Just as its name suggests, this little box has proved itself to be our go-to road trip companion. In our testing, the Coleman Xtreme kept ice frozen for a full week (170 hours), 30 hours longer than the Igloo MaxCold (140 hours). It measures 28.4 by 15.8 by 17.5 inches, its design incorporates bevels and angles all over the place, and it has a ruler and cup holders molded into its lid.
Its rope straps extend far above the cooler, making it possible to carry it without slamming your hands against the frame. These were particularly useful for loading coleman instant tent onto the counter or into the car. The Xspec 60qt, Engel, and Yeti Roadie 24 are some that buck the trend of popular T-grip closure mechanisms on high-end coolers.
The last time I tested coolers for this list, I had Cabela’s 60-quart version of this cooler listed as the best large cooler. But in the big picture, if you want stuff to stay cold, you literally cannot beat Cabela’s Polar Cap option. Its lowest internal temperature during testing was the coldest, but the real treat was the fact that it held that low level temp for around 20% longer than the next best contender. You see, Yeti, Engel, RTIC, etc are all great coolers, but they’re very expensive – anywhere from $200 to $500+.
Knowing your investment will last through years and years of adventures is important for any piece of gear you own, and these products are no exception. Though we didn’t have ten years to spend testing each model, we spent months subjecting them to prolonged use and a fair amount of abuse to see how they stood up to the pressure. We overextended hinges, jumped on lids, yanked on latches and handles, and dropped full chests from a carrying height. We set accident-prone friends, young children, and hefty humans loose on them to see what they’re made of by pushing them in ways more typically spread across many years of use. We filled each model with water to see how well their seals worked (or if they worked at all) and left them all out in the scorching midday desert sun for hours on end to see what would happen. Several of our top-performing contestants have been in regular use for several years now, and each season we update their durability and performance information, documenting how they change over time.
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. Simply put, coolers are unlike most other categories of outdoor gear that may last for just for a couple seasons before needing to be replaced.
It gave the lowest temperatures in the midsize cooler category, and low enough to play ball with the largest of coolers we tested. 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. coleman instant tent We make regular work of testing coolers in our climate-controlled lab, with the ultimate goal of making it a little easier to find the best cooler for your buck. Each had a little bit of water in the bottom of the cooler and experienced a bit of melt due to cooling down the room temperature coolers.
Uniquely, it includes a release valve to alleviate the pressure created by the lid’s seal. Though the Dometic CFX3 doesn’t have an energy-saving mode like many other powered coolers, it does have different levels of battery conservation that ensure it won’t prevent you from starting your car in the morning. And even while cooling, it draws just 50.7 watts, which is coleman sundome on the low end of powered coolers we tested. Our biggest complaint about this cooler is that its cords are barely over six feet long, which just doesn’t get you very far from the outlet. It’s also very expensive, but if you’re ready to take the plunge into the iceless world of powered coolers, the Dometic is consistently the best-performing model we’ve tested.