Looking for new ice chests without the Yeti price?

Rtic.

Lifetime.

I kinda like their products.

Made in Utah I think.

I've got their small one and it's been great. Looked at their 115 model and was impressed, though it seemed a bit on the small side. I'd certainly take a look at it.

get yeti or it will be ScHIT, and you'll end up saving $100...not worth it.

Pffft.....

Was around a Yeti a month ago that I wouldn't have given $100 for, went through about 40# of ice in 48 hours.

Several buds have em and have the Walmart brand, Ozark Trail.

Not a nickles worth of difference and the guys with the Yetis will tell you that.

Lifetime is made right down the road from me, in Clearfield. I'm lucky that they have not one but TWO factory second outlet stores near me. They do not use the rotary molded method that Yeti and other MUCH higher brands use, but their products are right up there in quality, nonetheless. You will never be sorry you bought Lifetime.

I have 6 yeti coolers and you're completely full of SChit.

Yeah okay.

I know what I stuffed in it the first day, know what I had to put in it the next and know that when we got home at 1 o'clock on a Sunday there may have been 5# of ice left.

Never said they weren't a decent cooler, said they don't offer much in the way of being better than a lesser priced cooler and said there was one that went through a bunch of ice.

Possibly a reject but it didn't work worth a schii.tt.

I’ve been using a yeti for about 10 years. Except for being very heavy, it’s been a great ice chest. I haven’t tried the other better ice chests, so I’ll pass on commenting on them.

I have a smaller RTIC, and I don't like it. Very heavy, and does not hold much.

Have a Lifetime shown in link........

Mixed reviews on my part....

Heavy clumsy SOB

Fully loaded.......2 person job to get it in the Lexus

Handles are too fuggin' long

Paid $99 at WallyWorld

Yes made in Utah up near Rocky's place..my reason to buy

It's OK......pre cool it.....add extra ice....you might be OK

Yeti.....$300 plus ?

I'm a frugal fugger....

Pic......cooler in the Boulders at 10K' plus elevation.....not shown

works OK

PS..........this spot last mid September......

Fuggin bull elk........6-8 of 'em ....bugling all night long..water hole close by

https://www.lifetime.com/lifetime-90949g-55-quart-high-performance-cooler

Coleman Steel Belted.

If it was good enough for Pap and Grandpap........................it's good enough for me.

LIKE

Many 4-6 day comparisons on youtube.

Yeti has at least been matched, & beaten many times by others that cost less. Period.

All roto mold coolers are heavy, have minimal inside room compared to outside dimensions.

None are magic if opened several times a day, or even every day.

I’ve got a 65qt Rtic and you’re right, they are heavy even empty. Load the cooler after it’s in the vehicle if you can.
Best luck with a cooler is pre chilling it and the contents of course and 2/3rds ice, 1/3 contents. Doesn’t leave much room for contents.
I’d rather take two smaller coolers than one huge one. The experts on coolers are the extended trip River rafters, curious what they use.

I don't thing any other cooler manufacture could even come close to beating Yeti's advertising campaign.

It's like an Apple electronics product for cooler enthusiasts that are brand whores.

Canyon Coolers

it comes up on here and almost all other outdoor type forums EVERY frigging summer. the Yeti "challenge"

if you don't like yeti as a company, fine. you think they're overpriced, probably are. don't like the politics, I don't either.

Bottom line is this- you can spew all the crap you want about the above Yeti issues, and you can cheapskate your way through life, but if you want a quality cooler, you're not going to beat yeti.

go buy that wally world crap, or that off brand yeti knockoff stuff. maybe it will do you well. I Hope it does. I've done the tests, lived in Las Vegas, traveled the Arizona summers and now in South Alabama, Yeti can not be outdone, period.

if you live paycheck to paycheck, then you get what you can afford.

Calling out Sam O?

he's busy bailin' hay

There is more than a bit of evidence that WalMart brand stuff IS Yeti. Made in the same factory, by the same people, and with the same materials. Just different logo. At half or less the price.

