A cooler without a hardliner is more prone to having its stored items be damaged while moving. Thankfully, Ozark Trail includes a removable hard liner in most of their soft-sided coolers. And the premium cooler backpack and cooler tote take this up a notch by having an EVA compression molded base. This cooler claims that it keeps ice for more than 4.5 days in mild temps. We’ve found that in cooler temperatures, it keeps things cool for about 4 days but there isn’t any ice left after 4 days. On hot summer days when you can’t get any shade or coverage for the cooler or the van you can count on about 48 hours where there’s still a little ice.
The weather was in the high 90s during the test, the coolers were in full sun for most of the morning, and we opened them several times throughout the day. The ice melted in the Coleman in 24 hours and the YETI in 48 hours. What I found most fascinating about this test is that the water in the YETI stayed cold for three additional days after the ice melted. The water was cold enough that had the gallon jugs been milk, we would have been able to drink out of them for three days after the ice melted. All-in-all, the YETI lasted for five days and the Coleman for one day.
We must admit that the huge price cut and supposed similar ice retention and features are tempting. The next essential piece to a cooler that can hold ice for long periods is a thick rubber gasket. Sure enough, Ozark Trail has sourced a freezer-grade gasket that is eerily similar to what you will find on much more expensive coolers on the market. We offer a limited lifetime warranty on all of our products upon registration. If you don’t care about brand names and are pretty careful with spills, I would go with the Ozark Trail tumbler. Other than the lid, it works nearly identically to the Yeti tumbler at a much lower price.
Overall the Pelican coolers have sharper edges and a bit more of ozark cooler an industrial feel than the competition. One of the first things to note about it’s design is that it has a larger drainage hole and a tethered drain cap, which is a nice feature. I have lost a couple of drain caps in my day which makes the cooler unusable until a replacement arrives.
I mean, come on — the literal last thing you want from your cooler is to get burned by it. Stick with an old-fashioned cooler like the ones I recommend above. I say infamy because both of those cash grabs have a history of production delays and decidedly unhappy customers. The performance of Magellan’s largest offering was very close to Cabela’s Polar Cap Equalizer. The lowest temperature recorded between the two in our cooling tests was less than a degree apart (44.6 vs. 45.5 degrees Fahrenheit).
Keep your food cold on a trip to the beach or make sure your guests have a cold drink in hand while hosting. They have harnessed this into their small but potent lineup of hard-sided coolers. These coolers are available in 26-quart, 52-quart, and 73-quart and fall somewhere in the intermediate to lower premium price tier. Depending on which model you go with, you will find the appearance of these ice chests to differ quite a bit. The most affordable models, the non-premium soft-sided coolers, come in a very safe, solid color. There may be some subtle grays or white pieces of fabric but, for the most part, the primary color will dominate.
They both work very well at keeping hot drinks hot and cold drinks cold. Not surprisingly, ozark cooler both tumblers were better at maintaining cold temperatures than hot with the cold temperatures rising at a much lower rate. Even though the tumblers had slightly different initial temperatures, it took both cups approximately 45 minutes to raise 1°F. Also, once the water reached about 80°F, both mugs were able to maintain that temperature for a few hours, meaning you can enjoy your tea or coffee for a long time. You might have to wait closer to an hour for your hot drink to actually be drinkable (around 135°F). The water in the Yeti tumbler did cool down slightly slower than the Ozark Trail one, but not enough to cause a significant difference in experience between the two.