I watched a youtube where they cut apart a Yeti and a cheap Coleman cooler, and the Yeti did have more insulation, but I just can't bring myself to spend 3-400 bucks on a cooler. I have 2 pretty high end Coleman coolers that I've taken camping and never had an issue keeping my food and beer cold. I've left my coolers on the back deck after a party for 2-3 days and the ice has still been intact and cold with my regular coolers. My main issue with the Yetis other than the cost is the lack of internal space. Even the big ones are almost twice as big sizewise as to what you can actually fit in the thing. I know people that swear by them but I just won't spend that much on a cooler when I have cheaper ones that work just as good.

 

This is the video I mentioned if anyone is interested

 

cant one do a little chemistry and add salt to ice to make SUPER ICE!?

Dunk your hand challenge!!! see if you can hold it there for 20 secs!

 

 

It seems pretty obvious in that video to me why the Yeti would work better than the othe cooler they cut open. For one the Yeti has insulation on all sides including the lid. The lid on the other cooler is hollow. You also get a better seal with the Yeti with the rubber latches vs just the pressure fit of most regular coolers. I don't think you need a cooler as expensive as the Yeti collers but I have thought of picking up an RTIC 30 or 38 for a while now.

 

^The lid is one thing, but you also have to take into consideration how often you're opening the cooler, and how the cooler is packed. All those things affect how long the ice keeps as well

 

Drink your beers faster, nancy.

 

Thanks! I knew I was missing one of the other big brands.

Amazon has a 45 qt RTIC for $190 if you're willing to live with Sea Foam Green or Brown.

 

Yeah, but what about all the wieners and sausage I need to bring with me to go camping?

 

These are the KODI coolers that HEB makes and sells. https://www.heb.com/static-page/kodi

They say it took three years to design and rumor has it they had the YETI CEO consult them on it.

 

Cool!! Love how HEB makes their own products!
how much are they?
I just sent you an email with a local used Yeti for $200.

 

 

 

That is honestly a heck of a deal and I wouldn't have an issue with either color. They do have some cool new colors though like grey with neon green.

 

really, you can get any cooler... there is no replacement for ice. If the choice is expensive cooler or more ice, always go with more ice.

 

Yep, $50 cooler, and with all the money you save from the $200 cooler, you can buy enough ice to last you the next 4 years of camping!

 

 

I have a RTIC soft cooler, it's worth it. I wouldn't bother with the hard sided unless you're using it for fishing or something that will take abuse. The soft sided ones are cheaper and lighter and work nearly the same. Mine will keep ice for a whole weekend.

 

 

Made me laugh

 

My brother is an avid fisherman. He has multiple Yetis. They are the best. Period. He can keep ice for over a week in one of them. It's so big I can fit in it.

 

^ Cold boner storage, who knew?

 

I have an engle.

On a 7 hour trip to mexico when it's 110 in the desert I would usually start to see food start to thaw by the time I got to where I was going and most of the ice turned to water.
With the fancy new cooler I probably have 80 percent of the ice and the food is still frozen when I get there.

That isn't to say you can't get a normal cooler to last the trip. when I've done 12 hour journeys and brought mexican food to my family up north I've gone with blocks of dry ice, newspaper for insulation, and a taped up top on a old coleman. The new style cooler is just way more convenient.

Oh and if I were going to the beach I would pick a igloo every time. The engle is way to heavy to be carrying through the sand. Also igloo's have he built in hinge alarm to you can tell when people are getting at your beer.

 

If by that you mean the annoying squeak they come with or develope almost immediately then yes.

 

For camping we just normally put dry ice in our coolers from Publix for a few dollars and it keeps everything frozen well into the weekend with the large coolers

 

Used to go to Yosemite with dry ice; people in the campground woundered where the Popsicles were coming from, but be careful!

https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/01/healt...ath/index.html

 

Plot Twist!

Long story short, I ended up with a Lifetime 55qt High Performance cooler. It's water proof and keeps your shit cold while designed similar to a YETI for $100 at Walmart. In other words, it does what I need at a price I can afford.

Long story long... Our Amazon Prime account is setup under my wife's profile and the default payment is an Amazon CC with stupid low credit limit ($300). When I ordered the Coleman 70 qt for $51, the payment was rejected due to the credit limit, but I didn't receive the email. Once I discovered the snafu, it was too late to get the cooler in time for our beach trip. No big deal, Walmart.com says they carry the Coleman 70 qt in stores for less than $50. That's great until you get to the store and see the cooler shelves decimated and nearly empty.

BUT! Walmart has these Lifetime HP coolers on display with a 55 qt going for $97. Add in tax, and you're out the door with your cooler same day for $105. It has all the features of the other HP coolers, bear proof, tethered drain plug, sealed lid with rubber straps, and heavy duty rope handles. Given that there wasn't a cheap version there I wanted, I "splurged" for the Lifetime.

 

Regarding performance, who the hell knows. There are so many variables to how you can (and will) use the cooler, that trying to quantify cooler performance is nearly pointless.

I didn't actually take this cooler to the sand on the beach. A drive to the coast is 4+ hours no matter how you slice it, so I used my cooler to transport all of the drinks and food from our house to the rental house. I put maybe 4 lbs of ice from the freezer in for the first leg of the trip. Once there, all the food was taken out, and the cooler was used to store drinks in the kitchen. Obvious that means it was opened up a lot but was sitting around 75 degrees for 5 days. On day two I added 10 lbs of ice. On day four, I added about 16 lbs, and on day six I added 10 lbs. That ice lasted well into day 8. At no point was the entire ice chest filled with a majority of ice, and ~40 lbs got me through the week.

It weighs 25 lbs empty, the latches for the rubber handles are very helpful, and the rope handles seem very robust. The lid has a hole for a padlock, and the hole for that in the base doubles as a bottle opener. The only thing it appears to be missing is a ruler for your fish...

 

Man, I watched that Yeti vs. Coleman cutapart video and there isn't a huge difference. The plastic shell thickness likely matters very little. The insulation is where it counts. And the lack of insulation on the lid seems like an obvious shortcoming. Which is interesting because guess which side of the cooler is almost always facing the sun?

I bet a couple pilot holes and a can of expanding foam would do wonders to make that cheapy Coleman perform nearly the same as the Yeti.

/CSB

 

When I was saying "buy a cheap cooler!" I guess I didn't exactly take region into account. Here, a cheap Coleman can do the trick very well but it really doesn't go past 90F, here, or anywhere within a 400-500 mile radius. Those living in uber hot climates might be better off with something more heavy duty. But.. that lifetime cooler looks awesome and looks like it would do the trick.

Cul0 had a good idea with filling the lid with foam. Not sure how the Lifetime lid is, but it might be worth looking into if the cooler doesn't work as well as you hope. Either way... I hope you have many frosty beers this summer while on the beach!

 

I do recall seeing a video where some guys did just that. Modified a cheap Coleman/Igloo/etc cooler & added insulation. Performed similarly to the Yeti.

 

 

Ive got Yeti 20, 65, 20 hopper, 8 flip, 85 tank, and then like 16-20? cups of various sizes. I'd do it again and am looking for an excuse to buy a charcoal 45, but I'm out of excuses to buy more.

 

Interesting, we use Lifetime tables all the time which are very rugged, didn't even know that they made coolers, but it looks pretty rugged