Coleman Soft Backpack Cooler. Best Hardshell Cooler. Coleman Quart Xtreme Cooler with Wheels. Coleman Excursion Portable Cooler. Best Wheeled Cooler. Igloo Trailmate Journey. Igloo Outdoorsman Square Igloo Marine Ultra Cooler.
Igloo Vs. Pros Padded and ventilated back system Two insulated compartments Additional external pockets. Cons Not great for overnight trips Zippers are not leakproof. Product Information Dimensions: Pros Very affordable Insulated lid has molded cup holders, doubles as a set Keeps ice frozen for up to five days. Cons Big and bulky Hinges not reinforced. Pros Lightweight and easy to carry Very affordable Great capacity for day outings. Cons Insulation power is disappointing No drainage point at the bottom.
Pros Built-in cup holders and bottle openers Excellent insulation power All-terrain wheels. Pros Lightweight and comfortable to carry Multiple external pockets Hatch in the lid for easy access to drinks. Cons Not great for multi-day adventures No drainage point. Pros Very lightweight for a hardshell cooler Drain plug at the bottom Rubberized handles for easy grip.
Igloo Maxcold Quart have drain plugs, swing handles, tie-down loops, and dual snap-fit latches on the lid. Another convenient gear for those who are looking for a budget cooler is Igloo Maxcold, this hard cooler has several sizes as well, here are the specs of the most popular and convenient sizes.
Igloo Maxcold series is advertised as 5 days of ice retention, but although it depends on many factors, I must say that if you want 5 days of ice retention you really need to be prepared before the trip by cooling inside of the cooler before the trip and by filling it with already cold beverages, etc.
Funny thing is, not all sizes of Igloo Maxcold have the same design, all of them 50qt, 70qt, qt sizes have drain plugs, swing handles, tie-down loops.
But additionally:. Igloo Maxcold Quart is really sturdy that is enough to be used as a spare chair. Coleman Xtreme series have a very even design, you almost get the same width at the bottom as at the top, and it makes it much easier to fill and stack the cooler. Beauty-wise, I must give credit to the Igloo Maxcold series, compared to the Coleman Xtreme series, Igloo Maxcolds look much better, and they look more high-end.
View on Amazon. Yes, if you pre-chill the cooler and if your beverages are already cold when you stack them in the cooler, they will keep your beverages cold up to 5 days depends on a lot of factors though, such as outside temperature. When the same sizes of the Coleman Xtreme and the Igloo Maxcold compared, the difference in weight is negligible.
Coleman Xtreme 50 Quart Cooler weigh up to about lbs when completely filled with ice and cans. This number will increase as the size of the cooler increases. This weight might be too much if you are going to carry it alone. In this case, consider a wheeled cooler I will get into details below.
Igloo Maxcold coolers' drain plug design is much better than the Coleman Xtreme coolers. It has screw-on tapping that makes it more convenient to use. The good thing is Coleman Xtreme 50qt and Coleman Xtreme qt coolers have wheeled versions and they also feature a convenient handle, and they are very budget-friendly.
Oh, and if you'll be spending lots of time camping in a place where bears are a concern, then you'll probably want to invest in a bear-resistant cooler. The Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee keeps a running list of certified options , which includes a number of coolers from this rundown. It's also worth considering whether or not your cooler is sturdy enough to sit on, something that comes in handy when you're out camping.
Most of the coolers that I tested were, but some took things even further. For instance, the Bison Gen 2 Cooler goes so far as to advertise itself as an ideal casting platform to stand on during your next fishing trip and even sells nonslip traction mats for the lid in a variety of designs. The Magellan Outdoors model features four hinge latches, two on either side, so you can open the cooler from either side, or remove the lid completely! Let's take a pause to dive into hinges and latches a bit more.
Some are good, some are bad and some are just nonexistent. Coolers with removable lids tend to be cheaper coolers that aren't going to perform in the top percentile -- with one exception I've found so far. Magellan Outdoors has a double-latching, double-hinged removable lid and happens to have won our pick for best small cooler. The easy-to-use, double-latched design means you can open the cooler from either side and, if you'd prefer, you can disengage the latches on both sides to remove the lid altogether.
Now let's compare that to, say, the Everbilt 73qt High-Performance cooler. That one has rubber T-shaped handles you have to stretch to seat and secure the lid. They're difficult to pull down, even as a full-grown adult. I asked three other adults to secure these handles and out of the four of us, two were successful, one unsuccessful and the last successful only after an excessive amount of struggling.
Performance is important, but design matters, too -- and sometimes, it's a deal breaker. The Xspec 60qt cooler is a good compromise between those two approaches and it's my pick for best overall cooler.
