Best coolers for 2020: Cabela, Igloo, Yeti, Coleman and more

What’s cooler than cool? An ice cold cooler for your camping trips, Back yard meeting and tailgate trips. There have been a variety of “rotomolded” high performance coolers that offer superior insulation to conventional coolers, but they usually cost a lot more than you’re used to paying for a cooler – even hundreds of dollars more.

Are the best coolers really worth their asking price? And can one of the cheaper keep up? I wanted to know, so I turned to the usual suspects – Rubbermaid, igloo, Coleman – and dragged their most popular models to the CNET Appliances test lab, where we competed against the isolated performance of rotomolded coolers from the year Orca, Rovr, yeti, Pelican, RTIC, Cabela and more. I only tested hard coolers, no soft coolers were on the list. Our task? Find the best coolers in the range – you know, those that pack a lot of material, are easy to carry, and are practically indestructible – and find out if the insulation from rotationally molded, hard-sided coolers is worth the cold, cash needed to run after Bring home.

After several weeks of practical tests and countless measurements of the ambient temperature, we were ready to separate the winners from the competitors. Here’s everything I’ve learned, starting with the coolers that I think you should buy before your next camping trip or big family gathering.

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Best rotational molded coolers

Cabelas Polar Cap Equalizer Cooler, $ 250
Orca Classic Cooler, $ 330

Rotation molds are short for rotation molds, a manufacturing technique in which the mold is literally rotated when the plastic is filled. The result: plastic that is more durable, more uniform in density and, above all, better insulated with coolers.

Rotation molded coolers are not cheap, but have been proven to be better than the competition when it comes to keeping things cold. I mean, it’s not like we have a portable fridge in our hands, but it keeps cans cold. The best thing we’ve seen from a purely performance standpoint comes from Yeti – but the extra thick walls of this high performance cooler mean that you are seriously losing inches and capacity (more on that shortly).

From the rest of the rotomolded field, our most consistent isolators were Orca Classic cooler and the Polar Cap Equalizer Cooler from Cabela, which are pretty close in price. They are essentially related to my performance tests, so it really depends on the taste to choose between them. The Cabela cooler offers a little more space inside (about 3 liters) and contains clever bottle openers that are built into the rubber bars. In the meantime, the Orca cooler is available in better-looking colors and a little more comfortable to carry because it doesn’t have rigid molded handles that protrude beyond the rope handles.

Best value selection

Igloo MaxCold cooler, $ 57
RTIC 65 Cooler, $ 326

If you just want a reliable cooler that is not too expensive, put that Igloo MaxCold at the top of your list. Prices vary depending on where and when you buy, but I put mine up for sale last year for $ 45. It’s the only cooler available for less than $ 50 that stays in the top 5 of my performance tests. This list now contains rivals worth two years. In fact, it finished fourth. Only the Yeti, Cabela, and Orca have managed to beat it – and again each of these costs costs closer to $ 300.

The MaxCold’s plastic construction and outdated design are nothing special, but it covers the basics by including a drain and a latch for the lid (not every cooler in this price range). It’s also sturdy enough to sit on, which can come in handy on your next camping trip. All of this adds up to a lot of value – enough that the MaxCold scored a total of 8.2 here on CNET, higher than any other cooler I’ve reviewed.

Are you looking for a rotational molded value? Take a look at the RTIC 65. It is a large cooler that holds about twice as many cans as the Yeti. The 1 year warranty is shorter than most other rotational molded options. However, if you just want to choose a budget, this is the one for you.

Best performance

Yeti Tundra 45 cooler, $ 300

I told you a few paragraphs ago that the $ 300 Yeti Tundra 45 was our most powerful cooler, but I should add that it really wasn’t tight. With walls about 5 cm thick, it’s insulated better than any other cooler I’ve tested so far. This is the key to the performance of a portable cooler.

A lot of isolation means that the Yeti can do more with less. With just 3 pounds of ice – not even enough to completely cover the bottom of the cooler – the Yeti was able to lower its internal ambient temperature by almost 25 degrees, the group’s second largest drop in temperature. The Cabela cooler reached a minimum temperature that was about 1 degree lower, but unlike the Yeti, it couldn’t keep that minimum for long periods of time. In fact, after 24 hours in an air-conditioned room at 70 degrees, the Yeti was the only cooler that still contained ice. After 48 hours, it was the only cooler that had not yet returned to room temperature.

