Coolers

[lovin'fl]

What coolers do you recommend? For keeping things cold in car on 2 day drive (with hotel stop over where we'd leave cooler in car). I am thinking about a Yeti but they are pricey. Have an Igloo Cube but it doesn't even keep ice for 24 hours.

 

[Kathryn Merteuil]

We got a Lincoln Trail at Rural King... it is a Yeti knockoff. It seems to hold ice as well as a Yeti in a side by side test in the back of a vehicle overnight.

 

[Chupaca bruh]

Our Yeti cooler is awesome. It does a great job keeping things cold in a hot car. They are heavy though!

 

[ForceofWill]

For the money on a Yeti, I prefer my Pelican coolers. They're similar priced but made in USA. If you want something cheap, yet effective, I'm pretty sure the Coleman Xtreme coolers you can get at Walmart consistently top the ranking tests for coolers.

 

[lovin'fl]

Our Yeti cooler is awesome. It does a great job keeping things cold in a hot car. They are heavy though!

Don't mind heavy as we will leave it in car mostly.

 

[kinkin201]

I enjoy my yeti tundra a lot. I also have an Arctic 20 that holds ice pretty well that I use for my 1-2 day trips. The crucial thing is pre-cooling the cooler and whatever items you are putting in it the day before you leave. Then packing right before you go with fresh ice or icepacks.

 

[chickapin parterre]

invest in artifical ice packs....that is the secret that all these mail order fresh folks do....artifial freezing packs. stay cold for days.... that is what we are doing next week taking all those mother day gifts that came fresh with ice packs.

 

[JimMIA]

invest in artifical ice packs....

Or just get ice from your hotel.

 

[chickapin parterre]

Or just get ice from your hotel.

that ice melts and requires dumping out water on every stop. long term ice needs to be in blocks. for sure the blocks in the store are way to big, but milk cartoon, or even heavy duty bags, frozen solid will last 10x longer than shaved hotel ice. we can travel 2 nights in summer hot travel and still have the milk cartoon ice. though the trick is to have the cooler behind a front seat in the vehivle...catching ac

 

[HeatherC]

We road trip all the time and have a bunch of different coolers. I actually tend to use our $15 Igloo cooler from Walmart the most. I freeze a large bottle of water from a juice bottle like Simply Orange and use that. When ice starts to melt I add ice to the bottle and screw the cap back on. No food gets wet and ice easily lasts for two days.

 

[Sjm9911]

Colman extreme cooler, or get a rotomold knock off at wallmart. Freeze water bottles for ice. Have fun.

 

[bcla]

A Coleman Steel Belted Cooler will work wonders. My family had one from the 70s, and it kept stuff cool for days. But it had a seal like a refrigerator door and a locking mechanism that kept the lid sealed. A friend in high school asked to borrow it in order to store dry ice for a science project. It was literally air tight including the drain opening.

Igloo has some similar coolers with a latching mechanism. They've updated it with some of their newer design elements (like the bottom that barely touches the ground and should result in less heat transfer) into their "legacy" coolers. Not going to be cheap though. I saw a similar sized wheeled Igloo cooler at Target for about $25 on sale. It might not be perfect, but the newer plastic coolers are lighter, not likely to dent, and still keep stuff reasonably cold.

https://www.igloocoolers.com/collec...ts/legacy-54-qt-cooler?variant=32180513341523

Most newer coolers tend to have fairly loose lids that don't really seal all that well. They may have pretty good insulation, but it's not going to be as good as an airtight seal.

 

[NYCgrrl]

Yeti is top of the line, costs a pretty penny but is more suited for an outdoor trip of several days; pretty much the same for Pelican. At the other end of the spectrum lies Rubbermaid which is a complete waste of your money no matter what version or need you have. In the middle are Igloo and Coleman and for a trip of this duration that’s where I’d look.

For light duty during a car trip over two or three days, the Coleman Extreme line gives great bang for your buck within a reasonable price range ($40.00 to 60.00). They used to make a 6 day version but to the best of my knowledge they are now selling the 5 as top of the line. You can probably find one at Cabela’s and Bass Shops on sale this time of year. The Coleman Marine line is quite good but too large for your stated needs. I have one Igloo Maxi that is fine for wine bottles but otherwise a disappointment as far as cold retention. Bought it at Costco and suspect it was made to the warehouse’s specifications.