Extreme coolers are heavy because they have thick walls and lots more insulation. Well, DUH! If you want lightweight, just put your food and ice in a cardboard box. See where that gets ya.

He was branding the other day, now hay?

Dude, I'm glad I'm not a farmer/rancher. We went for a drive in the hills, a 2 mile hike with the pups, more driving to new places we hadn't seen, met a dude who drew a coveted X zone tag here (so did his wife), found out where there might be some elk to see, and had a nice drive home.

I'm tired now, good thing I'm retired!

This is relatively impressive for home testing. Maybe after this one Canyon needs to send there stuff off to Consumer Reports or some other independent testers?

Keeping the one that worked best is a great idea:

IMO the biggest advantage Yeti has over the rotomolded competition (besides advertising) is the function and design of all the little things. The latch’s work better for me than any of the competition I have tried. The lid works better than the others. The handles and handle layout seem better. All that makes it more pleasant to use day in and day out than the others.

It’s about more than just ice retention. Heck, go buy enough styrofoam and packing tape and you can make a cooler that holds ice longer, but that isn’t all it is about. I am certain multiple brands can hold ice well and be strong, so it’s about how you like the cooler design.

Go away Boomer


🤣

Hard to beat a Engle cooler. Especially if you don't like any snags, and you don't want to deal with the rubber latches every time you open the lid. The metal latches have been bullet proof so far for us. We use Engle coolers to keep our bait in, and beat the he'll out of them commercial fishing.

Got a name of a small cooler that holds a lot?

My big rtic holds ice great.

ABY

Anything But Yeti.

Igloo

Been happy with that chineezy cooler I got from that guy on the classifieds a couple years ago.....,

Have a few, yeti, rtic, pelican. The rtic 65 is bigger than the yeti 65. The pelican is a monster, but works better than all of them.

I try to haul an elk 2000 miles one way every year. All of the above work fine.

The colemans I have are inferior.

Also, borrowed a 55 qt K2 from a buddy 8 years ago or so. It wasn't worth a crap.

Have Icey-tek,Rtic, yeti, Engel.
Icey-tek on the boat was probably the beat IMO.

Yeti is nothing special except to the retards that run huge decals on the back glass of their F-150’s.

None of the roto ice chest are worth what they cost.

Coleman Extreme 70.

“All of this grants the Xtreme series a 4.5/5 for quality and 4/5 for features.”

Pay your hundreds…..then keep paying for your ice. I’ve seen Yeti at work, bought ice for it before I needed it for the Coleman Extreme.

Me, too.

Going on week to 10 day long hunts in a national forest has given me lots of experience with lots of different ice chests. We go with a group of 6-10 guys every year and everyone has different brands of coolers, including myself. We typically bring as much ice as we can pack with us so we don't have to drive 15 miles each way to get ice or pay $3 per 10lb bag for it. I used to always use the Igloo or Coleman 120qt and 150qt. Then I bought my 1st Yeti 50qt and I really liked it. I have since acquired a Yeti 75, a K2 90 and a Pelican 65 on wheels. None of which I paid for. As far as holding ice it seems my Pelican does it the best. I have a buddy that has a mixture of Yeti's and Rtic's. They seem to be similar but the Yeti's do edge them out slightly when it comes to holding ice. The build quality of my K2 is significantly less and holds ice the least out of these 4. It is a little lighter than the others mentioned. We often sit or stand on the ice chests and the lids on the Pelican, Yeti and Rtic are all still flat and solid. The K2 lid is bowed so much so that I don't believe it seals 100% around the edges anymore. The K2 was won at a ducks unlimited banquet. If/when the time comes to replace it I would not purchase a K2 to replace it.

