All of the coolers were chilled with bags of ice overnight before test day. That ice was then discarded and fresh ice was placed in the coolers. I used 20 pounds of ice in each cooler. The ice was weighed in order to get the exact amount in each cooler.
This amount of ice filled the coolers roughly halfway. Once the ice was in the coolers, six cold, canned soft drinks were placed on top of the ice and the lids were closed and latched. All of the coolers were then placed on concrete and left to the elements.
The coolers were opened every 24 hours until the ice had melted to a critical stage. As ice melted completely in a cooler, the water temperature was recorded and the other coolers were checked. During the challenge, the outside temperature ranged from 93 degrees during one day to overnight temperatures in the mid 70s. It rained on the coolers four times. The Results. Noon Day 1. The ice and soft drinks were loaded into the coolers and the lid were shut and latched.
The temperature was 88 degrees and cloudy. All of the coolers had plenty of ice but some had far more than others. The Yeti, Orca and Pelican coolers had mostly ice and very little water while the Coleman, styrofoam and Buckwaters coolers had more water.
The styrofoam cooler had large chunks of ice floating in water while the Coleman and Buckwaters soft side had more individual pieces or ice floating in water. I decided not to open the coolers again until the 48 hour mark. All of the coolers had ice but some of the coolers had very little left.
The more expensive Yeti, Orca and Pelican coolers still had more ice and water and the ice had formed large chunks in all three. Although all of these coolers had large ice chunks, the cans in the Pelican cooler were still resting on top of the ice. The styrofoam, Coleman and Buckwaters soft side were had lost a significant amount of ice. What was left in these coolers were small pieces floating on top. By this time, all of the coolers have been in the heat and sun for over two days.
I checked the coolers that were close to losing all of their ice and found the Buckwaters Soft Side 48 quart cooler was out of ice. The ice lasted 50 hours 25 minutes 2 days 2 hours and 25 minutes. That's was quite remarkable to me that a soft sided cooler held ice that long.
The water temperature was I'm glad I put this one in the mix just to see. I used hours and minutes as the primary time measurement for this test but I want to include how many days these coolers held ice as well. Over two days in, the sun is high and the temperature is the hottest yet.
The black Coleman Steel Belter 54 quart cooler had nothing but water left. All of the ice was gone. It held ice for 51 hours and 57 minutes 2 days 3 hours and 57 minutes. The water temperature in the cooler was The other coolers were checked and it was apparent one of the coolers was not going to make it to day 3. The sun continues to beat down on the remaining coolers. I've had this cooler for years and it proved its worth in this test. It held ice for 52 hours and 35 minutes 2 days 4 hours 35 minutes.
The water temperature was a chilly Three coolers remain in the challenge. The Yeti, Orca and Pelican all had ice, but for the first time there was more water than ice. The Yeti and Orca had some small chunks floating with many more small pieces. The handle locks in place so you can easily pull the cooler behind you. It glides back into the cooler and out of the way when not in use. Several of the hard cooler models have wheels to make them more portable.
Some wheels also have anti-skid traction for taking the cooler on a trail or over rough terrain. The heaviest hard coolers include handles and wheels. Some of the smaller hard coolers are designed to stack on top of one another. This makes them easier to store and take with you when traveling.
Hard liner. Some soft coolers include a hard liner, which looks like a plastic basket that fits into the cooler. If you want a soft cooler that can keep things cold without them getting crushed, a hard liner is the way to go. Hard liners are removable for cleaning ease. Some coolers include an interior food basket to keep dry items like sandwiches separate from the ice and cans.
A food basket prevents these items from getting crushed while keeping them cold. Exterior pockets: Some hard and soft coolers have exterior storage pockets. On soft coolers, some of the pockets have zippers. Lockbox: Some Igloo coolers include a water-resistant lockbox with an anti-leak gasket. A few hard coolers have tie-down loops built into the cooler design. Camping chairs , umbrellas, and blankets can all be strapped and secured to the cooler using these loops, making it easier to transport all your gear.
Igloo makes coolers from several different materials, including water-resistant fabrics and molded plastic. Some elite coolers are made of aluminum with stainless-steel components to provide a balance of durability, strength, and weight.
Plastic coolers are less expensive but may not hold up to heavy use. There are few extra features that may or may not be included, depending on the cooler you choose. Interior LED lights: After dark, interior illumination in the cooler is a good idea.
Butler tray: The lid on some models also serves as a butler tray, giving you a place to put food and drinks. Cup holders: Anglers and families alike can always use an extra cup holder. These coolers are designed to keep drinks or food cold for one to four people and may have a fold-flat or built-in handle. These hard coolers are larger, with more features like latches, tie-down loops, and fish rulers.
Soft coolers in this price range can carry up to 46 cans. Some have backpack straps, while others resemble traditional messenger or duffel bags. These include multiple attachment points for carabiners, welded seams, and ultra-thick insulation. And can any of the cheaper models keep up? Are ice life, insulation and versatility more significant? My mission? Find the best coolers of the bunch and categorize them in a way that will make it easy for you to find the perfect cooler for your needs.
