Furthermore, the Ozark Trail cooler also features a rotomolded construction, just like Yeti Coolers. The Ozark Trail cooler is resistant to UV lights and has no seams in its design. However, the best thing about this affordable Ozark Trail cooler is the fact that it can hold ice for more than a week. In terms of build quality, this is a BPA-free mug made out of high-grade 18/8 stainless steel, so you won’t really have to worry about its durability.
We must admit that the huge price cut and supposed similar ice retention and features are tempting. But you can anticipate the walls to be between 2.5” and 3” thick. This is about average among premium coolers that we have tested in the past. And these thick walls are coated in a UV-resistant layer that helps to protect the cooler from sun damage over time. Depending on if you go with an Ozark Trail hard-sided cooler or an Ozark Trail soft-sided cooler, you can expect different features. We will break down the specific features for each type of ice chest in the sections below.
If I’m trekking into the woods for a weekend with a couple of pals, I’m going to take the Rovr, no question. If I’m headed to the beach with the family for a day, I’m probably going to opt for the Igloo. To do that, I started with a modified version of the ice retention test. Instead of a full load of ice in each cooler, I went with an amount of ice equivalent to 10% of each cooler’s total volume. If you want great performance with a friendlier price tag than its competitors, you can feel safe picking up this RTIC. CNET’s expert staff reviews and rates dozens of new products and services each month, building on more than a quarter century of expertise.
Thankfully, Ozark Trail includes a removable hard liner in most of their soft-sided coolers. And the premium cooler backpack and cooler tote take this up a notch by having an EVA compression molded base. While the Ozark Trail Hard-Sided Coolers are mostly designed to compete with the premium coolers of the industry, their soft-sided coolers are more balanced.
I do think that overall the Yeti is a much better cooler with better ice retention and better build quality. It is likely to last much longer and it is less likely to have problems like the warping problem the Ozark coolers seem to have. Regardless, the Ozark cooler just doesn’t seem to perform as well as other roto-molded coolers in ice retention tests. Not many roto-molded coolers come with wheels and the ones that do are quite expensive. On my list of wheeled coolers like Yeti you can see that there aren’t many good options.
Larger ozark trail chairs all feature an oversized drain on the side or bottom that makes getting rid of melted ice easy. The drain stopper is even attached to the cooler by a chain, so you don’t have to worry about losing it and dealing with leaks. It can keep drinks cold for several days and the wheels on the bottom are great for hauling it from place to place. It has anti-microbial properties and it’s strong enough that a bear can’t break into it. The lower-end can models take a very traditional approach in styling. Also, there aren’t a lot of colors to choose from (3 is the maximum we have found for a particular model).
We hope that in the future, Ozark Trail decides to expand on the color choices and perhaps have some customization options as well. Yeti Coolers, on the other hand, has a rock-solid reputation. Its ozark trail chair ice life is among the best in the industry and its products are designed to last a lifetime. Ozark Trail is one of the most common brands we have been asked about as a potential “Yeti replacement”.
As soon as we realized the Ozark Trail was not going to work I got online and ordered an RTIC. RTIC Coolers can only be purchased from their website, which is why they say their price point is much lower ozark trail chair than YETI. I made this purchase nine weeks prior to our vacation and the cooler is scheduled to arrive only days before we leave. That’s a little closer than I’d like but we need a better cooler.