I still like using the 120qt and 150qt Igloo's and Coleman's as they are much lighter and easier to maneuver and they will hold a larger volume of ice versus a comparably sized Yeti etc. The problem is if you pack them full of ice and deer meat they can get busted up easily when loading/unloading them in and out of trucks/trailers with all of that weight in them. I've seen the handles get ripped off, lids, hinges and latches all break on them. I've also seen holes get busted in the bottoms of them. You don't have to worry about any of that with the Yeti's, Pelican's and Rtic's. They all take a beating like nothing ever happened. As far as best bang for your buck, Rtic will probably win out of the ones I have experience with as they are much less expensive that the other 2 and you aren't giving up much. The only down side to Rtic is they don't have a large selection of sizes and I don't think they make anything comparable to a 85qt. They do often runs sales and they sell and ship direct. Good luck with your purchase.

Yeti cooler guys are like Creedtards...that's what they have because they bought into the advertising B.S., and to them, everything gets is junk. Or they may have to claim it's "the best" because they're embarrassed that they paid twice what a cooler is worth.

I have about 4 of those, couple have 2-1/2” thick walls.

Use to do rental evictions, nearly every cleanout left me an ice chest. I’ve been able to sample many brands.

Pretty much all the same for 1-2 days’ use.

No worries on Tyrone Porkbone or Wally Methfingers stealing the Coleman or Igloo out of the bed.

I have a yeti 65...... it never leaves the bed of my work truck... osha says employers must provide water for employees, we have an ice machine at work and pallets of bottled water so no biggie if it doesn't hold ice that long.... it gets opened and closed 20-30 times a day. I like it because of how tuff it is.... I used to destroy regular ice chests every 6 months or so.... this one is going on 5 years without any issues.... looks like hell but still 100% functional and I expect to to just keep on going..... the other nice thing is if the latches do ever take a crap they are easy to replace.

And I have, brother is a Yeti fanatic, funny how he was buying ice today and I wasn’t. Seems like you need a better clientele.

Exactly why the Igloos go to the backcountry with me and not the Boomer Cooler.

Fuggin camp robbers ain't gettin' my Stainless Coleman Steel Belted!

98% screw up or try to screw you in the end. Doesn't matter what their pedigree said when you moved them in.

Do employers not use Igloo 5gal water coolers anymore?

Every employee has to get a separate plastic bottle every time they want a drink nowadays?

Igloo cooler, tap water, and a couple of trays of ice, maybe a sleeve of paper cups for the dummies that didn't bring a cup with them.

Sheesh and double sheesh.

China, and if you ever need warranty, they suck.

Glad I don’t deal with that Scchitt!

Same here

We used to, but it's just a pain in the azz.… we don't go by the yard every day....on the road, job sites scattered all over.... I could be 1.5 hours in any direction and the guys are all in heavy equipment on job sites that can be a couple hundred acres .... not like we are all working on a house and standing next to the cooler 👍

RTIC for me

my coleman extreme has won out over yeti and rtic 3 times when it comes to holding ice longer. i have one roto molded cooler that i payed 5.00 for at a yard sale. its a ozark from walmart and its no better than the coleman.

I ordered a load of steaks for a party here a year or two back. They were shipped in a heavy duty styrofoam container from Omaha Steaks. That cooler is incredible and large but not 85 quart.
When guiding I ice it up and it sure holds cold and weighs zilch.
I’ve got another on the way..and the great thing is for the price it comes full of super meat.

Osky

One year I went to our annual dove hunt and I loaded up a small 10 dollar cooler with drinks that were cold already and I filled it with cold ice out of my freezer. It was a cool morning and by noon all my ice was melted and my drinks were warm. All of the other guys had small rotomolded coolers and their drinks were surrounded by ice till dark that afternoon.
When I got home I ordered the small Orca not knowing my wife had ordered me a Yeti 35. As I have replaced my larger coolers I have bought Rotomolded. They do cost alot more but to me they are worth it. I don't expect I will ever have to replace them. They are a Lifetime investment that give top service.

I've got two Cabelas Polar Cap 80 qt. coolers I got with points/cash a long time ago. They have served me well and are pretty much tank built. Got them for the elk trips. Everything was still frozen solid on the trips back from Wilsall, Montana to West TN. Still functional but not used very often anymore.

Got a 40 qt. ORCA that I won in a raffle, it is pretty decent as well. I use it a lot.

