Just like most of the other Yeti products in this comparison, this one is also made out of 18/8 stainless steel. In other words, you won’t have to worry about the model’s durability – it will hold up in the wilderness. The construction is also BPA-free and features the so-called no-sweat design that keeps the user’s fingers dry.
While some brands will have the base of the “T” be what catches the pin, Ozark Trail has instead decided to have a hole in the middle of the latch that catches onto the pin. As is typical of most other cooler brands, the smaller coolers will utilize an overhead carrying handle while the larger coolers will stick to traditional side rope handles. We will go into more detail about the specific features later in this review. ozark trail canopy like the swamp cooler or evaporative cooler are a very economical way to cool a given space. Some sources say it is up to 1/8 of the cost to operate a comparable air conditioning unit, and around half the cost to purchase and install. It is very effective in arid climates or as a way to assist traditional air conditioning units.
That meant putting those manufacturer capacity claims to the test, and I wanted a better, more universal metric than just counting how many cans I could cram into each one. The performance of Magellan’s largest offering was very close to Cabela’s Polar Cap Equalizer. The lowest temperature recorded between the two in our cooling tests was less than a degree apart (44.6 vs. 45.5 degrees Fahrenheit). If your main use is for keeping things cold, then the question is whether or not that extra 0.9 degree is worth paying another hundred bucks for.
Heading into store allows you to look at the coolers, feel them, get an idea of sizing and really decide if this is the cooler you want to invest your money into. You can also head into your local Walmart store and see what stock they have of the Ozark Trail coolers there. The Ozark cooler is a much cheaper alternative to the Yeti, saving you hundreds, but it isn’t without it’s trade offs.
To be fair, my personal opinion is that all soft-sided coolers are bad choices. None of them get that cold, and they don’t hold their median temp for long at all. The prices range from $300 to $400 for the 60-, 80- and 100-quart models, and what you’re paying for is undoubtedly performance.
Oh, and if you’ll be spending lots of time camping in a place where bears are a concern, then you’ll probably want to invest in a bear-resistant cooler. The Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee keeps ozark trail cooler a running list of certified options, which includes a number of coolers from this rundown. Several of the models I’ve tested from Cabela’s, Orca, Rovr, Magellan Outdoors and Yeti all make the cut.
As far as color options go, you can purchase this in one of two colors, Greystone which is the one featured in this article and a lighter grey. The constant color feature among the two are the orange rimmed wheels which I don’t love but, it is not a deal breaker. In a sheer stroke of luck for this test, we are having a very aggressive heatwave in Southeast Michigan with temperatures around the 90’s during the day and staying in the 70’s overnight. I’m using my North facing deck as the staging area which receives direct sunlight at almost all hours of the day.
Ozark Trail is proving to be a really solid competitor for outdoor products. This cooler has a number of features that you would find on more expensive coolers and a few that you won’t find. There are a lot of roto-molded coolers on the market that are like Yeti but cheaper and many of them actually have even better ice retention than the ozark trail chair Yeti. With a mass of test data in hand showing us just how well these things perform, I’ve gone ahead and separated the winners from the also-rans. Walmart’s answer to Yeti’s popular product is a bottle that has many similarities with the aforementioned model – it also features an easy-to-carry handle and an overall sweat-free design.
Ozark Trail coolers are WalMart’s brand of cooler so naturally they will be sold in WalMart’s around the US as well as online. But there are also some other places you can buy them if you want. The Ozark cooler doesn’t have any tie down slots so you can’t do this. You would need to tie down the cooler over the lid or tie down the rope handles which is no where near as convenient. Yeti coolers have tie down slots on the side where you can tie down the cooler to your truck/car/van and still be able to open and close the lid. It’s important to note that you do need to lock the front of the cooler with a padlock in order for it to be bear resistant.