The 6 Best Coolers of 2023 Reviews by Wirecutter

When you do this you seal in the heat since they are extremely well insulated. The Igloo ice cooler started out as its main content with metal coolers for hard-working blue-collar workers. Because of this, some people think they are old and not as good as the new coolers. We love the mobility of the All-Terrain cooler thanks to its massive wheels. The cooling is good enough and the asking price is very competitive.

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 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. The Original is made with an exterior of 840-denier UV-resistant nylon wrapped around open-cell foam.

They have mobile, soft-sided products that are intended for office life and they have Super Tough STX coolers that are made to take a serious beating in the great outdoors. With such a large selection of coolers to choose from, it can be a bit overwhelming when you try to narrow your choices down. That is why we recommend checking out our thorough reviews to help this process.

But open-cell foam’s ability to insulate greatly diminishes when it’s wet because water permeates all of the open space and acts as a conductor of heat. In open-cell foam, most bubbles (more than 50%) share walls with lgloo Cooler one another. These foams, which weigh around 0.5 pound per cubic foot, are light and easy to compress. This simple lunch-box-style cooler is insulated with thick closed-cell foam and made from a durable coated nylon.

There are a few accessories we love to use with our coolers. These are very easy to use do not create the mess you get from ice. Some products you put into your cooler don’t like to get wet . If are looking for a similar product but with more ice retention and a little higher quality, you will want to try the Igloo Overland Cooler. This is a comparable cooler that is just slightly smaller in size but is made for a little more rigorous use. The cooler has some very nice pockets so you can put your sunscreen, phones, or other similar-sized items that can be hard to find a spot to put them, so they don’t get dirty or lost.

igloo ice chest

One great way to use these coolers that people don’t think of often is these coolers are also great for keeping things hot. If you need to transport some meat you smoked in your smoker but don’t want it to be cold all you need to do is put hot water into the cooler to warm it up. The cooler has extendable handles making it easy to roll it. This is perfect for attaching camping chairs, bags, hammocks with a stand, or even a small camping grill. The Igloo trailmate really is a premium Igloo cooler with wheels.

For more background information, see our cooler comparison table and buying advice below the picks. 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.

No matter what your need is you will find an Igloo cooler that is right for you. You do not get a more fun cool than this limited-edition Star Wars cooler from Igloo. This is a cooler igloo ice chest that will have everyone talking and you will smile every time you eat your lunch. After the cooler is warm empty the water and add your foil-wrapped meat into the cooler.

If your fingers can compress the foam more than 75%, you’re probably dealing with open-cell foam. If the foam feels denser than that and doesn’t compress much at all, you probably have your hands on closed-cell foam. With better insulation, a cooler can maintain lower temperatures for longer, thus consuming less ice. That’s important, especially if you, like most people, don’t have a freezer that can produce enough ice to fill a cooler and you tend to resort to buying bags of ice from the grocery store or liquor store. As with all soft coolers, you shouldn’t leave the RTIC Soft Pack Cooler out in the sun or resting on very hot surfaces like the back of a pickup truck or on top of a picnic table for a long time.

Hard coolers make the perfect option for safe, reliable storage that will keep your snacks and beverages cold all day. And all of our hard coolers made in our USA facility incorporate THERMECOOL™ insulation. This innovative foam lowers CO2 and VOC emissions, so we’re lowering our environmental impact while creating coolers that can last a lifetime.