Ice, like propane, is part of the overhead expense on a hot dog cart. Reducing overhead increases profit. Today let’s explore how to keep more of the money you make by saving on ice costs.
Hi Steve,
I have a question regarding keeping my drinks cold. (soda, juice water etc.) We have been using coolers and ice and are using 20# of ice per day. We do have an electric hook-up on site. Tried an electric cooler, but when you’re opening it a lot, its not keeping the drinks ice cold. Any suggestions would be most helpful.
Thank you, Diane (Dudley’s Dogs)
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Hi Diane,
Keep your soda in a refrigerator until it’s time to put it in the cooler. Having soda already cold will save a lot of ice every day. Also, if you have a big enough fridge or freezer, keep you cooler in it overnight. Getting everything as cold as possible before adding your ice will help enormously.
OK Slingers, give Diane your best ice saving tip in the comments below!
-Steve
In my meat cooler I use frozen 2 liter bottles of water. They work great. Then at the end of the day you refreeze them. I’ve got my ice cost down from 10 bucks a day to 4.
Beautiful!
Just open enough ice to cover what drinks are in the cooler making sure to drain standing water in cooler…place un-opened bags of ice on top of the drinks and this will keep drinks plenty cold enough, allowing the ice bags to last longer and make it easier to pull drinks from cooler.
Yes, standing water will melt ice faster. Good ideas Dan!
use reusable cold packs, with or without ice. refreeze after use. get them free from your pharmacy or Dr.’s office.
Locate your nearest Dollar General, and have enough freezer storage to hold 18 7lb. bags of ice. 7 lb. bags are $1.40, much less than anywhere else, and if you purchase anything during the week, paper goods, etc., they usually offer $5.00 off on Saturday on a $25.00 purchase, 18 bags equals $25.80. And yes, 21 lb. bags are cheaper, but they don’t fit well in most coolers or freezers, and are much harder to handle. Doing shakeups, bubble tea, and snow cones as I do, ice is a large part of my expenses, so the savings really add up.
Thanks for your input Papa. Great stuff!
Save leftover ice and melted water until the next day in order to keep drinks and cooler cold overnight.
Don’t throw out remains of ice until you are ready to add new ice or when the old ice all melts and warms up.
Don’t keep a cooler with room temperature water in the dark, however, because you may promote the growth of mold.
Great tips JP!
Cold going stays cold longer. Makes sense
If yer cooler be big enough, ye can put blocks of ice in the bottom.
That works well too mateys !!
Har har har !!!
1st Mate Jim..
That be cold goin in matey !!
Hi everyone ~
The cost of ice was so expensive for us., about $16 a DAY! So we purchased a small commercial ice maker which paid for itself the first season.
Carrie
Stay cool!!
I found these outside ice vendors here in Florida. They charge 2 dollars for 20# of ice. Basically a ice machine on steroids.
Nice.
Salt can lower the temp, think about ice cream is made. Also dry ice works well.
Might make the outside of the drink containers taste salty?
I am in lucky place I guess? I have gas station down the road that sells ice for .99 10# or 1.99 for 2o# I give the manager a list of my ice needs for the month/per day and she has her staff get them ready for me! One hot day last year they ran out of ice but, kept mine in the back, the staff caught a fellow climbing/crawling into the cooler through the front doors to get my ice!! I try to ice down the night before an all day event. I try not to drain the water since my wife uses it to water the plants when I get home. If I need to leave my coolers for a few days I open them up in the van and let them air. So, the point of this tome is find if you can a place that will give you a deal on ice for the amount you buy. This upcoming weekend (90’s) I ordered 160# and the manager told me she would have her staff bag 200# in case I needed that much.
“sell em’ all”
Jerry
Great price, and sounds like you created a great relationship with the store manager too. Good job!
Oh, I forgot I use and you can to frozen packs of hot dogs for ice packs that way you always have extra if needed.
“sell em’ all” Jerry
Be careful with that. Many health departments don’t allow co-mingling of drinks and meat in the same cooler.
If you have room in a freezer at home buy your ice and freeze it at home. It’s been my experience that the freezer they keep ice in are set to at a temp that isn’t much below freezing. Set your freezer as cold as possible. -15 degree ice will last longer then ice that is only 15 degrees.
Hi Everyone I put frig and ice chest in my van for about 60 bucks in electrical parts I’m able to carry generator and all is good minimal ice needed only for fresh squeezed lemonade my cart accomadates both hot dogs and lemonade HAPPY Slinging
That would be nice!
I know Pelcan Ice Chests are very expensive. However, if you can afford to buy one. Get it. They are rated to keep ice for up to 5 days, I do believe. Don’t just take my word for it , though. As always do your research before investing in anything. Especially, with a something that’s quite expensive.
I’m not currently slinging but going to a lot of summer sports events for my granddaughter (softball/basketball) & we pack food & drinks. Garvin mentioned salt. Here is what I do.
I pour about a cup of salt +/- in 1/2 gal empty plastic juice containers. I shake them up until the salt is dissolved & then deep freeze them. Salt water freezes at a lower temperature & these frozen blocks work great in the coolers. They release their cold in such a way that you have to be careful not to have any meat directly on the plastic ice cubes as they will actually flash freeze the meat. Just refreeze your containers.
I also keep many of these in my freezer to take up any unused space & help maintain temps. This saves a little bit of energy plus I could probably lose power for a day & not lose my frozen goods. Cheap insurance policy.
Also, I built a super insulated cooler one time with 3″ thick foam, better than a Yeti. There are loads of videos on y-tube with a multitude of ways to add insulation to your current cooler & is another avenue worth exploring.
Great tips Bruce!
For our meat and condiment coolers we save our pool shock jugs (basically bleach bottles) fill them with water and freeze them solid in our deep freeze. We use one per cooler, and They keep all day.
For pop, water, and Gatorade, we stock all the drinks in the proper coolers, then fill the coolers with water and let sit overnight to get them cold. Then we drain that water, and fill the coolers again about half way. Then we top them with ice. They stay very cold. We buy our ice from Sam’s club. They’re the cheapest in our area for 20#. Good luck!
For drinks, I keep the coolers in the shade either next to the car or in the open tailgate. For the meat cooler, I alternate ice and salt and have had frozen foods stay frozen all day, even with the cart in the open sun.
Sorry, I meant for use with the meat cooler only
“sell em’ all” Jerry
I liked the idea of keeping the drink’s cold in the fridge the night/day before. That has actually helped. I purchased those blue blocks. Ice packs. Whatever they are called. I line the Bottom with those. If I’m doing events, fairs I blow through water due to my price and size. I don’t have any ideas. Just wanted to comment and say thanks
Thanks for the comment Tony!
Just a thank you for all the great ideas. We’ve only done 3 venues so far but we’re learning with each one. We bought a new freezer so I want to try making my own ice or having bottles of frozen water like someone here suggested. I have a yeti and that works well, but having my own ice source will help even more. My yeti really keeps the ice but there’s so much insulation that it really doesn’t hold as much as I thought it would.
Yes, ice is an expense. Some of the bigger vendors have their own ice making machines.
I fill gallon size ziplocks, freeze, 2 on bottom fill refrigerated drinks, put 2 on top, drinks are cold all day
Awesome John!