cooler question

[ofl0926]

hello everyone. so i have been looking at rotomold style coolers for the last month. especially after hurricane Irma. i have your typical walmart marine cooler for when i had a boat. its not a big one. i usually take it with me when i go hunting as well. i drive up to GA each year to hunt with my pops. sometimes we camp at a farm for a five days. ive been thinking of grabbing a 75qt Orca or Grizzly cooler. figure the investment is a good idea to hold ice if we loose power during a storm and for when i go hunting vs what i have now. but i havent been able to pull the trigger cause sometimes i think it might be overkill. what are your guys thoughts and opinions?

 

[awaldro7]

If you buy one look no further than RTIC. I have a yeti, Engel, and RTIC. The RTIC is as good or better of a cooler than the others and they are half the price.

 

[5MilesBack]

I guess it depends how long you need it to stay cold. I have a couple Coleman Extreme 120's and a 200qt rotomolded expensive cooler and for a week at a time, they all work about the same. But the rotomolded cooler does work better beyond that. I left my frozen milk jugs in one of the 120qt Colemans in the garage, and on day 10 they were still cold, but on day 14 they were not cold.

 

[Bigtex]

I got an 80qt Cabela's polar cap cooler. I don't remember but I think it's cheaper than rtic and it supposedly holds ice longer. It recently was featured as best rotomolded. Best yet, it's got Cabela's warranty so if you don't like it, take it back. I've been happy with mine.

 

[dotman]

I have an RTIC 65 & 20, I like them but for not much more you can get a canyon cooler that is better built. I really like my Canyon 35, the Canyon 55 will be similar in size to the RTIC 65, price diff $299 vs $239 both have free shipping. Now if you could get the RTIC for $139 like most of us did it would be an easy decision.

So I would go Canyon over RTIC with RTIC's current pricing, the Canyon 22 is even a tad cheaper in price then the RTIC 20 now.

 

[dotman]

Canyon 55 specs: $299.99
Interior Dimensions: 21x10.5x13
25lbs empty
Warranty - Lifetime

RTIC 65 specs: $239.99
Interior dimensions 24.75x13x11.75
36.5lbs empty
Warranty - 1 year

 

[Travis Bertrand]

Search here for “beat the heat” as well as as other cooler articles.

 

[Titan]

There are also the Ozark Trail Walmart coolers that are significantly cheaper than the rest. 73 quart is under $200 and the 52 is $130

 

[RockChucker30]

I did a lot of research into this a while back. All of the best brands hold ice within a day or two of each other. With any of them they work best if you pre chill them and then don't open the lids during the day.

The thing is, a $35 Coleman Extreme from wally world was holding ice within two days of the $400 coolers in most of the tests I checked out.

In the end I think most people are better off with 2-3 cheaper coolers, and then get a small deep freezer and a gas generator in case of power outages. You can freeze your stuff, make ice, whatever with this setup. Fill a freezer with gallon jugs of water, freeze them, and use those to stock the coolers. Refreeze when needed.

 

[ofl0926]

I did a lot of research into this a while back. All of the best brands hold ice within a day or two of each other. With any of them they work best if you pre chill them and then don't open the lids during the day.

The thing is, a $35 Coleman Extreme from wally world was holding ice within two days of the $400 coolers in most of the tests I checked out.

In the end I think most people are better off with 2-3 cheaper coolers, and then get a small deep freezer and a gas generator in case of power outages. You can freeze your stuff, make ice, whatever with this setup. Fill a freezer with gallon jugs of water, freeze them, and use those to stock the coolers. Refreeze when needed.

I like your idea with the generator. That is the plan for sure. I’m waiting till after hurricane season to buy one.
One of the main reason I’m considering one of these coolers is long term investment and for potential power loss. I picked grizzly and orca cause of pricing. I called them and they offered discounts to military. So I’m not spending $400 on a cooler like this. One of biggest issues with the Coleman extreme is the hinges breaking. I’ve gone through three coolers when I had my boat.
I really appreciate your input. I was just trying to see why people bought these coolers vs other ones.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[NHRedleg]

So I went the other way cause I didn’t want to spend that kind of $ on a cooler. I was going to CO for an elk hunt, planning on setting up a base camp and spiking out for a few days at a time. I already had an Igloo 120qt Polar cooler but needed another for an elk hunt; so I bought one for $70 on Amazon, bought a 16”x25’ roll of Reflectix, a roll of aluminum tape, and some velco. I made a “Cooler Cozy” for both coolers: a jacket of Reflectix that the cooler sat in, another shorter jacket that went over the lid overlapped the bottom jacket, and velco’d along the long sides to keep sealed. Also, I added two layers of Reflectix inside the recessed lid of the Igloo. In CO I wasn’t able to find block ice anywhere so had to buy cube; 100# will fill perfectly a 120qt Igloo cooler, and filled both as I didn’t know how long it would really last, so figured even if most of both melted during the hunt I would have enough to cool meat till I could get to town for more. Well, the temps were in the 70s most days, 30-50s at night, I kept them in the shade the entire time, and never opened them. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to fill them with meat. After 8.5 days from the time I filled those coolers, 200 hours, I opened them to empty them and pack up my base camp. I was amazed to see I had somewhere about 85% of the ice left in each cooler; next time I would just fill one and divide the ice if I had meat to put in them. Total cost, if I had to have purchased two coolers instead of the one and not including ice: about $170.

 

[Gorp2007]

You can buy metal hinge kits for most coolers for much cheaper than the price of a new cooler.