You should be able to fit a 30 to 50 qt. model in your car’s interior with ease and although some configurations have a drain spout inconveniently located in the center back it’s not the end of the world.

I currently own a Yeti, 2 Coleman Extremes, and an Igloo Maxi Cool. Each has it’s use though some do the job better than others.

HTH and have fun!

PS- you might want to consider cooling down your cooler prior to the trip’s start. A few sacrificial bags of ice does the job and ensures your drinks and such will remain cool longer since they are now in a similar environment as your home fridge. Be sure your drinks are fridge cold before you put them in the cooler. Not sure you need blue ice for a trip of this duration but if you opt for it nothing wrong with that. Our cooler collection is mostly used for 10 day + camping trips and that reflects our needs. A two day car trip sounds like the Waldorf to me .

 

[slo]

We road trip all the time and have a bunch of different coolers. I actually tend to use our $15 Igloo cooler from Walmart the most. I freeze a large bottle of water from a juice bottle like Simply Orange and use that. When ice starts to melt I add ice to the bottle and screw the cap back on. No food gets wet and ice easily lasts for two days.

This is a great idea - thanks for posting

 

[winterwhite]

Coleman Extreme or Marine - should be around $40 for a 50qt model. I have one that has held ice when left inside a hot car for three days.

 

[lovin'fl]

Anyone ever have RTIC? Seems to be a knockoff of Yeti but like $100 cheaper.

 

[NYCgrrl]

Anyone ever have RTIC? Seems to be a knockoff of Yeti but like $100 cheaper.

Never owned one but here’s a review from a trusted source:

https://www.outdoorgearlab.com/reviews/camping-and-hiking/cooler/rtic-65
Looks like I’d have considered it when I was in the market for a Yeti type cooler. I use my Yeti as the campsite freezer for items I want to keep frozen for a long duration.

 

[lovin'fl]

The RTIC might be good. We just need it to bring home fridge/freezer groceries from our FL house when we leave (and drive home over 2 days). Since we rent in between visits we can't just leave mayo, beer, frozen foods...etc. Figure we can keep cooler in our Explorer and can even use for other things. I have an entire freezer of ice packs from Blue Apron and the such that I can use in it and no need to drain melted ice. Thinking of 45 gallon.

I have the Igloo Cube on wheels that we used for our girls' travel softball days. We'd load it up on Sat morning and take it to the field. Then by the time we'd get to the hotel at night the ice would be all melted. Usually would dump the melted ice out in parking lot before leaving the field. Then get hotel ice to fill back that night and it would be melted by next morning so we'd need to drain and re-fill with hotel ice...then it would be melted by lunchtime. Hotel ice is the worst. But I don't want to do all that with this cooler. Lug it out of car and up to hotel room and have to add hotel ice. Maybe it would work okay in a car all day though, with AC on. ANd using a bunch of ice packs. I used to just do 2 ziplocs of ice (gallon sized) during the softball days. Suppose I could try it. But the Cube shape is awkward in a car, if we wanted to grab a drink. out. It is high and the wheels and handle make it awkward too.

 

[winterwhite]

I have one of the RTIC soft coolers and it’s just as good as the Yeti one I tried.

for significantly less money if you just need to set it and forget it, the Coleman extreme I have is 1/5 the price and works just as well. I take it to horse shows with me and leave it in the trailer in the sun for several days regularly and it is still food safe temperature after 3 days using those Nordic Ice packs: Nordic Ice NOR1032 Reusable Long-Lasting Gel Pack, 16 oz. (Pack of 3) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00WGA98GY/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_1NBSQ2QZJAPC352YNJ0W

These packs stay coldest the longest of any I have had, left out at room temperature they will still have solid ice in them after 12 hours. Inside a cooler, they were still frozen after three days.

 

[bcla]

Yeti is top of the line, costs a pretty penny but is more suited for an outdoor trip of several days; pretty much the same for Pelican. At the other end of the spectrum lies Rubbermaid which is a complete waste of your money no matter what version or need you have. In the middle are Igloo and Coleman and for a trip of this duration that’s where I’d look.

Igloo has Yeti style coolers now, with a tight seal and a latching mechanism. The idea is actually quite simple and rather hard to keep others from copying the basic idea.