I have what was probably the beta version of one of these Igloo coolers.
I think they were on the job working before Yeti was born.

It's got more air-miles, boat-miles and mule-miles on it than many of the posters here have.

It paid for it's self and done it's job.

That is all we used and still to this day in many cases. Drag them to the back of the tailgate and lean over as drank from the stream. The fancy trucks had a welded steel basket that held them by the cab and you didn't have to lean over as far.

I had a Lifetime. Gave it away. Ozark Trail is even better than it. Bought an ORCA, it works so much better.

What do you warranty on a rotomllded cooler?

Break a rubber latch? Lose a plug?

There is always that brilliant bit of advertising that some genius came up with (and that people have been falling for, hook, line, and sinker ever since): "You get what you pay for".

I use Yeti’s. I had a soft side Rtic that I used quite often until the seal around the top lid came unglued. It was out of warranty and the company said “nothing they could do, buy another one”. I’ve only paid full price for one of my Yeti’s. Picked up the others as gifts or at yard sales. The only issue I’ve had with my yeti 75 happened this year. A rubber handle broke. I use that cooler daily. Filled with ice water for my crew. It’ll hold water cold for 3-4 days with one bag of ice and lots of opening and closings. Yeti’s and the likes are heavy but they work! If you have to carry the cooler for any length of time I suggest purchasing wheels or a buggy to help save your back.
I had a Gander mtn brand that was the worst cooler I’ve ever owned. I think I sold it for $10 at a yard sale. Funny how lots of people are bashing the Yeti but it’s also the cooler that everyone in the business is comparing theirs to.

The zippers and seams on their soft coolers were a disaster.

Ole Ham Hands Barnard....

6.5 creedmoors are twice the price as everything else? Hating an inanimate object is weird.

Boomer?

100-quart CaterGater $214.99

Link

Phil

Somebody needs to invent a zipper that actually goes around corners.

And doesn't grab your foreskin!!

I have bojth a Yeti and an RTIC 65 quart. The RTIC holds ice much better than the Yeti, but both are heavy and overpriced for what they are. They will be the last of either brand I'll ever buy.

About an hour ago, totally staged pic.....lol

Sammo do you have a flat bill Yeti cap too?

Negative, and don't give me any ideas!

Given my recent experience I have to agree on the warranty.

I have probably a dozen coolers in the shed as we speak. Some of the newer roto molded and many old school and several flexible dry bag types.

Used to dry camp at lake powell in the summer for 2 weeks at a time multiple times per year. 100+ temps

My opinion is the newer heavy super insulated cooler are not all that because they come with a high price in dollars, weight and capacity to exterior size. That said for shorter trips with just the truck a yeti 45 is good but it weighs 35 pounds empty and capacity vs size still sucks.

Before these new types became availzble we learned that car floor mats(rubber bottom with carpet on top) under the cooler prevented rock damage and kept cold from bleeding out through the bottom into the ground. Then if outside a small silver tarp to keep sun off the cooler. These 2 things trippled the old school cooler ice retention. Add a chunk of dry ice and everything below it stays frozen and above stays cold. Keep it dry and dry ice lasts. The other thing if you have an rv fridge I cycle a couple of gatorade bottles from tne freezer into the cooler and my cooler stays dry inside and as long as I have lp to work the rv fridge the cooler stays cold.

So in my rv I mostly use the older coolers because they hold more for the size weight trade off.

Go buy an ARB cooler and forget about ever buying ice again, they are the bomb. And no more soggy samiches either.

Had to google it...

63 qrt. $1300.

That’s a lot of $2 trips to Twice the Ice....

Old Heads always bringin in the price of ice to they rationale

Hahahaha

Matlock comes on at 2 now, …nap time or Matlock. 🤣🤣🤣

I think the Magellan comes factory equipped with a rack in the top.

You would be surprised at how much room a 48 quart will hold without having to put so much ice in it. And I can have a popsicle on a 100 degree day if I want to.

I tend to freeze used V8 jugs, washed out milk jugs and freeze water bottles.

