Validating Blood Donor Drive Coolers

[Roez]

Currently, I am working with Igloo chest style cooler from ISC(Vendor not carrying this item). This cooler can carry 16 whole bloods. My aim is to  have these coolers drop the temperature to 1-10C within 6-8 hours.  Has anyone encountered problems with these Igloo chest style coolers?

 

Are there any replacements for the Igloo chest style coolers that are not fabric based?

 

 

[Deb]

We used the ISC coolers as well and now that they are no longer on the market struggled to find a replacement.  For units that are being transported from a blood drive back to the center we ended up going with Coleman Coolers (on wheels) from Walmart and coming up with a packing configuration that would successfully cool the units "towards"   1-10 C.  We used data loggers at different positions in the coolers when we validated to show that the cooler could successfully handle this and validated the process for 24 hours "just in case" something happened to delay the delivery of the cooler.  What I found from validating the ISC coolers and the Coleman is that it usually takes at least 6-8 hours for the temps to drop to below 20 C....and we usually have them back at the center within 4 hours. Really, all you have to show is that the cooler is able to continuously cool the units "towards" 1-10 C.....not that they actually reach 1-10 C during your transport time.

[SportsFan]

We are in the same situation. We just bought coleman coolers on wheels too! Right now, we are trying to figure out how many cool packs to put in and how many whole blood units will fit. If I may ask Deb, what did you end up going with? Thanks!

[Deb]

• Sorry, I didn't see your request. I believe we went with a bag of wet ice in the bottom of the cooler, a layer of insulation (i.e., paper or cardboard) the units, insulation and another bag of wet ice on top.

If you send me your email address I can send you a copy of our packing configuration--- that is, if you still need it!