Keep your food and drink cold with the Igloo Trailmate 18 Soft Cooler. This soft-sided cooler is durable and helps keep your items at the right temperature. If you’re concerned about spillage, very little melted ice escaped these teeth. Plenty of soft coolers sit well below the top-tier tag but not all perform as impressively as this RTIC Soft Pack Cooler that keeps 30 cans of our favorite soda and beer frosty. When ranked among the best coolers, soft coolers might be the next great sandbaggers of the outdoors. Color options for this cooler include slate blue and tan, sandstone and red, and tank green and black, which should blend in depending on what environment you’re exploring.
That makes them, generally speaking, easier to store and transport. To test the portability of each soft cooler, the team walked around with each of the coolers to see how comfortable they were to igloo trailmate carry. The coolers were all tipped upside down to see if they were, in fact, leakproof. The Yeti Hopper Flip 18’s steep price tag—over $250—knocked it out of first place for best soft cooler.
Namely, they retain ice for much longer (two to 10 days is standard), are inherently far more durable and hardwearing, and come in larger capacities. Many hard coolers also boast helpful features like drainage systems to help you empty out water once your ice has melted and lockable lids to bear-proof your cooler when camping in bear country. As we’ve covered above, soft coolers are far easier to haul around than their hard-sided counterparts. In addition to weighing less, most come with padded straps and thick grab handles for carrying solo over your shoulder or by hand.
We liked the wide, soft material of the two swing-up straps on the Snow Peak Soft Cooler. We pay attention to that variable to know if a cooler needs to always be upright. Some unique closures include the clasp of the OtterBox Trooper 20 Cooler, which doesn’t allow leaks. Soft coolers that are wider or more bucket-style are easier to access, as far as finding a specific item. Coolers like the OtterBox Trooper 20 Cooler with a broad, flat surface that rests against you can help absorb that swing and bounce. Even the heaviest soft cooler in our guide is lighter than a hard cooler.
However, some are easier than others, like the Engel HD and RovR TravlR. Igloo hard lined coolers are built to give you the light weight construction of a bag and the rigidness of a hard cooler. With excellent cold insulation and maximum portability, these coolers are a great choice for your day-to-day food and drink igloo water cooler needs. A lot goes into making a cooler, and we’re committed every step of the way. We have a huge variety of insulated bags all at different prices. Whether you’re going the super affordable route or looking for coolers with the most high-end design features, you can find the perfect Igloo cooler bag right here.
To help you find the ideal cooler for your needs, we tried several firsthand, evaluating each for capacity, insulation, design, features, and value. Next, we narrowed it down to versatile, durable, leakproof options that are actually worth buying. Justin Park is a Breckenridge, Colorado-based writer and videographer covering action sports, health & fitness, and the outdoors. From multi-day backpacking and hunting trips to simple road trips to weeks on Lake Powell in 100+ degree temperatures, he’s dependent on quality coolers in the field. He currently likes the Hydro Flask Day Escape 20L for quick road-tripping and the Yeti BackFlip for more serious cooling on the go.
This is thanks to its stretchy side pockets, top flap zipper pocket, and bungee. It’s also able to fit a wine bottle inside or within one of the external side pockets. The Engel HD30 and RTIC Soft Pack include small low-profile pockets great for keys or a phone. The HD30 is the largest in our lineup and will fit just about any odd-shaped food item you could take on your picnic.