Coleman caught sight of a lamp that burned with gasoline rather than kerosene. The lamp created brighter, whiter, more useful light, so he set out to invent one of his own. From there, he started selling his lamps (which is why there’s a lamp in the Coleman® logo), and that set him on a path toward other outdoor supplies. In 1957 he bought the patent for the first portable cooler and later invented a portable stove. These inventions have redefined for us what it means to have fun outdoors.Today, the Coleman brand is synonymous with good times and durable, useful products.
I sampled one of the beers to verify that it, too, was pleasantly chilled, which it was. The sanitary liner adheres to the inside rim of your cooler and is disposable, keeping the inside of your cooler clean and coleman canopy free of debris. We encourage you to read up on the specific benefits of a type of cooler in our full-page reviews that we do on each product to get a better idea of what you are looking at before purchasing.
Closed-cell foam is considered a better insulator than open-cell foam because the tiny bubbles of gas in closed-cell foam remain independent from one another. Air bubbles that do not share cell walls and in effect stay insulated from one another are better at reducing the overall transfer of heat through the foam. Closed-cell foam is also much more expensive to produce than open-cell foam. The resulting product is strong and especially rigid feeling, and typically it weighs more than 1.7 pounds per cubic foot with more than 90% of its air cells closed to one another. Closed-cell foam is also water-impermeable—so it’s an ideal material for, say, surfers’ wetsuits.
A missing wheel can render even the best insulated rolling cooler useless. What sets the Coleman cooler apart from its counterparts is the brand’s signature TempLock FX Insulation, which offers multi-day ice retention, according to Coleman. In fact, one reviewer was happy to report that the heavy-duty cooler “kept our ice solid for four to five days” while they were “traveling in 100-plus-degree Fahrenheit temperatures.” The company picnics, the beach trips with your family, those games your office softball team are playing … So not only do you need something big enough to hold all of your drinks.
The drain plug also lacks a rubber seal, and while we had no issues with our unit during testing, many user complaints suggest that this plastic-on-plastic seal has an eventual expiration date. As with all soft coolers, you shouldn’t leave the RTIC Soft Pack Cooler out in the sun coleman canopy or resting on very hot surfaces like the back of a pickup truck or on top of a picnic table for a long time. Although the exterior of the cooler is made of a durable, thickly coated nylon—waterproof and tough—the sun and heat will degrade the material and slowly wear it out.