There is one floating around where a regular Coleman 65 qt. cooler came in second in an "ice test" against 4-5 of the heavy duty/expensive coolers. I now have a Coleman.

However, I am only an occasional cooler user. Mostly during deer season, relatively light use, and I am not ever far away from ice. So the heavy and expensive coolers make little sense for me.

I think by far their best use is for guys who fish a lot, especially bay fishing. Durable as heck and give you an extra standing deck/seat.

Much beyond that and I can't really see why one would want to schlep around a cooler that weighs 35-38 pounds-empty.

But, hey, 'Murica is great!

I use my grizzly 150 as a tool box ( since its lockable) during hunting season, that way I always have a cooler, even though I normally dont get trigger happy. But its always there also very handy during culling season.

I use my grizzly 60 for drinks and food. Three years in a row its made it 10 days plus in the high country in CO during Sept. That's a lot of gas and time savings

I will say its nice though being able to put a whole mule deer carcass in a yeti 250 and not worry about it for 4 days

I have two yukons and love them. Its obvious that the more your in them the faster the ice melts. Great for storing extra ice for your game and drinks.

Coleman extreme are hard to beat for the money. Key is starting out cold, I use gallon jugs frozen to get it started and try to only put cold drinks in it, holds for 4-5 days in late October till spring. Keep em in the shade helps a lot.

Those grizzly coolers are hard to beat. I fish 150 days a year and ice is one of our biggest expenses. The heavy duty coolers help make it last a week compared to a day like I used to get out of a regular cooler.

Good info, thanks

The good ones do hold ice better in my experience and they are built MUCH tougher..

they also perform how you prepare for your outing. I keep mine inside my house with ice in the cooler the day before i will be at the lake or the farm. it keeps the insulation cold so it wont heat up as quick which in turn melts your ice faster. i know its weird but it works!

What I've learned from others and their website, the yeti or any of those types are best if you either store them at room temp or even use a sacrificial bag of ice to cool it down. I know it seeks like a pain so I did my own test since I'm more than guilty of going to the garage and loading one up and going. Stored at room temp then used a sacrificial bag. Got me CONSIDERABLY more cold time. It was night and day. It hold the ice great in it's own right. But when the cooler is 120* then it's gonna be longer and harder to get to that temp. Just food for thought.

Pre cooling makes sense. I used to make fishing trips to Mexico and had a BIG cheap cooler. I found that only getting into it once per day helped but the biggest deal was taping it so no warm air could get could get to the ice and food.

I precool mine with water to clean it and then fill it. Tap water is cooler than outside air temp for me by quite a bit.

I do the same..keep frozen jugs in the chest freezer and precool the Yeti and Brute, works like a champ

We've had really good luck with the Coleman Xtremes. About 1/8th the price of a yet and work almost as well. Good enough for us that we couldn't justify the cost of a yeti or other manufacturer.

Most of the test with these coolers are so misleading. I have had a 150 qt Igloo marine cooler for over 15 years and it still looks almost new. I take care of it and only 8 of those years were in the pounding Texas sun. It wasn't until a couple years ago that one of the latches broke (other still works). If I were to replace them it would costs about $10 bucks.

For the extreme cooler test mentioned. All I know if that my group up here has both Grizzly and Yeti and the Grizz is always the first to need more ice (of course it could be just because we open it more, who knows). When you use them camping and have people in them all day, they last about 5 days max with a Yeti and 4 days with the Grizzly (closer to 3 days max in Texas heat). I just bought my own 105 qt Yeti and will be testing it this fall on some of my hunting ventures.

There is no doubt that the extreme coolers will last longer, are stronger and will keep ice longer. Question is: do you really need the extra ice retention ability? Some do and some don't.

Anyone have a Brute Box cooler? I have heard those things are the real deal and might even be better than Yeti's.

Made in America too.

Interesting read. I have a couple grizzlies and love em. I also have a couple of the extremes and love them as well. We use our coolers weekly with all the scouting/church events we participate in, and are very satisfied with the performance of the grizzlies.

As stated, it's all about he sacrificial bag of ice, and bringing them in the house before hand. If I had to drive into town for just ice, that would get expensive real quick and really adds up with current gas prices. Besides, I ain't got time for that noise!

If your in and out of one throughout the day, your ice will not last long, since it takes that much more time to cool the hot air you just introduced.

We have several The biggest differences between Brute and Yeti is that our coolers are Made in USA, true to size (50 Quart = 50 quarts of capacity), have more insulation, built-in ruler, custom lid graphics, dual drain plugs and are about $80 cheaper on average.

When comparing coolers, please know that their 110 Quart cooler is nearly identical in size to our 75 Quart.

Let me know if I can help with anything.

Jeremy

I am doing a cooler test next week, we are pitting am icehole, frio, grizzly, pelican, and a yeti against each other- any others you want to see? Let me know and I will see about getting them in there.

the challenge will take place following all manufacturers instructions regarding pre-chilling, filling with ice to capacity but then, instead of shade they will be set out in the Texas sun in July to see which one hold ice the longest. Last cooler to loose all of it's ice wins. Coolers will be opened 4 times a day for the same length of time.

Anything you would change about that?

That will be interesting to see


Just returned from a week on the lake, in a tent, and pavilion. Grizzly sat under the pavilion. Sacrificial 10# bag was placed last Sunday, packed and headed out Monday around noon. Loaded grizzly with food and 60# of ice. Added 10# or so Wednesday just because I couldn't fit it in the Coleman. Should have taken pics, but the 150 was 1/2 full of ice when drained and emptied today. Interesting thing is, some of the ice actually froze up and made larger chunks during the past week.

I'm happy with these results anytime

The coolers are sitting with ice in them today to pre chill. I have had the same thing happen with ice refreezing in my yeti.

The final coolers are:
Brute
IceHole
Freo
Grizzly
Pelican
Yeti
Coleman

I really badly wanted an engalls and a K2 in the mix but both did not have a dealer anywhere near me to lend a cooler, and shipping one they wouldn't get here in time. I had already made promises to some of the dealers to get their coolers back to them by a certain date.

I have decided to keep them in the sun the whole time, most folks I know haul their around in the back of their trucks- in full sun, so that is how they will be stacked against each other. I will keep y'all posted!

I have an old 150 Yeti I use for deer and pigs quartered out.. it works great and has held up.

I have smaller Grizzly and Icehole coolers, the Icehole has noticeably thicker walls and I think built better.

I own a Yeti, a pelican and a grizzly, all in the 60-65 qt range. I am posting about the cooler challenge on my businesses new facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/VisionsRanchandWildlife if y'all want to follow along.