The most crucial aspect of any wheeled model is how easily it gets you there, which the RovR does spectacularly. That said, it lags a little in the insulation department compared to some intense rivals, which is likely due to the imperfect seal between the top of the body and lid. It is important to remember that you’re probably not interested in taking a wheeled chest on a ten-day rafting trip or a three-week coleman screen tent road trip, but rather to the picnic down the road or a tailgating party. We think the latches are a bit stiff to manipulate but can become easy to learn with some practice. After using it for years now, this rolling icebox is like nothing we’ve ever experienced before and is the only one that our friends request to cart around. The RTIC Ultralight 52 has nearly everything you could want from a cooler.
Still, several have unfortunately paired this with a large lip or other obstruction that then stops your drainage progress before it’s 100% complete. Models that we found the easiest and most thorough to drain include the RTIC Ultralight, Kenai, Xspec, Orca(s), Titan, and Tundra(s), which all feature either a tiny or sloped lip to make emptying your meltwater a breeze. The Arctic Titan has an oversized drain to decrease the time you spend emptying it.
Two internal baskets make loading and locating things that much easier, as you can lift out the basket to find what you need. An internal light assists in finding that last beer in the dark, and a tall interior easily accommodates your celebratory champagne. A free app on your phone lets you easily control and monitor your powered cooler without having to get out of your sleeping bag or camping chair. Choosing the right Coleman cooler really depends on what type of trip or event you are taking your cooler to. For example, if you’re taking a picnic lunch to a park in town, perhaps a soft-sided Coleman cooler is all you need. A soft-sided cooler is easy to pack, fits easily in your vehicle, takes up little space, and keeps your food and drinks cold.
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 coleman instant tent 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.
Previously, we tested hard coolers in the summer in Baltimore through a week that saw highs of 80 to 90 degrees Fahrenheit and lows of 64 to 72 degrees. And more recently we tested most of our picks again throughout the year in Hawaii. Most cooler manufacturers provide a “claimed ice retention” spec in their product listings (YETI is one major brand who does not). That said, we always take manufacturer-provided specs with a grain of salt, and there isn’t an established, standardized test here. In practice, most of the claimed ice retention times feel quite inflated to us, perhaps due to extremely favorable testing conditions (storing the cooler inside with the lid closed in cool temperatures, for example).
Beauty-wise, I must give credit to the Igloo Maxcold series, compared to the Coleman Xtreme series, Igloo Maxcolds look much better, and they look more high-end. Another cool thing about the Coleman Xtreme series is they feature a scale on the lid which is a very handy feature especially for fishermen out there. You could tell before the tests were run that this cooler was going to be the better performer. The competitors sport very thin walls, and that’s just not going to do much for your insulative capabilities.