It has the rubber straps to secure the lid, but at the end of each strap lies a plastic handle which you can leverage against the mounting point to easily achieve the tensioned fit. That's a lot better than Everbilt, but make no mistake, Magellan Outdoors still gets my vote for best latching mechanism. Our first soft-sided and backpack cooler didn't perform the best, but it is durable and a great option for hikers and campers alike.
The Yeti Hopper Backflip 24 is the first backpack-style cooler that we've tested and although its overall performance wasn't stellar, there were things I did like. First off, it is a backpack. I do like that. Whether you're trekking gear to the beachfront or headed out for a hiking day, having free hands is always a bonus.
The backpack has lots of straps and hitching points, too -- I imagine the target demographic is more hiking-oriented than day-at-the-beach, but in either case, you'll be able to secure extra stuff. There are no latches since this is a soft-sided cooler, just a zipper. The zipper boasts claims of being both water- and leakproof.
We put that to the test during our capacity evaluations, where the entire cooler is filled to the top with water, then closed.
In its closed state, full of water, I sloshed it around without spilling a drop, so it's safe to assume that leaks won't be an issue. The only other thing I'll say here is that I'm still surprised not to see more of the high-end options try to separate themselves from the pack with clever bonus features like a built-in battery for charging your devices while you camp outdoors or better yet, a solar panel.
If that's what you're hoping for, your best bet might be to turn to Kickstarter and Indiegogo, where expensive, gadgety mega-coolers like the Coolest Cooler and the Infinite Cooler live in infamy. I say infamy because both of those cash-grabs have a history of production delays and decidedly unhappy customers. Go on, read through the comments on the Infinite Cooler's Indiegogo campaign , which blew through a March ship date with nothing to show for it.
It ain't pretty. It's all more than enough for me to recommend the healthiest possible dose of skepticism if you ever find yourself tempted to back a campaign like that with your cold hard cash. I mean, come on -- the literal last thing you want from your cooler is to get burned by it. Stick with an old-fashioned cooler like the ones I recommend above and that isn't something you'll need to worry about.
Did we miss a cooler that you're interested in? Want us to test more soft-sided coolers? Let us know in the comments! If you like the way this cooler looks and you need a cooler only for light use, such as on day trips, this is a decent pick, but we think our top-pick cooler will serve you better.
Icemule Coolers 15 Liter : This open-cell insulated cooler has an interesting design, similar to that of a stuff sack you might use on camping. It performed fairly well in our tests, although its light, open-cell foam insulation hindered it some. Yeti Hopper BackFlip : For the price, Yeti was outperformed by several other similar models, including our top pick among backpack coolers.
Pelican Elite: The plastic handles on the Pelican Elite 45Q that we tested let down this roto-molded design. Plus, it was just ugly to look at. Bison 75 QT : Bison makes a solid cooler for hunters and fishers.
This roto-molded design is as good as any we tested, but the RTIC is just as good—and a good deal cheaper. Canyon : These coolers are close to the RTIC in price, but they use plastic hinges to keep the lid shut and seem to skimp on a few manufacturing details. Yeti Tundra 65 : If you already know you want the name, then buy the name. Yeti makes a good product. Kit Dillon is a senior staff writer at Wirecutter.
He was previously an app developer, oil derrick inspector, public-radio archivist, and sandwich shop owner. When called on, he can still make a mean sandwich. The competition. Our pick. Coleman 70 Quart Coastal Xtreme Marine Cooler Best for most weeklong adventures Better insulated and less expensive than the competition, it keeps ice frozen for a week, and its well-designed drain port makes the cooler easy to clean.
Dimensions: Weight: Capacity: 70 quarts. Also consider: Igloo MaxCold Also great. Get this if: You spend a lot of time out on the water. For long, tough trips: RTIC RTIC 65 Tough as nails and inches of insulation This roto-molded cooler costs far less than the Yeti Tundra 65 but performs just as well in every way. Dimensions: 32 by 17 by 18 inches LWH. Capacity: 65 quarts. Dimensions: 18 by 10 by 12 inches LWH. Weight: 3. Capacity: 24 ounce cans. The external seams of the AO cooler are good enough.
Photo: Caleigh Waldman. Dimensions: 17 by 9. Weight: 3 pounds. Capacity: 20 to 24 ounce cans. Dimensions: 18 by 12 by 7 inches LWD. Weight: 5 pounds. Capacity: 13 liters.
OtterBox Trooper LT 30 Cooler Heavy-duty backpack cooler If you need a wide-mouthed cooler that can keep things cold for more than a day, this is your pick. Dimensions: 21 by 17 by 11 inches LWD. Weight: 6. Capacity: 28 liters. Igloo Recool A disposable composting cooler Skip the Styrofoam next time you need a disposable cooler. Dimensions: 15 by 11 by Weight: 1.
Capacity: 15 liters. How we picked. How coolers work and how we tested them.
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