You should see my full review of this bear-resistant, high-performance cooler to get a better sense of how hard it smoked the competition, but a good analogy would be a horse that separates from the pack early and wins its race in an outlier finish . I wish the Tundra 45 had more capacity for the price, but if you just want the cooler that keeps your ice cream frozen the longest, this is the one.

Best design

Lifetime high performance cooler, $ 100

If you’re looking for a cooler that feels modern and chic, but isn’t yet ready to spend hundreds of dollars on a rotomolded model, you should consider that Lifetime high performance coolerI found for sale at Walmart for $ 97 (although it is currently out of stock). It was a top 5 performer in my tests, who essentially combined the excellent Iglu MaxCold and at the same time significantly improved the build quality.

The lifetime cooler isn’t rotationally molded, but that’s the kind of aesthetics it offers. Call it a doppelganger if you have to, but it’s very good, with sleek rope handles, double-lock lid closures, and even a built-in bottle opener, something you won’t get with the Yeti or Orca we’ve tested. It is also larger than these two more expensive options and stands at 62.4 quarts, which are above the stated values. If you’re looking for a top performer that’s right for you, Lifetime’s design offers the best for your money.

Are you looking for something noticeable that will stand out the next time you tailgate? Take a look at Pelican. I wasn’t particularly impressed with the performance compared to other rotomoulded coolers, but the brand offers one of the best color options you’ll find when shopping, and most colors don’t cost anything extra. I would like to add that the Pelican cooler is one of the few models we have tested that is covered by a lifetime guarantee.

Best mobility

Rovr Rollr 60 cooler, $ 399

You have a lot of options if you want a cooler with wheels, but if I were I would save and save $ 400 for that Rovr Rollr 60. Although not quite as powerful as the Yeti or Orca, it ended our tests with above-average cooling capabilities and was by far the easiest and most convenient cooler to move from point A to point B as long as we didn’t have to carry it for very long. With 9-inch wheels and a stainless steel and aluminum frame, the Rollr is pretty heavy even before you load cans, water bottles, and other drinks into it.

In addition, I like the included removable fabric cart and the plastic drying bin, which you can use to separate your food and drinks from the wet ice. When you’re ready to pay a little more, you can customize your cooler with extras like a built-in preparation board for camping cooking, stainless steel bottle holders, or even a $ 50 Bikr kit that makes it easy to tow the Rollr can behind a bike (although for almost $ 400 for the cooler, I wish at least one or two of these kits were included).

To be fair, we’ve only tested a couple of wheel coolers so far, and the Rollr was the only one I’d like to own. If I find a better choice in the future, I’ll update this section, but right now I think Rovr’s wheel cooler is worth the money.

Best cooler for misers

Igloo Recool, $ 10

One final recommendation – even if you don’t want to spend more than $ 20 on a cooler, you shouldn’t be dealing with cheap products like the Igloo Island Breeze and Rubbermaid Ice Chest coolers that I put up for sale for just one price $ 15. The latches and hinges felt weak, neither had a drain, and neither ran better than a cheap styrofoam cooler from the gas station.

Of course, the accumulation of styrofoam is a big problem in landfills these days. For an environmentally friendly alternative, you should opt for the Igloo Recool. The Recool is a reusable cooler made from recycled pulp with environmentally friendly additives, available from a REI cooperative, grocery store, supermarket, or gas station near you for around $ 10, which keeps water and keeps things cold. It promises only 12 hours of ice retention and doesn’t offer much more than six cans at 18 quarts – but hey, that’s still enough for a short day trip with a buddy to the beach. If you only need a small cooler, it does the job.

The recool didn’t hold the cold as well as styrofoam when I tried it, but it still ran as promised. The recool sat in our 70-degree test lab with a small bag of ice cream from the gas station (about 7 pounds) and was able to keep six diet sodas at cold temperatures for a good 15 hours. Then simply drain the water and let it air dry.

