Saves a lot of money…22# bags in my area are almost 5 bucks each.
I saved some money by using ice packs for the hot dog cooler, its16”x96” and i could cut it in half for two ice packs. Cryopak is the name got them at rest. depot. For my pop i buy 20 lb. bags at costco for 1.85 and put them in my chest freezer. My wife has been very understanding for we have a chest freezer in our bedroom, a standup freezer in our guest room, and afridge in our garage.
Well, I have Ice packs and I hate them, only use them in the cooler in the Big Dog and to pre-cool my coolers. In my coolers that I have can drinks I use 30 lbs of bulk ice in each cooler (two). I also have one cooler that I put 90 pounds of ice in for big events to have extra ice. Total cost for most festivals is $6.25, during the week on the street, one cooler 50 drinks 30 lbs bulk ice $1.25. Total cost for ice this year $116.13 from January 1 thru 15 October 2011. It should be noted that ice went up this year from $1 to $1.25 for the same size this year. You can also pre-cool your coolers and it will save you on ice.
Duggs Doggs
Good!! Good!!
we were spending almost 50.00 per week on ice …it add up fast found a used one on craigs list.
a used ice machine that is ….lol
Goi to any dollor store, buy what looks like tubbarware. What ever size container that you think will fit beast in your cooler, or fit best in your frige freezer. Fill with water next day dump the block or blockes into your cart cooler then fill with water for the next day. Done deal.
We generally use bagged ice, but you can make it last for 2 to 3 days if you put 5 lb blocks of ice in the bottom of the cooler. In the cooler months like now it can go as much as 5 days. Try it. Saves a few $$$$ each week. Hi Steve !!!
1st mate Jim
I lease an ice machine. I get 400 pounds a day and pay 99 a mo. lease. That includes ALL maintence and if it breaks, they bring me all the ice I need until its fixed. I have TOO MUCH ice! That makes it less than 2 bags of ice a day. No fussing with buckets or extra BS to give the illusion of saving money. $3.25 a day for all the ice I could ever need.
Plus salting it will make it last longer and get 20 degrees colder!
We use Ice Packs..lots of em’….but we hang on to the original Recipe just in case!
Wow! $116 for a year! We were doing that in about 2 weeks! We ended up buying an ice machine that is now in the basement. No troubles yet (knocking on wood!) It is so much more convenient to load up each day. We bought new, so we should hit the break even point at the 1 year mark. I have to say, as good and fun as the business is turning out to be…it is a lot of work! We sell dogs but also 6 varieties of sausages with grilled onions and peppers, and also make our own coleslaw. Chopping up the Fixins, filling condiments and shopping keep us busy. We do a market on Sat& Sun, and 2 – 3 days a week in a downtown location. We have been in buisness about 4 months. It took a couple of corners to find a decent spot and are hoping it will keep growing as our good reputation spreads.
This site is helpful and any time saving tips are greatly appreciated!
Gel Packs, Cryovac…
Does anyone know the chemical content of these?? I am now looking for a flatter type container to freeze my blocks in. I have tried the Gel Pacs, too much hassle and am cautious about the content of them, if anyone knows, lay it on us please.
Thanks
Ice was up this year for me since the source I used before had their ice machine break. I cannot use blue ice except for my dogs health rules. I cannot make my own ice unless I have a health dept. approved source of my water. The ice I get is well below 32f so it has kept for a number of days with just topping off now and then. Since I at this time only do about 23 days of selling a year. My concern is more can I find the lowest price ice next year.
I restocked my cooler with drinks when I come home in the afternoon. I fill 2liter bottles with water and freeze them solid overnight in a chest freezer.I put 3 of these in the ice chest on top of the drinks as soon as I get up in the morning….when I open at 11the drinks are cold…just put the 2 ltr soda bottles back in the freezer until when you get home.
Meg, it should be noted that I have only gone out at my daily location 31 times and 18 festivals/special event, ie birthday parties, customer apprecation event, corporate events, etc, this year. That breaks down to $2.37 for ice per event, not too bad for “parttime”. I agree that hotdoging is a lot of work but its fun work for me. Well I consider this parttime but run it like it was fulltime.
Duggs Doggs
Good!! Good!!
I was spending just over 200.00 per month in ice I bought a used ice maker which cost me about a 1.00 a day to run . the savings has been great.
We bought an icemaker last year and so far, so good. We manage to save quite a bit of money since we take our cart out every weekend. We were averaging about $8.00 a weekend for ice. When you take that into consideration, we are actually saving money with the icemaker. Ours wasn’t that expensive and hasn’t been very hard to maintain at all. I think an icemaker is the way to go. We bought a good one with a great reputation for about $200.00 and usually only make ice a couple of days before we go out. It makes a ton for the short time we run it. Really, how much of a hassle is it to carry around old containers and buckets? There’s enough stuff to tote without having to drag those around too. Maybe in a pinch, but not all the time. BUY an icemaker! They are great and pay for themselves in no time!
I looked at those yeti coolers, bulky and heavy
First of all, the “cooler” section of my cart is a joke. 2 weeks into it, 3 years ago, I started using ice chests. My home fridge provides me enough ice to head out, and at my night time gigs, I get all the free ice I want from the establishments I set up at. For a Wednesday, last night was spectacular – a sell out, netting over $500. Steady business all night, and then a line 15 deep when the bars closed…The last customer ate my last dog. Perfect…
I have been doing this for years. I purchase dogs ahead of time, freeze’em solid, don’t require an ice bath. B sure to write the date w/ marker on the pkgs, so you don’t re-freeze them. I have never had a problem. Pop coolers, I freeze gallon milk jugs and buy it by the bag if necessary. Ice is the least of your cost.
Actually, I got lucky. My commissary has an ice maker and they don’t mind me using it.
Nice!
I buy 6 bags of ice and I buy my hot dogs frozen from the store. I repack the dogs in heavy zip lock bags and in the morning I put two unopened bags of ice in the bottom of the cooler. Then I put the dogs in the zip lock bags on top of the layer of ice and then I cover them up with the remaining 4 unopened bags. Everything stays frozen (and easy to move around) and when I get back to the commissary kitchen I put all my remaining dogs and unopened bags of ice back in the freezer until the next day. My first six bags this spring lasted about 2 months. In the hottest weather I could still keep six bags for several weeks. Pretty cheap about $ 7.00 for 6 bags of ice.
Wow!!! That is a great tip Mary Jayne. Thanks!
Thank you mary jayne i am a new dog slinger and that helps alot. Ice is not very expensive after all.