We encourage you to read up on the specific benefits of a type of cooler in our full-page reviews that we do on each product to get a better idea of what you are looking at before purchasing. There are two critical temperature thresholds we made a note of — 40º F, and 50º F. coleman instant tent Based on FDA regulations, 40º F is the maximum acceptable temperature recommended to ensure food safety, as it minimizes the growth of pathogenic bacteria. Put simply, keeping refrigerated food items below 40º F greatly reduces the chance of food spoiling and making you sick.
The Xtreme series come with a drain system, it’s good that they feature a drain system, but it’s not very convenient, it doesn’t have a screw-on tap, therefore, it’s not very easy to open and close. Another downside of the series is they don’t have anti-slip feet, so if you don’t place the cooler tight, it would slide around in your trunk. If you’re just getting started with camping or any other outdoor adventures, you shouldn’t have to go out and buy the most expensive stuff, also you shouldn’t buy the cheapest ones as well. Camp coolers should be kept in a centrally located place, out of the sun, and away from campfires. If you are away from your campsite for a while, consider keeping your cooler in the car. Finding the best cooler has never been easier with these wheeled Coleman coolers for outdoor recreation.
We bought some ice, filled each model about ⅓ full, and put a mixture of cold and room temperature cans in them. Then we simulated a hot summer trip by sealing them in a heated room for over a week while tracking and recording each unit’s internal temperature. We’ve tested soft coolers for many years, and the Engel HD30 continues to impress us. It offers some of the best insulation of any soft cooler, keeping its contents below 40º F for just over three days in our insulation testing. While many similar coolers have thick zippers that are a struggle to operate or very narrow openings that are difficult to navigate, this soft cooler is impressively easy to use. The corners unclip, allowing the top to open quite far for swift loading and locating items.
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. Keep shopping and you’ll find coolers on wheels, thermoelectric coolers, coolers with power and even a cooler backpack or two — truly coolers as far as the eye can see. The entire point of this list is to make finding the best cooler a little easier. The design and convenience of the Party Stacker are fantastic as you can easily stack them on top of each other to take up hardly any space. But for this convenience, you have to deal with poor insulation and very lackluster ice life.
In addition to pre-chilling, you can maximize ice life by always storing your cooler in the shade, limiting the amount of time you open it, and never draining the melted water. It would definitely be time to pack in some more ice or wrap up your camping trip. This simple lunch-box-style cooler is insulated with thick closed-cell foam and made from a durable coated nylon. Note that RTIC coolers are not IGBC (International Grizzly Bear Committee) certified. If that’s necessary for you, here’s IGBC’s list of certified bear-resistant products (PDF).
But with care, you can extend the lifespan of any soft cooler—the number one rule seems to be not to leave it out in the sun. Similar to any other true roto-molded cooler, the RTIC 65 is practically indestructible, which makes it great for tougher outdoor environments. In our testing, the RTIC 65 kept ice frozen for 10 days with some periodic draining. We’ve also used this cooler for nearly five years for grocery runs in Hawaii, and it’s still going strong. One charm of the RTIC 65 is its reasonable price, which allows us to be far less careful with this equipment than we are with something as expensive or desirable as a Yeti.