If you need something bigger than the Recool’s 18 liters, you can opt for the Vericool Ohana, another environmentally friendly, disposable cooler that’s available in 42 quart sizes for just $ 8. The problem is that it is currently only available directly from the Vericool website and you have to pay extra for shipping (here in Kentucky, that has raised the total to $ 22).

In addition to being reusable and biodegradable like the Recool, the Ohana is also recyclable (the Recool is not due to some of the additives it uses to seal). Vericool tells us that it is in talks to bring the Ohana to retail stores such as convenience stores, grocery stores, and gas stations. So keep an eye out – and rest assured that the Ohana is like the Recool Ohana passed our tests with flying colors.

And hey, while we’re talking about tests …

What we tested

Between this and last year I tested a total of 18 hard coolers, always striving for a mix of low-end, high-end and in between, and a mix of options with and without wheels. Capacity varied from model to model, but I tried to keep things as close to 50 liters as possible – big enough for people who want to have dozens of cold beers on hand at their next beach party, but not too big if You are just looking for something to feed the family on your next picnic.

Here you can find all information about where to find them and what they cost:

This list is not exhaustive. We only had the budget and the time to buy and test so many coolers that some well-known brands like OtterBox and Ozark Hills couldn’t make the cut. We haven’t tested any soft coolers either. If there is enough reader interest, I will test them all later and update this post accordingly.

Last year you asked for reviews for coolers from Pelican, RTIC and Cabela, so we took them into account this time. And although we haven’t tested soft coolers, electric coolers, backpack coolers, or other offshoot categories yet, we may consider doing so in a future update. So let us know in the comments if there are certain coolers you’re interested in, particularly soft ones.

How we tested it

Ice retention

The big differentiator you will hear a lot about when buying a cooler is “ice retention” – especially how long a cooler can keep a full load of ice frozen. The new, expensive options all depend on this test, with rotomoulded coolers designed specifically for it (and justifying their price tags).

It’s all well and good, but I was concerned that a standard ice retention test alone wouldn’t tell the whole story. Sure, some coolers would probably keep the ice frozen much longer than others, but using the melting point as a metric seems to ignore everything that comes before. I wanted to get a good feel for the performance, not just days but hours before the ice melted.

To do this, 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 a small bag from the gas station. Less ice meant a bigger challenge for the coolers, which I hope would give us a closer look at how good they are in relation to each other.

In particular, I wanted to keep track of the ambient temperature in each cooler, so I spread the ice in everyone I tested under an elevated vessel with propylene glycol solution (diluted antifreeze) with a temperature sensor. Why increased? The temperature in the ice would have been roughly the same in all coolers, so retention would be the only real variable. It was much more meaningful to track the ambient temperature over it, and it gave us some additional variables to consider.

Oh, and I did all of this in one of our equipment lab’s air-conditioned test chambers, and I made sure each cooler was open for several hours in the room to ensure that everyone started within a degree or so of room temperature (about 70 degrees F ).

In the end it turned out to be a fruitful test. After 48 hours, I had a nifty graph that showed me the temperature in each cooler from minute to minute – and the difference from cooler to cooler was remarkable.

Some could do more with this poor portion of ice cream than others – especially the Yeti coolerThis kept the ambient temperature colder than any other cooler I’ve tested longer than any other cooler I’ve tested. After 24 hours, the Yeti was the only cooler that still had ice left, and by the end of the test, it was the only model that hadn’t yet returned to room temperature.

And the worst? That would be it Rubbermaid Ice Chest CoolerThe inside of the cooler couldn’t get colder than 55.7 degrees Fahrenheit. In addition, the average temperature for the duration of the test was 66.8 degrees Fahrenheit – a warmer average than any other cooler I’ve tested. Even the $ 4 styrofoam control cooler did better. Not cool, Rubbermaid!

Capacity Considerations

If we want to talk about performance, we have to talk about capacity. Although some sizes are more popular than others (e.g. 50 liters), coolers don’t have much uniformity in size and shape. Regardless of how many beer cans are included, size and shape will of course also affect performance. After all, with the same amount of ice, a 70-liter cooler is like that Coleman Xtreme Marine cooler does a bigger job than the 48-liter Igloo Island Breeze.

I did my best to account for these size differences when evaluating the relative performance of each cooler, but first I had to be sure that I had accurate measurements. That meant putting those manufacturer capacity demands to the test, and I wanted a better, more universal metric than just counting how many cans I could put in each.