Whether it is a soft sided cooler, a hard sided cooler, one that has foam insulation or a removable liner, I've considered all these and more to come up with the list of best coolers for you. After several weeks of hands-on testing and countless ambient temperature readings of course things like the inclusion of a cup holder or bottle opener is important, but the most critical thing a quality cooler does is keep your cold drinks cold , I've separated the winners from the also-rans.
Here's everything I learned, starting with the coolers I think you should rush out and buy before your next camping trip or big family gathering. I'll update this best coolers list periodically. The performance data between this ice chest newcomer and the previous titleholder, the Yeti Tundra 45 Cooler , was nearly identical. The Yeti got a little colder, and the Magellan held its temp a little longer. The real deciding factor here is the price. Aside from performance, this cooler offers plenty of other extras, including quite possibly my favorite lid design: dual-side latches that can double as hinges, allowing you to open the cooler from either side.
While you're at it, Magellan tosses in a couple of bottle openers, a metal reinforced lock area and a drain plug. Along with the aforementioned Orca, Cabela's Polar Cap Equalizer is another rotomolded winner from previous years that remains on our list of top picks. Again, you're going to pay for this level of performance and the clever built-in bottle openers in the latches , but if top-of-the-line ice chest performance is what you're after, you know where to start.
Let me start by saying this: The sheer amount of features and accessories makes this hard sided cooler feel more like a "friends or family to the lake" cooler than one you're taking on your next extended camping trip. Oh, and the drain plug for ice melt, can't forget that.
The Igloo Trailmate hard cooler didn't perform poorly -- it actually outperformed all of the coolers outside of the other top recommendations listed here such as a Pelican cooler or a Yeti cooler. And that's no small feat for a cooler with no latching or pressurized lid to help contain that cold air.
It's hard to go wrong with this traditional cooler at this price and when you look at the temperature graph. In fact, the Coleman Party Stacker ice chest finished with the third coldest temperature in its size category.
It doesn't hold that temp as long as the other coolers, but if you're planning to load up, get busy and be done within a hour window, you shouldn't have any problems with the Coleman cooler. The other unique feature about this line of Colemans is that they have several sizes and shapes of Stacker coolers, and they're all designed to be, well, stackable and interlocking.
Whether you're looking for a fishing cooler or a beach cooler, mix and match, stack and go. Taking the crown of best cooler overall is the Xspec 60 qt Rotomolded High Performance cooler. Got colder faster than its ice cooler competitors? Coldest temp reached in our lab tests at Easy to close and open latches? Metal reinforced lock area, nonslip feet, etched rulers, built in compass for when you get lost?
Checkity check check. Chart-topping performance with a median price tag on a reasonably sized cooler gets the spotlight. This cooler would also get the nod as best rotomolded value, coming in as the least expensive rotomolded cooler we've tested to date. Though it wasn't quite as strong of a performer as Cabela's or Xspec, it still finished our tests with above-average cooling capabilities, and it was, by far, the easiest and most comfortable cooler to transport from point A to point B.
That's good, because this cooler would be a pain to carry. With 9-inch wheels and a frame built from stainless steel and aluminum, the Rollr is quite heavy even before you start loading cans, water bottles and other beverages into it. On top of that, I like the included removable fabric wagon bin and the plastic dry bin that helps you keep your food and beverages separate from wet ice.
Our rotomolded cooler pick from previous years, this Orca cooler is just flat-out tough to beat when it comes to performance. The Bison Gen 2 cooler came close, and even reached a minimum temp that was one tenth of a degree colder than the Orca's low, and a bit sooner than the Orca did, too -- but overall, the Orca roto mold cooler is able to hold those low temperatures for longer with integrated insulation for maximum ice life.
But sometimes you do get what you pay for. Read our Orca Quart Cooler review. These coolers are currently commercially available from the dozens we've tested over the last few years. Here's a linked list with brief insights:. The big differentiator that you'll hear a lot about as you shop for a cooler is ice retention -- specifically, how long a cooler can keep a full load of ice frozen melted ice, aka water, isn't as good at keeping drinks cold.
The new, expensive options all hang their hat on this test, with rotomolded coolers specifically designed to ace it and in doing so, justify their price tags.
That's all well and good, but I worried that a standard ice retention test on its own wouldn't tell us the whole story. Sure, some coolers would probably keep the ice frozen for a lot longer than others, but using the melting point as your metric seems to disregard everything that comes before. I wanted to get a good sense of performance not just days in, but hours in, before any of the ice had even melted at all. To do that, I started with a modified version of the ice retention test. Instead of a full load of ice in each cooler, I went with just 3 pounds -- not even half of a small bag from the gas station.
Less ice meant more of a challenge for the coolers, which would hopefully give us a more granular look at how well they perform relative to one another. Specifically, I wanted to track the ambient temperature in each cooler, so I spread the ice in each one I tested beneath an elevated jar of propylene glycol solution watered-down antifreeze with a temperature probe in it.
Why elevated? The temperature down in the ice would have been roughly the same in all of the coolers, leaving retention as the only real variable. Tracking the ambient temperature up above it was much more telling and it gave us some additional variables to consider.
0コメント