The Trail Split, Pack Away, AO 24 Pack, and the Maelstrom Backpack 35 all have traditional, user-friendly zippers and just the right amount of handy design elements and features. The AO and REI Pack Away are as easy to use as a simple duffel bag. The AO 24 features clips on the ends of the top zipper and a single long external pocket with plenty of space to bring along dry items and your favorite binoculars.
Justin Park is a Breckenridge, Colorado-based writer and videographer covering action sports, health & fitness, and the outdoors. From multi-day backpacking and hunting trips to simple road trips to weeks on Lake Powell in 100+ degree temperatures, he’s dependent on quality coolers in the field. He currently likes the Hydro Flask Day Escape 20L for quick road-tripping and the Yeti BackFlip for more serious cooling on the go. High-performance coolers from brands such as Yeti have raised the bar for what consumers expect from coolers—and what they expect to pay. Yes, it’s easy to get caught up in wanting the best, but being realistic about using your soft cooler can help you choose one that works for your intended uses. Coolers have come a long way since glorified bags that offer a few hours of chilling, but that now-quaint level of performance may be all you need.
While they’re not standardized measures, we have found that most cooler companies’ estimates of their cooling power are reasonably helpful for rough comparisons. A soft cooler that claims 24-hour ice retention is usually lighter duty than one that claims three days or more. You should never consider these numbers as performance guarantees, but as a crude spec to gauge where a cooler stands within the category, we find the estimates useful. Our major gripe with the Hydro Flask soft cooler is that it’s less comfortable to carry for long periods of time.
For coolers on the larger side (like the RoVR 30 versus the Fishpond Blizzard Soft Cooler) it’s key to have padding on the hand or shoulder straps for comfort while carrying a fully-loaded cooler. Soft coolers are ideal for shorter trips or when you don’t want to lug a heavy hard-sided cooler. Often much lighter, soft-sided coolers still promise to keep food and drinks cool for days, if needed.
However, taller coolers get trickier with access to buried items, so you have to be mindful when packing the cooler. We tested all of the accessories, and most enjoyed pulling clean, super cold ice out of the Icer to put directly into our lemonade while boogying to music all day outside. The SnackR containers were also great for pouring in fresh, chilled salsa and carrying sliced cheese. They were easy to slide in and stack on top of items inside the cooler.
At Custom Branding, we know how important it is to have your soft cooler keep everything perfectly chilled when you’re going from tailgate to picnic to the beach. The most airtight, temperature-regulated, and waterproof soft coolers boast burly zippers that take hand grease to open and close. A handful of brands even send you home with zipper lubricant, like RTIC and YETI. Between uses, you can clean the interior of a soft cooler with a sponge, lukewarm water, and standard dish soap. You can wipe down the exterior and zipper, too — don’t miss the feet and bottom, which touch ground surfaces.
This cute cooler carried and chilled several cans of microbrews and several sparkling waters. We also used it day-to-day on drives to bring along lunch, snacks, and beverages. We also wanted to pick a diverse list is prices, functions, and specialties. From igloo water cooler there, we purchased the best 30 coolers we could find to take to our lab in Brooklyn for testing. It’s tall enough for wine bottles and can carry about 18 cans with ice, but it’s not so big you hate to carry it, and it only weighs 3.6 pounds empty.