For us, while a YETI required a larger initial investment, we will save money (and use less water) over time. Many companies and sporting stores make or sell rotomolded coolers. If you are interested in purchasing one, considering waiting for a sale, like the REI 20% off member sale.
To be fair, my personal opinion is that all soft-sided coolers are bad choices. None of them get that cold, and they don’t hold their median temp for long at all. The prices range from $300 to $400 for the 60-, 80- and 100-quart models, and what you’re paying for is undoubtedly performance.
As far as color options go, you can purchase this in one of two colors, Greystone which is the one featured in this article and a lighter grey. The constant color feature among the two are the orange rimmed wheels which I don’t love but, it is not a deal breaker. In a sheer stroke of luck for this test, we are having a very aggressive heatwave in Southeast Michigan with temperatures around the 90’s during the day and staying in the 70’s overnight. I’m using my North facing deck as the staging area which receives direct sunlight at almost all hours of the day.
That’s all well and good, but I worried that a standard ice retention test on its own wouldn’t tell us the whole story. 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 a good sense of performance, not just ozark trail chair after days but in hours, before any of the ice had even melted. To that end, I carefully filled each cooler with water to the point that closing the lid would cause some water overflow. Then I measured out the exact number of quarts each cooler could hold — important information to have when you’re dealing with large quantities of melted ice.
An example of the color choices for the popular 24-can soft cooler is shown in the image below. For the fishermen out there, you will enjoy the molded-in fish ruler on the lid of the cooler. There are also molded drink holders (4 on the 52 and 73-quart models and 2 on the 26-quart model). And to maximize how much squeeze the gasket produces, having strong latches that provide a lot of clamping force is necessary. You will find the popular “T-latch” design on Ozark Trail coolers.
We tightened the spout and it leaked three more times over two days, so the cooler went back to Walmart. We think this is one of the best coolers for camper van life. Though it’s a bit too ozark trail cooler tall to be able to leave in place when we want to make the bed, it fits just fine on the front seat. If you have a bigger van though, it would double as an additional seat in the cabin.
This is a much larger and diverse selection of products than the Ozark Trail hard-sided coolers. Also, you will find a larger variety of layouts and cooler types. For instance, you will have the small, simple coolers that are designed to hold people’s lunch for the day as well as higher-end premium coolers for those who are after longer ice life.
Several models come with an expandable top that can increase the storage height by up to 3”. This makes it large enough to easily fit a 16-liter bottle or even stack 12oz cans on top of each other. So no matter what type of bottle you tend to carry, they have you covered. No matter which model you go with, you will get to enjoy multiple storage options. This comes thanks to both the large, insulated area as well as storage pockets on the front and/or sides.
Both brand of coolers comes with a detachable shoulder strap so you can carry the cooler without your hands. One thing about Yeti is that you can absolutely count on the quality of their products. Their products are over engineered and designed to handle absolutely anything you throw at them.
That meant putting those manufacturer capacity claims to the test, and I wanted a better, more universal metric than just counting how many cans I could cram into each one. The performance of Magellan’s largest offering was very close to Cabela’s Polar Cap Equalizer. The lowest temperature recorded between the two in our cooling tests was less than a degree apart (44.6 vs. 45.5 degrees Fahrenheit). If your main use is for keeping things cold, then the question is whether or not that extra 0.9 degree is worth paying another hundred bucks for.