16 COOLER SHOWDOWN! | Best Coolers For Camping, Hunting and The Money

If you are looking for the best cooler for camping, the best hunting cooler, or the best coolers for the money, you've come to the right place. We put together an extensive cooler review testing 16 premium coolers to find the best hunting coolers, best camping coolers, best fishing coolers, and coolers that offer the best thermal retention. However, we put the most emphasis on thermal retention, because, let's face it.

Whether you are looking for the best hunting cooler, best cooler for camping, best cooler for fishing, of the best cooler for thermal retention, you buy a cooler to keep things cold. We didn't just test these coolers for how long they kept ice in them, but we tested every cooler in the same conditions, and set out to find which coolers kept an internal air temperature under the 40 degree mark (for safe meat storage), as well as holding internal air temperatures below 50 degrees, and finally how long each cooler lasted before all the ice melted.

Additionally, we measured the actual internal liquid volume of each and every cooler, to see if they were as big as advertised. While the best camping cooler may be a size range around 75-80 quarts, we found the best hunting coolers to be of the larger variety to store your wild game and make sure your meat doesn't spoil.

In this cooler review, we tested 16 of the best coolers money can buy, which included Yeti Coolers, Grizzly Coolers, Bison Coolers, Blue Coolers, RTIC Coolers, Orion Coolers, Pelican Coolers, Rugged Road Outdoors Coolers, ORCA Coolers.

Check out our other gear reviews:

00:00 Introduction
00:48 Parameters of test
02:25 Day 1 Results
03:03 Day 2 Results
03:50 Day 3 Results
04:51 Day 4 Results
06:10 Day 5 Results
07:01 Day 6 Results
08:22 Day 7 Results
09:31 Day 8 Results
10:31 Day 9 Results
11:06 And the winner is....
12:04 Rankings by size
12:59 What we learned

[breakingeighty]

As someone who does product reviews for a living, this is one of the most impressive vids I've seen in a long time. Can't believe it doesn't have more views. Nice work!

[joanngerrish]

This was so thorough, well-researched and well-presented! (Now I want a new cooler!)

[Qazwsxc]

Great review! This helps so much when researching cooler options and function. Thank you!

[jacobsmith]

Not often do I comment on videos, but awesome review and thanks for the info! Going to snag the grizzly 165 and the bison 125. Use one mainly for hunting, and the other for more general purposes..

My current yeti 45 & 65 does not cut the size needs for hunting. Great for a BBQ though.

For everyone reading, make sure you pre chill your coolers!

[joncavallo]

Excellent review and rundown on where to spend my money!😊 As usual, most if not all of your reviews on outdoor equipment are spot on!💯💥👍

[clintonstehman]

Out of curiosity I was wondering why Cordova didn’t make the test. My experience has been great with mine, and they’re local! Thanks for all of your hard work to produce these reviews!!

[carlosschad]

I love blue coolers also the color does have a effect on heat white coolers do the best get about half day of ice more over dark coolers.

[four-bid-denforestz]

Friggin awesome testing but the math aijt adding up here imo based off other tests ive seen and the disparity with at least the two pelicans. Did u check tonsee if the coolers in the middle areas of the tent faired better then the ones in the middle? I feel like being on the edge of the tent warning up from sunlight would be a big deal..

[jimrice]

I also read the related article. Wow, lots of effort and good data.  Some lack of controls and potential measurement inaccuracies, but this isn't a laboratory. Good enough for backyard work.

As expected, among a cohort of similarly constructed coolers with similar insulation thickness, larger coolers filled with a larger volume of ice tend to maintain temperature longer. No surprise there. However, your review did result in several significant surprises and some important points as it relates to the key outlier which really has me scratching my head...namely...

The extremely odd " > 40 degree " air temperature reading of the Orion 65, esp. in relation to the Yeti "75" which is in fact a true "75".  

I own a number of thermometers including two Garmin Bluetooth enabled devices. The difference between recorded temperatures among the Garmin's can be a couple of degrees. I have tested a range of other (non-blue tooth) thermometers for accuracy in boiling water and ice water and have found considerable variation.

Put another way, absent the anomalous >40 air temp. reading, it appears to me that the Orion performed the best among similar sized coolers and essentially matched the much larger Yeti "75" especially in consideration of the size diff. (which is quite an accomplishment).

No, I don't have a dog in the fight. I don't own a Yeti or an Orion. I do own a couple of Canyon Coolers. But I AM in the market for a cooler in the 55 - 80 range.

My theories for the cause of the anomaly, listed from most likely to less likely include:
1) The Orion had a bad air seal (far and away the most likely)
2) Variations between thermometers. Ideally they should have been calibrated at 40 and 50 degrees in advance. Yeah, I know, you sure don't need more work!
3) Measurement location / environment. Example, if the wood block was wet then more conuctive heat loss could flow through to the thermometer. If one wood block was further away from the ice, it could measure a warmer temp. etc. But the difference was HUGE so vertical location "probably" doesn't explain. Soaking of the wood might..
4) Location within the tent. I'm fairly certain that areas within the tent had significantly different microclimates. If one cooler was in a corner of the tent, and esp. if that corner was South facing, and if the cooler touched the outer fabric, then I would judge that cooler to likely be exposed to more heat than a cooler centrally located. (it looked to me like some cooler touched the walls and the Orion appeared to be in a corner). Also, north facing vs. South facing (the top of the tent likely is letting some focused solar radiation through.

Also, note that online resources list the Yeti 75 as having an actual capacity of almost exactly 75 qts (based on reference to Yeti's owners manual) - yup, one of the few Yeti coolers that are not smaller than advertised. Thus, the Yeti is in a much larger size class vs. the Orion (even based on the volume measurement by BP) and yet the Orion mostly kept up with it.

[andrewd]

Great review but you got to test the Cordova! Definitely top tier

[tgc.joshua]

Can we see a version with budget priced coolers lol I'm not in the financial position to pay around or over 200 for a cooler. I would greatly appreciate, and believe some others will as well, a video with budget friendly coolers. Thank you 🙏

[KBrissette]

Great video. I wonder if pre cooling makes any difference.

[gilbertcharles]

How is it 91.5 degrees At minute 2:34 but you wearing a jacket did it cool down randomly, or did you record this video in the winter?

[dcentral]

Good too see Yeti is facing competition which means consumers have various choices in superior products.

[SURFERGRLRAKM]

Can you please review a Skre cooler. As well as the new Ninja cooler with the bottom dry door. Thanks ☺️

[ronvosick]

No " Kong " or "Otterbox " coolers?
And should prechill water and coolers.

[kevins]

Rtic 52 ftw I was able to get 6 days out of mine half the price of the others

[rangerdanger]

I didn't see where you said how much ice you put in each and was it the same for all sizes? Looking at your chart, do you notice a pattern? Usually.... not always, the larger the capacity of ice, the longer it will last. That said, if you have 20lbs in a smaller cooler, it will last longer than 20lbs in a larger cooler. Air space is your enemy.

[TheTtacket]

Good review but the coolers closest to the walls would get more heat than the ones in the middle of the tent

[rodmanplastics-rpjg]

You guys can try our ESKY cooler！and we can customize cooler box.😘