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.
The paper pulp of the Recool composts easily in the backyard, and it performs basically as well as any cheap single-use cooler. Note that RTIC coolers are not IGBC (International Grizzly Bear Committee) certified. If that’s necessary for you, here’s IGBC’s list of certified bear-resistant products (PDF). We may have wished for such niceties as a dry bin or the ability to handle dry ice, like many of the other coolers in this review, but such is not in the cards for the Coleman.
Another example came up last year during a power outage, as one of our staff members was able to store most of the contents of a fridge in a 70-quart cooler, along with the necessary ice to keep it cold. We’ve tested Polar Bear coolers for seven years now, buying them or receiving test units from Polar Bear. Recently, however, we’ve been let down by the lifespan of its soft coolers (though not this backpack in particular). But with care, you can extend the lifespan of any soft cooler—the number one rule seems to be not to leave it out in the sun.
However, if you decide to fill the Coleman to the top with ice and soda, you may soon be wishing you hadn’t! So depending on how you pack your Coleman, you may have no problems wandering through the city park with it, or you may have a tough time merely loading it into the back of a Subaru. I’ve been told that Yetis are most effective (like any other coleman camping chair cooler) if they are chilled before putting ice in them. If I’m using the Yeti at home, I’ll take whatever ice is in my icebox and put it in my Yeti before packing it up with food and store-bought bags of ice. So I think I could’ve increased the cooler chill by a day if I could keep the internal storage colder before putting my food and ice inside.
A. Coleman claims that the Xtreme 5 can preserve ice for five days. Your results will depend on the ambient temperature, what kind of food and drinks you store, how much ice you use, and how often the cooler is opened. The temperature hovered there for two hours before dipping further to 38 degrees. I checked every hour, expecting to monitor a gradual increase as the sun and warm air saturated the insulation. When lunch rolled around, the cooler was at a happy 34 degrees with solid ice cubes still holding strong. I’m not about to phone it in for my loyal readers, so I ran down to the gas station and picked up three bags of ice and a 12-pack of Spotted Cow.
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.
Rovr pegs the capacity of its $400 Rollr wheeled cooler at 60 quarts, but I could only fit 52.8 quarts of water inside when I measured for myself. The $219 RTIC wasn’t as spacious as expected, either, holding just 39.6 quarts of water before overflowing with the lid closed. Different types of insulation work in their own ways to minimize heat transfer into a cooler. Open- and closed-cell foams act as coleman instant tent insulators to reduce heat conduction, while fabrics and liners, such as coated polyurethane and reflective Mylar, create a radiant barrier that reduces and reflects heat radiation. If you’re wondering what kind of foam your cooler has, a good rule of thumb is to try to squeeze the foam with your fingers. If your fingers can compress the foam more than 75%, you’re probably dealing with open-cell foam.
We make regular work of testing coolers in our climate-controlled lab, with the ultimate goal of making it a little easier to find the best cooler for your buck. Wirecutter is the product recommendation service from The New York Times. Our journalists coleman instant tent combine independent research with (occasionally) over-the-top testing so you can make quick and confident buying decisions. Whether it’s finding great products or discovering helpful advice, we’ll help you get it right (the first time).
A cooler’s latch or closure system is one of the defining characteristics of a premium model and plays a significant role in overall cooling performance. Among high-end hard-sided coolers, you’ll commonly find two rubber T-handles along the front that keep the lid locked securely in place. These handles are fairly user-friendly, extremely strong, and minimize any openings for cold air to escape.
I suspect that one of the ways Coleman keeps costs down is by making the Xtreme 5 out of traditional injection-molded plastic rather than the insulated polyethylene you’ll see on some coolers. I’m sure it’s easier to dent this kind of material, but it looks like it will hold up well as long as you don’t abuse it. The Original is made with an exterior of 840-denier UV-resistant nylon wrapped around open-cell foam. Technically less insulating than closed-cell foam, open-cell foam performs fairly well for most applications as long as the cooler isn’t left in the open sun. The Original can do exactly what you need it to do, which is to keep things cold for the day while you focus on the fun at hand.