I Cut the YETI Tundra 45 in Half and Discovered the TRUTH

After reviewing a bunch of 45-55 quart coolers, I found that the YETI Tundra 45 was the best in quality, but Igloo was the better budget pick.

Is the YETI Tundra 45 really worth the price? Nothing’s worse than buying a cooler only to find when it’s time to pack up and leave that the cooler isn’t big enough to fit all your supplies.

In this YETI Tundra 45 review, we’re going to break down every test we put this cooler through so at the end, you’ll know whether the Roadie is right for you.

0:00 Overview
0:28 Capacity
2:20 Insulation
3:33 Durability
4:20 Ease of Use
5:24 Features
5:59 Cut in Half
8:00 Compared to RTIC, Igloo, and Amazon
9:30 Should You Get the YETI Tundra 45?

#yeti #tundra45 #coolers

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[billcook]

I don’t care if it’s the greatest cooler in the history of the universe… I ain’t paying $300 for a cooler.

[Rollinjoints]

I was an insulator for yeti. Their standards are out of this world. We threw way more away than we kept when starting up at our factory. Even after we got the ball rolling we threw away a ridiculous amount because of quality control. The foam has to be perfect for the cooler to hit the shelf.

[Brunnen_Gee]

I started getting back into outdoor stuff a couple years ago after not doing much of it since the 80's and 90's. I absolutely choked when I saw what coolers are going for these days. It's absurd. _Especially_ when it comes to Yeti. No thanks, I'll just get a cheap Igloo or Ozark Trail. Those work just fine for me.

[chillwill]

I lined a cheap plastic storage container with 3" construction dense foam sheeting and spray foamed the lid of a cheap cooler and fit it perfectly in the middle of the insulated container. Used rubber door gasket material around the lip and rubber bungie cords to keep it closed tight. Damn ice was still half full after a 3 day camping trip in 100 degree weather. 😲

[HuggyBearHikes]

I have the Ozark Trail knock off. Packing the cooler for a campout by layering food and ice in layers worked best for me. I also don't place my cooler on the ground, instead resting it on four bricks and placing a light blanket over it to keep the sun off of it seems to help a lot to

[jmackinjersey]

The key to the Yeti insulation is the thickness is uniform. Just look at the profiles of the three next to one another. The fact that the Amazon has the thickest means absolutely nothing if it still has some of the thinnest wall. You are only as good or protected as the thinnest part of your walls. The other key to the Yeti is that their latches make the lid always have a super tight seal. their cleat style latch makes you pull the lid down tight every single time you close the lid and secure it.

[jamesfernick]

if you want a small but cheap alternative to a rotomolded cooler i have had success with buying a normal plastic coleman cooler of my choosing, and doing a simple mod,
just drill the inside in a few spots, inject spray foam between the plastic layers (like low expanding "great stuff" from home depot), and fill the holes with epoxy after, adding the layer of foam makes the ice last many times longer,

[ironKurgan]

Went camping with a friend and his wife last year. He had the Yeti and I have the Igloo, his cost almost 400 bucks and I paid 95 for mine. we both had 2 blocks of ice on the bottom and there was zero difference in ice melt after 3 days, both performed identically. Some company's will always go after the "Sucker born every minute crowd and Yeti has always been one of these company's. If you dont think so, well go buy one of their $400 cast iron fry pans.

[natcalverley]

I found a perfectly good large white Yeti floating in our lake after spring freshet. It did not have any markings on it so we kept it. This thing has been through hell and back and has teeth marks on it from a enraged black bear cub that got frustrated trying to open it .
They are a great product but am glad I never had to pay the price for it. Now that I own one if it were to be stolen I would gladly pay the price for a new one.
We also take this cooler on our blue water sailboat as it is great for keeping our food cold while defrosting our cruising fridge and freezer. They are old school and have to be manually defrosted.

[shimakatase]

I like how he says it's a 45 quart cooler when in fact yeti is quite deceitful and go by "model numbers" and the 45 isn't 45 quarts. As far as I know they are the only major brand that does this and it also makes this no surprise it performs better as it is smaller on the inside than every other cooler here so with 7lb of ice it has less of a area to cool.

[CF]

Thank you for the testing and the chopping up of these costly coolers. This really gives us great insight of how they are made although they're horribly expensive. I've been told that a decent foam cooler works almost as well.

[hack-_psn]

i actually returned my yeti after getting a walmart Ozark Trail 45. i did my own test with 20 lbs of ice and a 12 pk., ozark is grey and yeti was white and i set them in the direct sun last july. after 3 days the ozark trail still had ice and the yeti had no ice and the drink were not frosty, just kinda cold.

[johnsolas]

I owned Rtic, and now I own the 55 with wheels and now more of my friends are buying them, one it is cheaper, two temperature control last longer, I always take my old Rtic 45 fishing

[snipeslayer]

I have both a YETI and an RTIC cooler. Honestly most anyone would be fine with either. They are both excellent coolers and both have held ice for three days in my garage during the summer. The one plus I would give to RTIC is cost vs YETI. They run considerably cheaper than YETI, but if it performs worse than YETI it is not by a noticeable difference to most.

[bigtexuntex]

My coleman xtreme outperforms the same size class yeti, at 10% of the price. It is a smaller class than these in the video, but it fits perfectly behind my truck seat, so it is the correct size for my application. The coleman xtreme keeps 10 pounds of ice for a week, inside of a pickup truck in Austin during a week of 105º+ days (inside the truck it is 140º to 170º during the day and slowly cools to 89º just before sunrise). The comparable yeti keeps 10 pounds of ice for 4 days at 90º max, and costs 10 times more.

[estd]

At the 8:19 mark it is clear that each of the non-Yeti coolers has a place wherein the insulation is thinner: the Igloo on the bottom and the Amazon on the lower rear wall. The Yeti appears to be consistent thickness all the way around. I would not be surprised if that is a significant factor in the difference between the performance numbers. The thin Igloo floor is especially concerning because that surface is in direct contact with the floor. In a garage the concrete would be a massive reverse heatsink warming the bottom of the coolers.

[sungcha]

I gotta say I'm totally impressed with the professional temperature graphs, the scientific ladder experiment, and the exceptional cooler cutting skills; as for those Camel City Mill socks, they're awesome for keeping my feet totally dry and comfortable. Love the humor.

[mikelevine]

ICEY-TEK is the original Premium Rotomolded Cooler. Developed in the late 80s, hit the US in 1998. Engle started selling rotomold coolers in 2005. Yeti was 2006.

[mikem]

I use a Coleman marine cooler which is fine for a few days (2-3 days or more depending on how much ice is put in). Have you ever packed your burgers, dogs, steaks, etc... in a ziplock bag only to grab it and its filled with water? What I do is to use a smaller cooler (with thin sides) and place that in the big cooler. Place whatever I do not want to get wet in the smaller cooler along with freeze pack. Frozen items remain frozen for well over a day. The smaller cooler can be chilled in the fridge or freezer the night before.

[cavscout]

I use a Yeti on my boat in Arizona where it gets north of 120 in the summer. Best cooler I have owned.