Hi all,
I recently got a YETI and it got me to wondering. When I have ice and water in there, will the ice transfer heat to the water more slowly because it’s so insulated and therefore less impacted by the outside air temperature? I know that things will stay overall colder longer because of the insulation but does that insulation effect items inside?
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Poor insulation would let heat from the outside in. This would result in more energy transferring into the water that would then need to transfer into the ice. Good insulation keeps that heat out. If the air was colder, it keeps the thermal energy of the water/ice inside the cooler, preventing it from escaping into the outside air.
The insulation doesn’t directly effect the thermal transfer between the water and ice. It just effects the flow of thermal energy between the interior of the cooler and the exterior.
The only time the water would cool slower in a yeti than a less insulating cooler is if the coolers are in an environment with the air temp colder than the ice. In this environment the “worse” cooler would allow thermal energy to escape into the air cooling the water faster. The Yeti would prevent that thermal transfer. The difference in cooling rates would likely be very small though. Air is not a good thermal transfer medium compared to water.
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