The best coolers in 2024

If you’ve ever found yourself stretched out on a seaside dune in the blistering August sun, pining for the cool rejuvenation of a fresh mint tea, you’ve understood the allure of a cooler. Whether your taste is sparkling waters or brewskies, sweltering deserts or music festivals, any prolonged occasion in the out-of-doors benefits from the power of a cold beverage, and with the best coolers, you’ll be sure to keep things ice-cold no matter where the adventure may take you. Available in different sizes and shapes, coolers are ready for extended camping trips, multiple-day fishing trips, and anywhere else you need easy portability. Hard-bodied coolers—like our best overall pick, the YETI Tundra 35—are usually made out of roto- or injection-molded plastics and feature thick, rigid sides containing layered insulation. Often latching and sometimes on wheels, some can retain ice for over a week. Soft-bodied coolers are designed to be lighter, usually using various polymer-constructed fabrics and often strapping to a user’s back or slinging over a shoulder. With these and other factors in mind, we’ve put together our suggestions for the best coolers for any and every occasion.

How we chose the best coolers

For this article I examined a wide range of coolers, looking for the best coolers from multiple manufacturers. I stacked the specs against one another and accumulated as much info on each model as possible. I also used my experience from multiple cross-country US road trips and camping trips when I lived out of a cooler for weeks. A few factors emerged as the most important in this search.

Ice retention varies dramatically from cooler to cooler. Some coolers will retain ice for an afternoon, and some boast ice retention of over a week. Great ice retention requires expensive components and heavier builds, so ice retention isn’t a be-all and end-all. However, if you’re looking for a cooler that can keep supplies cold in the back of your truck for a week, then it might be. Good ice retention was one of the most important factors I looked at.

Portability is an all-important metric for a good cooler (at least for most people). Even if you’re buying a cooler that will live in the back of your truck, it still needs to be mobile enough and have enough purchases to load it in and out. The most portable coolers are usually soft-bodied ones that will likely sacrifice some ice retention for a lightweight build. This list features a few highly portable coolers and a few that focus elsewhere.

Ruggedness can be an important factor. Loaded coolers can be very heavy. That’s why I looked for models that are rugged enough to survive a drop or two or repeat scraping against the sharp edges of a boat. For hard-bodied coolers, this often means roto-molded plastics rather than injection molds.

Price is always a factor with outdoor gear. Where coolers are concerned, long ice-retention times generally increase your cost dramatically. Thus, this list highlights a few coolers that make a low price the prerogative while simultaneously prioritizing expensive and impressive insulation in others.

The best coolers: Reviews & Choice

The best coolers can keep drinks and food cold for hours while you and your pals/loved ones romp around having a blast outdoors, and these are the best ones we found.

Best overall: YETI Tundra 35

Specs

• Weight: 20 pounds
• Outer Dimensions: 21.38 x 16.13 x 15.75 inches
• Inner Dimensions: 13.88 x 10.63 x 9.38 inches
• Materials: Roto-molded polyurethane

Pros

• Keeps ice for long stretches
• Gasket seals lid
• Rugged construction that’s even bear-resistant
• Comes in multiple sizes

Cons

YETI is such a well-known name in coolers that I specifically looked for a cooler that could outrank it for the “best overall” category in this article, but with its long ice retention and rugged build, the YETI Tundra 35 is simply the clear choice. YETI hard-body coolers are designed with a roto-molded frame that provides greater structural integrity, drop resistance, and insulation than lesser injection-molded coolers. The lid seals with an industrial gasket, so it’s guaranteed to keep contents at the desired temperature, and opens with easy-to-use rubber latches.

At 20 pounds, the YETI is heavy. However, this is addressed in its design. Rope handles are attached to both sides, making carrying easy. The cooler is also designed to be tied down and is easily secured to your boat or truck with ropes. A removable metal dry basket also ships with the product. Further, the Tundra meets the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee (IGBC) standards for grizzly bear (or black bear) resistance when locked with standard long-stem master locks (YETI sells these on their site). These are just some of the reasons we love YETI coolers for camping.

When it comes to coolers, YETI is one of the undisputed industry leaders, and the Tundra is no isolated golden child. YETI makes a great cooler called the Tundra Haul, which is equipped with wheels for greater portability. If you’re looking for a soft-body cooler or a hard-bodied water cooler, their offerings are also worth a look. If you like Yeti’s insulated water bottles, you’ll be just as satisfied with the Tundra 35 cooler, which is why a YETI is always our suggestion for the best splurge.

