The thick foam surrounding the entirety of your contents provides reliable insulation for an above-average amount of time. A single long opening makes it uncomplicated to load and easy to search. On the outside, a large zippered pocket provides a good amount of dry storage, and its duffel-style handles can be joined together for easy transportation. Its flexible shape allows you igloo soft cooler to fold it flat for storage (a unique feature that most of the competition can’t claim) and easily accommodates tall objects, such as 750 ml wine bottles. It has a lightly padded shoulder strap, but backpack-style straps would make lugging it around much easier. The Deep Freeze seems like it’s built to last, so you can expect to use it for years without needing to replace it.
If you’re looking for a less expensive backpack style cooler, the Maelstrom Backpack 35 is nearly half the price of the RTIC. This lightweight cooler was easy to carry with the padded messenger-style strap. You can also use the grab handles if you’d rather not sling it over your shoulder. It’s super durable, too, standing up to wear and tear while preventing water from seeping out.
For the ultimate in portability, soft-sided backpack-style coolers are the way to go. The designs borrow heavily from hiking daypacks, sharing features like shoulder straps, padded backpanels, and exterior pockets for added gear storage. Additionally, backpack coolers are fairly expensive considering their modest storage capacity and all-around performance (the Day Escape is pretty average in this category at $200). But if the approach to your favorite picnic spot or fishing hole involves walking more than a half mile or so, it may be worth the investment.
Though we didn’t see any major issues throughout our tests, we found the attachment points and zippers to be on the weaker side. With this in mind, the bag isn’t waterproof, and the zipper tends to leak. During our cleaning test, we had a bit of trouble with this backpack. The soft internal material tends to get soggy and needs extra time to dry out. All things considered, the bag is fairly inexpensive, so if you’re only needing the occasional soft cooler, this will do the trick.
Finally, we filled each of the soft coolers with soda cans to compare against the claimed carrying capacity. When compared to other soft coolers in our guide, a few design choices—like placement of the side handles under the hook point for the strap making it feel very cramped—knocked a few points off. When we lugged this Yeti around, we liked the feel of the handles and shoulder straps. The hitch points on the front allows for you to secure all sorts of gear within easy reach. By adding a fully supportive, weight-bearing waist belt, this cooler is ideal for relieving your shoulders when you need your cooler filled to the brim with delicious picnic provisions.