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. Roam is primarily a rooftop tent manufacturer and well regarded among serious outdoor-goers like overlanders and those who like to get off the grid. But their foray into coolers hasn’t gone unnoticed, combining the ruggedness and utility that Roam is known for with a myriad of functional features.
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 depending on your specific circumstances. Though nothing broke during testing, the hinges and latches are a potential weak point. This indicates the freezer-grade gasket lid doesn’t actually seal shut. Though this seems like an unimportant detail, when packed with goodies, it can be a little painful to grasp onto hard plastic.
We tend to steer clear of most bargain-basement coolers—they may work well for a day or two but often lack the impressive ice retention of premium models and won’t stand up as well to regular outdoor use. Igloo’s Ecocool 52 isn’t totally exempt from these drawbacks, but it’s more well rounded and functional than much of the budget competition. For just $60, the Igloo boasts a generous 52-quart capacity, and the proprietary foam insulation does a good job keeping food and drinks chilled for up to three days (in the right conditions, of course). The feature set is also pretty well sorted for the price, including four self-draining cup holders and functional lifts at the bottom that slightly elevate the cooler off the ground or truck bed. Igloo also added holes in the swing-up handles, allowing you to string a bungee between them to make carrying heavier loads easier. We’ve tested soft coolers for many years, and the Engel HD30 continues to impress us.
Yeti is one of the most recognized names in the game for a good reason. The Tundra 65 boasts one of the most impressive performances out of any cooler we tested. Through numerous rounds of our intensive insulation testing, the Tundra 65 continued to outlast most others in keeping contents at safe temperatures for consumption. This is one of many chests we tested with a bear-resistance certification from the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee (IGBC). It also comes with a removable dry basket inside the top to keep sensitive items out of melty ice water and can be outfitted with loads more accessories for all kinds of activities. The Tundra 65 is a reasonable weight for its size, and its low profile makes the last beverage easy to find.
Even after several years of use, the Tundra 65’s latches are virtually the same as the first day we bought the cooler. The best powered cooler we have tested is the seriously impressive Dometic CFX3 45. It won our Editors’ Choice award in our review of the best powered coolers.
The market for ice chests continues to grow over the years, resulting in some extremely close competition and hard-fought rivalries. To help you find the right model, we tease apart performance differences between contenders, implementing specific tests spanning coleman ice chest five exhaustive, mutually exclusive metrics. We test the insulation performance, durability, ease of use, portability, and features of every single model. As some performance aspects are more important than others, we weigh each metric accordingly.
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. Our recent Magellan Outdoors soft-sided cooler (title holder for Best Soft-Sided Cooler) has the same zipper setup. 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.
As committed cooler enthusiasts know, the type of ice you use heavily impacts how much you’re able to store and how long it stays cold. Crushed ice is the most readily available—you can find it at most gas stations and supermarkets for fairly cheap. The major draw is that it easily fills the gaps between your food and beverages, cooling them quickly and efficiently. However, crushed ice is also the fastest to melt and you’ll likely need to replace it fairly frequently. Blocks of ice, on the other hand, take much longer to melt than crushed ice.
So for those of you who want something that looks as good as it performs then you should be covered. That being said, they do still keep their highly-regarded and conventional cooler designs such as the Coleman Chest mostly unaltered to appeal to the old-school crowd. Some specific attributes and qualities would benefit one size more than another, and Coleman has a good understanding of what modifications to make to their design based on its size. It is refreshing to see them put thought into the applications of their products.
Closed-cell foam is considered a better insulator than open-cell foam because the tiny bubbles of gas in closed-cell foam remain independent from one another. Air bubbles that do not share cell walls and in effect stay insulated from one another are better at reducing the overall transfer of heat through the foam. Closed-cell foam is also much more expensive to produce than open-cell foam. The resulting product is strong and especially rigid feeling, and typically it weighs more than 1.7 pounds per cubic foot with more than 90% of its air cells closed to one another. Closed-cell foam is also water-impermeable—so it’s an ideal material for, say, surfers’ wetsuits.