All of this lasts longer than ice but not worth a damn for ice cold beers.

Yeah they're cold but nothing like if they had been submerged in good cold ice w a little water.

As said above, ice doesn't last long in any of them if you have a 30 pack in there and the lid gets opened every 5 minutes.

I've got two RTIC 65 quarts. They've both been great but I agree about them being heavy and overpriced. I paid $199 for one of them and $139 for the other on sale and I think they're overpriced at that, no way I'd pay $350 or whatever they cost for a YETI, that's just stupid. I've been around plenty of YETI's and there's not one bit of difference.

One of mine is tan and the other white. The white one stays on my boat and the tan gets used for hunting trips. The white holds ice noticeably better than the tan, probably from the darker tan color absorbing more heat. If ice retention is important then buy white, no matter what brand you get.

I've gotta hand it to YETI's marketing guys, they've done wonders. They even manage to sell tumblers for $35 that are the exact same thing as the ones you can buy at Wal-mart for $9. They're geniuses.

Gift Ideas for our Sammo fellas!

Chip in together and get him a half dozen in different colors so he can dress proper for the occasion?

Pro tip- line your cooler with Reflectix, bottom and sides. Keep a double layer on top to loosely fit over your ice and cold items. You’ll be amazed at how well it works…with any cooler.

Seen that read it almost doubles ice retention in low cost chests.

Like I said before, so many have fallen for costlier is better.

If we don't fill a cooler completely full of food we try to lay a doubled up towel over whatever is in there and the frozen jugs.

See no reason to try to cool the top half if there is nothing in there.

Someone above mentioned putting a mat under the chest to keep cold from escaping into the ground. Yep, I keep a floor mat, something from Costco a few y ears back, in the truck in case of breakdowns on dirt/gravel/nasty scheidt, even on pavement. That goes under the chest when I get to camp. The top gets more insulating material, old sleeping bag, wool blanket, covered by a tarp.

And block ice and especially frozen jugs of water (grow up in a desert and you learn about emergency supplies of water). Dry ice for really long trips.

That reflectix stuff looks appropriate too.

Truth be known I have an admission to make.


There isn't a big fancy Yeti 110 iced down with some Silver Bullets.


Nope, not even an 85, or a 65.


Hell I don't even have 55, 45 or a 35.

Just a couple little entry level versions. And neither one has ever seen a cube of ice much less a cold beer.



Pretty damn sad I've led you all along like I'm some rich dude riding around on Yellowstone pulling ice cold mountain fresh IPA's from a big ass Yeti.

No they're nor geniuses, it's just that there are a hell of stupid, gullible people in the world.

Tell us about the ice packs you use.

I was walking through a Murdocks in Montana with a friend one day and they had a big azzed Yeti display setup.

I pointed out one of those wedge shaped soft Yeti coolers and told him when those came out I figured it'd finally be a Yeti I could afford but no, the damn things were $400.00!

Next day he stops by and hands me one.
He missed the point I was trying to make.

No way in hell would I've ever spent that kinda money on a insulated lunch-box.

Gotta say it's come in handy, I can bungee to the back rack on the motorbike for runs to the butcher shop.

It's seen a few beers too.

Free is always the best price.

This is disappointing. I'll cope, but bubble has been burst. It is almost like finding out Ingwe prefers cats.

Oh man oh. Man. ..

On America’s birthday you gotta break this to us??

10g, I just use the cheapo standard issue ice packs. Found a version that fits perfectly inside my Hopper 24. The cooler holds three 36oz bottles, lunch maybe a couple 18oz ice teas and the ice pack, a guy is good to go all day. I drink a chitload of water and hate to run out. That is the inside the cab cooler.



Jeff, yeah it's ridiculous. Thinking I was drunk when I ordered mine.....lol

For the next 4 months it lives by the front door. Out damn near everyday.





Longbob, Dave, it was difficult to admit but I can't live this lie any longer. It was time to come clean.

Nice to see someone who gets it.

Sam,

y'all need some boot trays there.

and that confession stuff does wonders sometimes.

