It maintained sub 50° F temps for 75 hours, offering over three days of refreshing beverages. The OtterBox Trooper 20 and AO 24 are also noteworthy here, offering food-safe temps below 40° F for 61 and 57 hours, respectively. Unlike hard-sided coolers, the pliable-sided construction of soft coolers makes them easy to store when not in use. Many soft coolers can be collapsed and stored away after being emptied and wiped clean of water. When testing soft coolers, we focused on performance, capacity, and how comfortable each is to carry.
Because the bag is designed with a top-roll closure, it can be difficult to reach drinks at the bottom when it’s full, so keep that in mind while packing. You’ll also want to be sure to properly roll the top closed to ensure there aren’t any leaks. It has a thick, waterproof exterior and a fully sealed rubber gasket around a plastic flip-top lid.
We put one sensor at the bottom of the cooler, which was enclosed inside of a methylcellulose block. Designed to be taken while fishing, kayaking, or backpacking, everything about this Pelican soft cooler revolves around being lightweight. Overall, the Rtic Soft Pack Cooler is well insulated, but it lacks the versatile storage of its competitors. Also of note, you can get this model in backpack cooler form for a similar price. The Yeti Hopper Flip 18 is one of the most expensive coolers on this list and we can see why. While putting this compact and lightweight cooler through its paces, we found every aspect to be highly engineered and durable.
And many of these bags, including Hydro Flask’s 20 L Day Escape, share a lot in common with regular daypacks. Other highlights include a waterproof exterior that stands up well to rough use and outer lash points for strapping igloo water cooler to a kayak or boat. Finally, we love the smooth-operating zipper that requires minimal force to open (not always the case with watertight designs), provides a reliable seal, and is easy to realign if it separates.
We took this cooler on a two-person, 3,400-mile road trip from Colorado to Washington for ski mountaineering followed by ocean surfing. Then we linked up river surf spots through Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming, camping igloo trailmate along the way. A team of editors and testers from TripSavvy and Dotdash Meredith’s food group sites like Simply Recipes, Serious Eats, The Spruce Eats, and Liquor conducted testing in our Brooklyn lab.
Place the items you’d like to stay frozen or colder on top of dry ice. Extra features, such as an exterior pocket for carrying utensils are a plus, but not at the cost of cooling capability or durability. Performance wise, this Igloo soft cooler proved itself to be below average—keeping the interior cool for about 38 hours, about 60% behind the Yeti Flip. But the lack of the rigid bottom means it flops around when you’re not pulling it. Ice is heavy so the ability to wheel it around rather than carry it is great.
A handful of brands even send you home with zipper lubricant, like RTIC and YETI. Between uses, you can clean the interior of a soft cooler with a sponge, lukewarm water, and standard dish soap. You can wipe down the exterior and zipper, too — don’t miss the feet and bottom, which touch ground surfaces. Let the interior completely air dry or use a towel to wipe down before zipping shut for storage.