YETI alternatives?

[Landem]

RTIC I have soft sides, hard cooler, and cups. All are great products!

[njbasscat]

I have a RTIC 65 that works great for multi day trips and was much cheaper than a Yeti. The best cooler I own is a Engel soft cooler which is perfect for day trips.

[Moose720]

Be careful when you say these high end coolers are made in the USA. They get around this by producing a few in the USA to be able to say it. I manage a rotational molding company. There are well over 40 different brand rotomolded coolers out there. I get 3-4 calls a week about molding existing coolers or someone wanting to get into the cooler business. I almost can't get off the phone with them fast enough. They start off by complaining about poor quality and lead times. When I give them a price of more than what retail prices are, they freak out. They want quality, it has to be paid for. Most Yeti coolers are now made in the Philippines since they were bought out several years ago. Their two largest ones I believe are the only ones still made in America. They do have a few smaller coolers made in the states to say they are made here but majority of those smaller ones come from offshore. 90% of these coolers across all brands are produced off shore. There is no money to be made producing these coolers here in the states. I know where there are several cooler molds that are sitting on the shelf because a mold thought they could compete in that business (not here). As far as quality between the brands, it comes down to the raw materials being used and making sure the plastics is cooked correctly and the foam insulation is correct density. With that being said, to go look at one on the shelf, most will not know what to look for. My best advice is to close the lid on one and stand right in the center, do the same with the cooler turned up side down. If you hear a crack or popping noise that is the foam already delaminating and you do not want to buy it. Check over the gaskets. Best way to check these gaskets if possible is to buy a couple different brands or models of coolers. Fill with water close the lid and turn it upside down. One leaking the slowest has the best seal. Other than that pick which one that meets your needs as far as size, color, and name on the side. Just one more thing. Do a quick search of coolers being reported stolen. Would want $30 stolen from you or $300?

[Mizzou211]

RTIC.

^^^THIS^^^

[Sunkist]

I have a buddy looking for a large ice chest to take off shore on hunting. YETI price a little too steep for him. Any recommendations on quality alternatives?

How large? If over 160 quart he will be somewhat limited, but Yeti and a few others have some big boys for offshore.

[bhjr.]

https://engelcoolers.com/

[Bub]

While the roto molded coolers do work very well, they are also very heavy and usually pricey. If you need a large cooler, consider the Coleman Marine Extreme. I use that along side my Yeti and they both keep ice all weekend. One key thing to remember is no matter which cooler you get, you should always pre-chill when possible. If you know you're going to be using the cooler tomorrow, at least throw a couple of ice packs in it the night before.

https://www.google.com/search?q=cole...hrome&ie=UTF-8

[db220]

I have a lot of RTIC products and they are all great.

[goose pit]

My Lifetime cooler that we got from sams club has been awesome for us.

[Idaho Sandman]

RTIC and believe it or not, the Lifetime cooler at Walmart is a steal. There's several YouTube videos that show it keeping ice longer than a yeti and it's a 1/3 of the price.

The Lifetime is the absolute best bang for the buck. I actually like it better than the Yeti I sold. Myself and several buddies have all moved to the Lifetime series coolers from Yeti and Rtic. Same ice retention, bomber construction, way better latches that cam lock at a way better price point.

[Tinman90]

Lifetime brand coolers repeatably meet or beat yetis in long term testing as far ice keeping ice and at least than half the price

[JoshKeller]

I have a canyon and it's phenomenal

[marshman]

I have a Cordova, made in USA…. Couple years now… stays in the back of my truck.. works awesome..

[LTZ25]

Rec Tec coolers are butt ugly.

[fly by night]

The Coleman Extreme cooler works for me. I am sure it isn't the best but will surprise you how well it actually does.

[darryl1966]

just know none of them will hold ice like they say , YETI has said 5 days , it wont , it will hold the water that was once ice, several options now when it comes to Roto Molded coolers , even Walmart has thier brand now

[marshman]

Lifetime brand coolers repeatably meet or beat yetis in long term testing as far ice keeping ice and at least than half the price

I have a lifetime 55… warped and doesn’t seal…. I still have it but I never use it other than as a backup.. I replaced it with my Cordova, way way way better cooler..

[Tarheel14]

Look at A O coolers on Amazon. Have amazing products and great reviews. I just ordered my dad a cooler for Father's day.

[bilgerat]

I went into WallyMart a few weeks back to grab a pack of brass swivels, had no intention of spending more than $2.00 ... saw these stacked on a pallet in the middle of the aisle and figured why not ? ... I think they changed to a newer model and these were the last of the old style.


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[Milehibird]

just know none of them will hold ice like they say , YETI has said 5 days , it wont , it will hold the water that was once ice, several options now when it comes to Roto Molded coolers , even Walmart has thier brand now

On the contrary, both of my Yeti's have been used for camping. The first one was used on a 2 week trip. After 5 days not only did it still have ice, it was not all frozen together, nor was there a bunch of water in the bottom. I didn't have a single problem with it. Only reason I added ice after about a week was to make sure it stayed full, because where I was camping was an hour from town and I wanted to keep the cooler completely full.

The trick, like a previous post said, is to "pre-cool" the cooler. That applies to all coolers, frankly. I put about 30lbs of ice in that cooler 2 days before I left, and let it sit in my air conditioned house. Then just before I left, I put my food, drinks, etc. in it, topped it off with as much ice as I could fit and still close the lid. 2 days in, you would have thought I just filled it. It took literally 3 weeks after I refilled it for all the ice to melt.
I don't think that's just a Yeti thing though by any means, you can do it with any cooler and get longer life out of it. Heck, the coolers in my boat hold ice longer on the 2nd, 3rd, etc. day when I fish multiple days in a row.