A lot goes into making a cooler, and we’re committed every step of the way. Some options are best suited for a day at work or the park on your own, while others are reliable for camping, hiking, fishing, or sporting occasions. The designs make them easy to carry and able to keep drinks and food in the best consuming condition once your activity is over. Parties and small get-togethers sometimes only need a small amount of drinks and snacks from your end, but you can’t always depend on everyone else to remember to bring their items. In this case, the Collapse & Cool soft cooler has the tough exterior and spacious interior to carry what you need and keep it safe. The leak-resistant design keeps water from getting out and turning your drinks warm, and the waterproof exterior keeps excess water from getting in.
Colors range from dark gray to black, depending on which version you get. For retail purchases returned without a receipt, the refund will be issued as a store merchandise
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where some exclusions may apply. Refunds are issued to the original form of payment, unless returned in store where some exclusions may apply. Wirecutter is the product recommendation service from The New York Times.
Whether it’s beer for game night or desserts for a follow up to pizza, the night will end with delicious meals. Once again, everyday use is the focus for this section of Igloo’s offerings. If you plan on staying out in the woods for more than a day, then be prepared to carry extra packs of ice, as well as more than one of these coolers so that you enjoy tasty meals. And 1.2 lbs., while the Cool Fusion 36, which provides more space, weighs 6.4 lbs. The locking and telescoping handles make sure that users have a tight grip when carrying the cooler.
In our lab, the temperature inside the tote actually dropped 8 degrees between two hours and 24 hours after filling it with ice. Previously, we tested hard coolers in the summer in Baltimore through a week that saw highs of 80 to 90 degrees Fahrenheit and lows of 64 to 72 degrees. And more recently we tested most of our picks again throughout the year in Hawaii. The price spread among soft coolers is significant, ranging from just $25 for the Coleman 24-Hour 16-Can Cooler all the way up to $300 for RovR’s premium TravelR 30.
This ice chest is designed to be easy to carry over your shoulders or under your arm. It has taken us a few years to recommend a wheeled cooler simply because none have seemed built to last longer than a season or two—especially in the handle. Once loaded with ice, drinks, and food, a 37-pound cooler can more than double in weight. When someone then tilts the cooler up, all that weight goes into the wheelbase or leans into the handle hinge. 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.
External Attachment Points
Many soft coolers, including YETI’s Hopper Flip 12 and REI Co-op’s Cool Haul 24, have daisy chain webbing along the outside for securing extra gear. In use, we’ve found this area useful for keeping valuables igloo trailmate like keys close at hand (we use a carabiner to attach them). And we particularly like the stretchy bungee system on the Arctic Zone Titan Deep Freeze, which makes it easy to secure a lightweight jacket or small towel on top.
When it comes to carrying different loads of items for family parties or barbeques, Igloo MaxCold is a reliable options. The Tote Cooler Bag, Gripper 16, Backpack, and Hard Top Gripper 22 can be carried over the shoulder, and Cool Fusion 36 can be pulled on wheels with multiple items. The Coleman Xtreme features replaceable hardware, whereas some of the company’s cheaper models don’t. This is an important detail because the first thing that will wear out on a cooler is either a hinge or a handle, and having affordable replacements means a cheap repair rather than a brand-new purchase. At the moment, you can buy Coleman’s replacement hinges and replacement handles for less than $10 each.
If we had to generalize it, we would say that you should expect to get approximately half of the claimed ice retention time in real-world use, give or take a bit depending on your specific circumstances. REI has a knack for balancing performance and affordability, and their Cool Haul 24 is no exception. Like much of its soft-sided competition, the REI bag also includes daisy-chain webbing for securing extra gear, as well as a handy bottle opener. And because the Cool Haul’s inner insulated box can be separated from the outer shell, cleaning is a snap (the shell can also be used without the liner as a tote).
These foams, which weigh around 0.5 pound per cubic foot, are light and easy to compress. To test the portability of each soft cooler, the team walked around with each of the coolers to see how comfortable they were to carry. The coolers were all tipped upside down to see if they were, in fact, leakproof.
Besides its ability to hold cold temps and ice for days, our testers liked the size and shape of the cooler. They also liked how leak-proof it is and the two handles on each side of the cooler’s body. However, they were not impressed with the lack igloo water cooler of padding on the Hopper Flip’s shoulder strap and how heavy it was (it’s about 1.5 pounds heavier than the similar Orca Walker 20-Can). We love that this cooler has handles and backpack straps, making it ideal for different carrying methods.