The Yeti Tundra is wider but just barely shorter than the Coleman 316. Given my van’s storage space, these are slightly more difficult dimensions to work with than the Coleman’s dimensions. I would pull the cooler out from underneath my benches and use it as an extra seat for guests in the van sometimes.
Like you, I have to find some kind of middle ground between affordability and performance. I sampled one of the beers to verify that it, too, was pleasantly chilled, which it was. Is the Coleman Xtreme 5 cooler a high-value target or a cost-cutting alternative? I loaded coleman camping chair one up with a few bags of ice and a selection of Wisconsin’s finest brews to find out. It’s all more than enough for me to recommend the healthiest possible dose of skepticism if you ever find yourself tempted to back a campaign like that with your cold hard cash.
If you frequent the backcountry or will be traveling where bear-proof gear is required, make sure your cooler is on the list. I love how much storage space this cooler offers, but it’s deep and narrow shaped. This makes it hard to quickly reach in and grab what I’m looking for. Instead, I end up stacking items and digging around, which causes me to leave the lid open longer and disrupt the ice, which significantly reduces the ice’s ability to stay cold. Still, the Xtreme wasn’t nearly as strong a performer as the equally priced Igloo MaxCold Cooler, so keep shopping if you just want something affordable that’ll keep your drinks cold the longest. But if you just want something affordable that’ll roll from point A to point B and get the job done as far as cooling is concerned, then the Coleman Xtreme isn’t a bad pick.
Tipping the scales at a mere 11.9 lb, the Coleman is shockingly lightweight. This fact certainly adds to the Coleman’s portability, as many of its competitors weigh three or four times as much without even anything in them! The overall width of this cooler is also fairly conducive to a single person carrying it. The drain features a small channel to help pull all the water out, though there is a sizeable lip in front of the actual drain that prevents a small amount of the water from exiting without some tipping assistance. The plastic handles on the sides are easy to blindly grab as you head out the door to your party or picnic and swing back down into place when you let go.
The RTIC 65 has rope handles with a plastic tube for gripping and two rubber latches for holding the lid closed, mimicking the design of most other, comparable coolers. As the lid overextends, you can hear the screws ripping right out of the plastic. The lid lacks the rubber seal of so many competitors, meaning the Coleman is neither airtight nor leakproof.
Sure, some coolers would probably keep the ice frozen for a lot longer than others, but using the melting point as your metric seems to disregard everything that comes before. I wanted to get coleman instant tent a good sense of performance not just days in, but hours in, before any of the ice had even melted at all. If we’re going to talk about performance, we should talk about capacity first.
But given there are more videos popping up of Yeti coolers still keeping drinks cold after being in a FIRE–it’s a pretty justified price tag. I absolutely love how lightweight this cooler is; it made taking it in and out my van every few days to empty, a non-issue. But the downside is that it’s made of thin plastic which doesn’t hold up well if put under stress.