I bet you feel a major weight lifted off your shoulders when you grab the Yeti on the way to work.

Waters and teas all pre chilled I assume?

Get cases of cheap water and freeze 48 bottle... refreeze the bottles over and over.

Get a cheap ass big cooler... doubles as a seat... meat/fish packer... throw away when worn out.

My $0.02 worth

We had to go to the bottled water also because the mexicans on the job site would open the igloo coolers and stick their energy drinks, gatorades, cokes etc in the coolers to keep them cold. They didn't give a [bleep] about the water in the cooler because it wasn't theirs.

I use a 28 quart Lifetime for beer drankin’. No complaints . Not sure of ratings but 24 pack and plenty of ice fits easy.

Bought at walmarks for eighty bucks I believe. The handle and latches are sturdy. It rides in my tractor bucket while bush hogging.

Yep.

I've come to the conclusion that we need a garage fridge.



You know, for the two of us...

They are handy as hell. Especially when buds come over.

Another RTIC fan here. Best bang for the buck, buy them on sale only.

I’ve got my ‘garage’ fridge (actually in the laundry) hooked up to water for the ice maker. Makes plenty of ice for the cooler.

Wasn’t clientele

I did Winston Wolfe type clean outs sometimes for Realtors and title/escrow companies.
Brokers wanted everything disappeared inside/out. Toss em a price $300-$1000 for a days’ work. Depending how nasty.

Often get shîtbird’s TA-50 gear after going AWOL, all of their household goods, gas cans, lawn mowers, junk cars. I’d hold in storage for 90 days, the big stuff.
A lot of groceries left non perishables, drop off at foodbank, student Baptist home at the college.
Seemed to always be camping gear, coolers, fishing gear.

I had a pelican cooler about 8 years ago and it worked very well on a two week road trip- ended up returning it as it had a leak at the drain plug. I don’t recall the exact size- but it was 80-90qt capacity. It was big and bulky. I didn’t care for the built in handles, as they stuck out more than I’d liked.

After returning it I was in the market for someone of similar capacity. At the time the options were limited. The offerings at Walmart were pathetic. One look at them and it’s obvious that the plastic was very thin and soft. I ended up with a Yeti 110, as it was the perfect outside dimension, and, ya know…. Iced down Silver bullets. Got a decent discount, which sealed the deal.

Since then there are many more options for similar sized coolers. I wouldn’t buy a yeti now. I also have an RTIC 45, which does everything I need it to. The RTIC 45 goes on smaller trips, and the YETI 110 goes on the longer trips.

Rotomolded coolers are real nice to have when ice is 30 minutes away.

I'm a professional fisherman in SE Texas. I've got Yeti, Rtic and Pelican coolers amongst all the typical Igloo type stuff.

The Pelicans are by far the best at "keeping ice", but are bulky and heavy. The Rtics are fairly light for their size and do pretty well. The Yetis are bulky, heavy and "ho hum" when it comes to performance. They do have cool cushioned seat tops though.o didn't buy any of them. They were all tournament prizes. I buy cheap Igloo or Coleman coolers.

Take that for what it's worth.

A Crown Royle cap is threaded exactly like a Pelican Cooler cap.

Pelican sent me a replacement cap without question- however it wasn’t the cap that was leaking. I don’t remember exactly where- but I recall a transition of some sort- and the leak seemed to be from a flaw in the mold itself.

I've had Pelicans tumble down the highway at 70mph without anything but scratches (and one broken latch). Damn things are three inches thick. I'm not pimping them, they're heavy as hell, but poorly made they ain't.

Couldn’t agree more. They’re built like brick sh*thouses.

Two of my brothers bought them based on my experience. Just a flaw in mine, and not loving the exposed handles. I lined the bottom with 4 blocks of ice, and two weeks later there was still 1/3 of those blocks left. In the wild at Yellowstone

sweet friendship poems that make you cry

Anybody run Big Frig? Got a bud that runs I'd say a 25qt and he raves about it. Probably cause he paid too much for it.