However in real world tests it does seem that Yeti consistently outperforms the Ozark by a fair margin. As you can see the Yeti line of coolers are SIGNIFICANTLY more expensive than the Ozark Trail line of coolers. REI had a member sale over Memorial Day weekend and we were able to save 20% on our cooler. We still spent more money than I’d like but at least we saved 20%. Just as with the other cooler test, we purchased four bags of ice and put the Coleman and YETI Tundra 65 in a head-to-head test.
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. The weather was in low 90s during the test, the coolers were in full sun for most of the morning, and we opened them several times throughout the day. The ice melted in the Coleman in 39 hours and the Ozark Trail in 73 hours.
As for prices, the lower-end models are easily into the budget price tier while the premium creeps up to intermediate. Depending on which model you go with, you should see between 2 days and 5 days of ice life. That is still plenty impressive and should meet most people’s needs. But it does fall a bit short of the top-tier premium coolers in the industry. The ice life, well not bad, was not near what Ozark Trail stated in their specifications.
Here’s our take on the Ozark Trail 26 Quart Cooler which we think is perfect for van life. One of the best selling points (pun intended) of Ozark Trail Coolers is their great asking price. You will find that nearly every model is extremely affordable. This is a big reason why this company has been so popular over the past few years and it makes it easier to overlook any issues that we may have with them.
Being a premium cooler, you’d expect the 12 can model to cost a lot more than $50 but it doesn’t. Luke is a co-founder of bestcooler.reviews, a cooler expert and author of 70+ reviews on this website. From fishing to hiking, from family camping to solo bike trekking, Luke adores spending quality time enjoying nature, oftentimes checking out new coolers while doing so.
The RTIC Soft Pack coolers actually outperform the Yeti Hoppers because they have more insulation. Reviewing a product like this can be hard because the same issue doesn’t happen for everyone. Even the highest quality products sometimes have issues or manufacturing defects and customers leave poor review.
There are orange accents on the latches and handles which definitely give them a premium look. In terms of color options, however, you only get silver and white. Everything from their bucket to their cargo box to their coolers are made super tough and their soft sided coolers are no exception to this. The Ozark Trail Soft Cooler lineup is a solid contribution to this ever-growing company.
The water turned warm in both coolers fairly quickly after the ice melted. 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 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.
It also has lots of nifty features for versatility, from a waterproof interior light that can be removed for use as a flashlight to multiple tie-down points. A couple other interesting features that can be found on most soft-sided ozark trail chairs are bottle openers, chain attachment points and compression straps. While the hard-side spectrum focuses on resilience and replaceable features, soft-sided Ozark Trail coolers take the higher ground via their impressive final layout.