From Tyrannus:
The fact that in-game "cold packs" are used in explosive recipes lends me to think that the devs see them as instant cold packs, which are single use endothermic packs. These contain a two-part mixture that undergoes an endothermic reaction - drawing heat from the environment, as opposed to exothermic. This means you could not refreeze them, and they should not be usable in explosive recipes after use.
Perhaps you could introduce a separate, unambiguous "ice pack" item which freezes items put alongside it in a cooler, maybe also other fridges? Electric coolers would be interesting to see eventually but they should be separate, considering they weigh more and store less than the lightweight vanilla coolers you're modding.

Hey man, for the vanilla cold packs:

I was wondering if you tried giving it a hidden integer variable and ticking it down with the event onTick once the player has placed the cold packs in the cooler. Then you can disable its cooling once the int reaches 0? I think this is how time-based mods do it

Originally posted by Tchernobill:

Hi,

Currently (version 1.2) the recipe Cooler + 2 Cold Pack creates a Coolbag that can refrigerate food until the end of your life time.

This is not close enough to the vanilla game meta to my taste.

If you care to share what would be a better cooler, I'd like to hear it there.

If there was a way to make the cold packs act like a small battery you would use in a radio, then maybe you could freeze them to "recharge" them and store them in the freezer. then the cooler could use them for "power" to chill things. Also helps with letting players know how "warm" the cold-pack is getting before they go on a food run.

@tchernobill

i believe in you. go go battery powered cooler. =) ive been running the code in my head for a while. there is much to do, to hack it.

@MonsterSauce I have Water pocket & Ice pocket running.. but I am not yet able to maintain my lists through save and reload.. Do you know a mod that is able to maintain lists of items through reload ?