Do YETI products suck or is just me?

I like the idea of two smaller coolers, one of which gets opened much less often. But the insulating quality of smaller coolers having been discussed here and noted as poor (also my experience), I’m not sure I care for that idea. Shifting the day’s drinks and lunch-making to a smaller cooler, maybe even the soft-sided bag in the morning could be helpful, though, especially on hot-weather trips.

When I'm driving, my quilt is always over the cooler. Easy enough to leave it until last to move into the shelter.

About that opening frequently thing, The guide I learned about temperature loss is that every time you open the oven to check on the food, you lose 100º. It takes a while for the oven to get back up to temp. Applying that to a cooler, which has no way to get cold again other than the ice inside, you can see how much cold air loss one might get with frequent opening.

Say what? Marmie bought a $35 Yeti bottle?

You've gone full frappuccino hipster bro with a man bun. Your cred is shred.

I had a moment to kill this evening and popped into a Dick's Sporting Goods store to look at the coolers, inspired by this discussion.

I am literally dumbfounded at the cost of Yeti coolers. Not so much the big, hard-sided ones: they are very expensive, but "incrementally" more than the comparable models by other brands. But the relatively small, soft coolers? Jesus drinking gin from the cat dish. I literally can't believe what they cost.

I know that this is really preachy, and I try not to be that guy *too* often. But if you can afford to consider paying $300 for a small, soft-sided cooler, please consider buying a regular one, and giving the remaining $250 to a charity, arts organization, etc. Or buy yourself a tent or quilt instead, and give your old one to crawford 's organization.

(Descending now from high horse.)

Count me among those who wouldn't in this case, but I've sprung for a few luxuries.

In actual practice, by far our most frequent cooler use is salvaging refrigerator contents during winter power outages, roughly a week per year, sometimes more. Under those circumstances even a fancy cooler probably would have paid for itself several times over. (We use a polyethylene Coleman cooler from 1987.)

Apart from that, I'm too lazy to use a cooler for other purposes very often. They're big and unwieldy and usually need cleaning after use. Therefore I live on oatmeal and peanut butter sandwiches.

Whenever I use a cooler it somehow ends up with mud on it (or in it) somewhere. How it gets there is one of the mysteries of the universe.

I freeze water in Nalgene bottles. Use the melted water and refill with bought ice if needed.