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.
In most situations, the best way to utilize dry ice is to place it at the bottom of your cooler, wrapped in newspaper. A soft cooler on wheels can be easier to transport than one with only handles. It isn’t good for all- or multi-day use, but type type of cooler is sufficient enough for a half-day trip.
We’re the testing team at Reviewed, which means we designed and implemented the experiments involved in this article. Carrying it around was comfortable, thanks to the padded straps and chest and hip straps, and the weight was evenly distributed. Greg’s a co-founder of bestcooler.reviews and author of 100+ product reviews and comparisons on this website. When not at work, Greg’s an avid sportsman who enjoys running marathons, loves snowboarding, hiking and discovering new single tracks on his bike. Prices at both websites range from $10 to $200, depending on what type and size you choose. For retail purchases returned with a receipt, please return the unused and unopened item, with the
original sales receipt, for a full refund or exchange.
Our testing team filled each soft cooler in this guide halfway up with ice. The coolers were then placed in Reviewed’s humidity and temperature-controlled lab space to ensure that the coolers were tested with an outside ambient temperature of 72°F and 50% relative humidity. If you want a soft igloo water cooler cooler for under $25, check out the Ozark Trail Soft Sided Cooler. When it comes to cold storage, the Ozark Trail did decently, keeping its interior cool for 38 hours. However, the quality of its webbing feels on the thin side and the straps are less comfortable than others on this list.
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 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.