Best portable: RTIC Road Trip

Specs

• Weight: 4.1 pounds
• Outer Dimensions: 11.75 x 8 x 11 inches
• Inner Dimensions: Top: 10 × 5 × 7.75
• Materials: Rotationally molded plastic

Pros

• Excellent coolness retention
• Flip-up handle
• Price

Cons

• Using a small cooler means settling for less capacity

RTIC’s Road Trip Personal Cooler takes all of the company’s cooling technology and packs it into a comfortable, grab-and-go design. Our hands-on testing proved that the Road Trip is the ultimate choice in its size class.

The Road Trip has an official capacity of 12 cans, but we fit eight 12-ounce cans along with two-and-a-half pounds of ice inside, with a little room to spare. RTIC recommends using a 2:1 ice-to-beverage ratio to get the best experience. Pre-chilling your drinks will also help retain ice. We didn’t follow these guidelines but still ended up with beverages that felt colder than they would have out of the fridge even after the cooler was out in nearly 90-degree heat for an extended period of time.

This level of performance is possible because the Road Trip Personal Cooler has insulation that’s two inches thick. For reference, its full-sized coolers only use roughly three inches of insulation, so RTIC didn’t skimp out on its smallest model. Using this much insulation means once your beverages have cooled down, they’re not going to get warmer for a long time. The downside is that it does increase the cooler’s weight, but that’s a fair tradeoff.

One feature we didn’t expect to like as much as we have is the Road Trip’s Lid Lock Handle. When flipped down, the handle keeps the cooler locked so drinks won’t end up on the floor of your car when you hit a bump. When flipped up, the handle made the Road Trip comfortable to carry around—even when it was full.

If you don’t need a full-sized cooler for your day trip but want to keep enough beverages for two or three people chilled from before noon through deep into the night, RTIC’s Road Trip Personal Cooler is an excellent choice.

Best ice retention: Grizzly 75-Quart Cooler

Specs

• Weight: 33 pounds
• Outer Dimensions: 33.13 x 17.75 x 18 inches
• Inner Dimensions: 27.5 x 12.63 x 13.75 inches
• Materials: Roto-molded linear low-density polyethylene plastic with Ecomate polyurethane foam insulation

Pros

• Extreme ice retention can last five days to over a week
• Sealing gasket
• IGBC-certified bear-resistant and includes placements for locks

Cons

For those among us who are looking for a cooler that can go and go, the Grizzly 75 Quart Cooler is about as rugged as its namesake. Manufacturing rugged coolers in Iowa, Grizzly is an American company specializing in reliability. The Grizzly is a powerhouse with ice retention that can last for well over a week in moderate conditions and most of a week, even in scorching desert settings. If you’re looking for an ice chest that will work for days angling on the Everglades, weeklong hunts in the mountains of Colorado, or months on the road in your van-life rig, this is the one.

Built of roto-molded plastic injected with a special non-VOC environmentally friendly polyurethane called Ecomate, the Grizzly is more sustainably minded and insulated than most of the competition. IGBC-certified grizzly resistant, the cooler is also remarkably rugged and closes with three latches; it also has padlock holes on each side (for real bear thwarting). A rubber gasket in the lid seals the deal.

Grizzly builds a cooler that really delivers longevity. It comes at an expensive price point, but it’s the best out there for those looking for a truly fortified cooling system that’s ready for weeks in the field.

Best value: Ninja FrostVault Cooler

Specs

• Weight: 29.01 pounds
• Outer Dimensions: 32.2 x 17.07 x 18.78 inches
• Capacity: 80 cans without ice

Pros

• Separate “Dry Zone” drawer that keeps items cool without getting them wet
• Solid performance
• Price

Cons

• Difficult to move when full

Note: Use code COOL10 and PopSci readers get 10% off.

There may be less expensive coolers than Ninja’s FrostVault, but none of them come close to offering the same level of performance or build quality. The company has succeeded in bringing features we’d expect from coolers twice the FrostVault’s price without cutting corners or sacrificing quality.

This 50Qt cooler has two chambers: a main one for drinks and a separate “Dry Zone” drawer for food or other items you don’t want to get wet. Coldness from the main chamber gets transferred to the Dry Zone, keeping it under 40 degrees Fahrenheit. In our experience, this dual-chamber design works really well and reminds us of the benefits of using on- and off-heat zones for grilling. We kept some sandwiches in the Dry Zone during a trip to the beach, and they weren’t soggy out by the time we got there. Meanwhile, our drinks—a couple dozen cans, two larger bottles—and ice were very cold.

The FrostVault kept our drinks cold for a couple of days when set on a porch during roughly 70-degree weather, which means it’s sufficient for use during multi-day parties. What impressed us most about the FrostVault cooler was its overall build quality. This cooler is solid and as well-built as other brands that quantify their gear as “bearproof.” That this is Ninja’s first large outdoor cooler makes the feat even more impressive.

If you’ve been mulling over getting a full-sized hard cooler but are afraid you can’t find a good one in your price range, Ninja’s