For this purpose, I carefully filled each cooler with water and measured the exact number of liters that everyone could hold before I could no longer close the lid without spilling anything. If anything, the cheaper models were mostly conservative in their estimates, with ones like that Coleman Xtreme and Igloo Latitude Wheel coolers, which are available in several quarts, are larger than advertised.

The expensive boys? Not so much. Rovr captures the capacity of his $ 400 Rollr wheel cooler at 60 liters, but I could only fit 52.8 liters of water if I measured for myself. The $ 300 Yeti Tundra 45 was also not as spacious as expected and only held 38 liters of water before it overflowed with the lid closed. That’s a few liters less than the 45 liters that the product name implies (nice try, Yeti).

This could partly be due to the fact that the walls of the Yeti are considerably thicker than those of the other coolers – which in turn is probably an important reason why the thing works so well. You get a lot of extra insulation, but at the cost of capacity. I think that’s a reasonable trade, but I wish Yeti would be more transparent.

Meanwhile at the same price as the 58-liter Orca Classic cooler got the money right at 58.1 quarts, and although it didn’t last as long as the Yeti, it ended up being one of our top performers. For a little more space, you could also use rotationally molded coolers from Cabela’s and RTIC – the ones I tested were both larger than those specified with 61.3 quarts and 72.9 quarts. This RTIC cooler was also one of our top values, at least as far as the expensive rotational molded coolers are concerned.

Don’t forget design

I also took into account the design and properties of each cooler when testing and paid attention to durability concerns. I was not impressed with the lid on the Igloo Latitude wheel cooler, for example. It can’t be closed and the plastic hinges are a joke. Try it out modestly, and the whole lid comes off immediately – and the cheap plastic wheels didn’t impress me either.

The Rovr Rollr wheel cooler Things got a lot better thanks to a sturdy design with high-performance wheels, a sturdy steel handlebar, and an optional $ 50 accessory to pull it behind your bike. I also liked that the interior is equipped with a partition that makes it easy to separate objects that should not get wet from the ice, and that you can customize it with different interior lining designs. My only problem – this T-shaped handlebar has comfortable rubber grips on the sides, but not in the middle, the place you actually want to hold when you drag it around.

Oh, and if you spend a lot of time camping in a place where bears are a problem, you should probably invest in a bear-proof cooler. The Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee maintains an ongoing list of certified options, including a number of coolers from this overview. The specific models I’ve tested from Cabela, Orca and Yeti all do the cut, as does the 80 liter version of Rovrs wheel cooler.

Another thing to think about: whether your cooler is sturdy enough to sit on, something that will come in handy when you’re at the campsite. Most of the coolers I tested were, but some went further. For example the Bison Gen 2 cooler goes so far as to apply as the ideal casting platform for your next fishing trip, and even sells non-slip traction mats for the lid in various designs.

Between the hinges, the lid, the drain plug, and the latches on the lid, the bison cooler felt most like a premium product – but it didn’t hold cold air as well or as long as other rotomolded models cost around $ 100 more than our cheapest rotomoulded pick, the RTIC 65.

You can find more design problems like this in my individual reviews for each cooler. The only other thing I’m going to say here is that I’m still surprised that no more high-end options are trying to separate themselves from the package outdoors with clever bonus features like a built-in battery to charge your devices while camping (or even better, a solar panel).

If you hope so, it’s best to contact Kickstarter and Indiegogo, where expensive mega coolers like that Coolest cooler and the Infinite cooler live in shame. I say shame because these two money wins have a story of Production delays and extremely unhappy customers. Read on for comments on Infinite Cooler’s Indiegogo campaign, which blew up a ship date in March and had nothing to show. It’s not nice.

It is more than enough for me to recommend the healthiest dose of skepticism if you are ever tempted to support such a campaign with your cold money. I mean, come on – the last thing you want from your cooler is to let it burn you. Stick to an old-fashioned cooler like the one recommended above, and you don’t have to worry about that.

Did we miss a cooler you’re interested in? Would you like us to test soft-sided coolers? Let us know in the comments!

Originally published on June 31, 2018 and updated regularly.