The 6 Best Coolers of 2023 Reviews by Wirecutter

If you would like to check out our larger overview of each product look right below these and you will see all of them in order of their overall ranking, from highest to lowest. Item prices do not include fees for pickup, shipping or delivery (if applicable) unless noted in the item description. Item prices may vary between online (for pickup, shipping or delivery) and in club.

Summer is just around the corner, and what better way to keep your drinks and food chilled than with an Igloo cooler? Head over to Walmart.com where you can snag a deal on a selection of Igloo coolers to keep things cool all summer long. Wirecutter is the product recommendation service from The New York Times. Our journalists combine independent research with (occasionally) over-the-top testing so you can make quick and confident buying decisions.

Anything smaller, and you end up carrying a lot of bag and not carrying much of anything else. There just isn’t enough room in those smaller sizes for them to be functional for anything except an individual lunch or a few drinks. Among hard coolers, a 70-quart size is big enough for a variety of tasks. Another example came up last year during a power outage, as one of our staff members was able to store most of the contents of a fridge in a 70-quart cooler, along with the necessary ice to keep it cold. And we always focus on providing you with long-lasting cold retention, the whole point of a cooler!

ROAM is primarily a rooftop tent manufacturer and well regarded among serious outdoor-goers like overlanders and those who like to get off the grid. But their foray into coolers hasn’t gone unnoticed, combining the ruggedness and utility that ROAM is known for with a myriad of functional features. And importantly, all these features are integrated nicely and have the same solid and confidence-inspiring feel as the rest of the aptly named Rugged. All of that is well and good, but what really sets the Igloo MaxCold apart is its outstanding level of performance. In my tests, I filled each cooler with 3 pounds of ice, then tracked their internal ambient temperatures on a minute-by-minute basis over 48 hours in a climate-controlled room set to 70 degrees Fahrenheit. Among all 12 of them — including four of those expensive, rotomolded coolers — the MaxCold finished in third place, managing to tie the $329 Bison Gen 2 and beating the $400 Rovr Rollr 60.

igloo ice chest

They have mobile, soft-sided products that are intended for office life and they have Super Tough STX coolers that are made to take a serious beating in the great outdoors. With such a large selection of coolers to choose from, it can be a bit overwhelming when you try to narrow your choices down. That is why we recommend checking out our thorough reviews to help this process.

Whether it’s finding great products or discovering helpful advice, we’ll help you get it right (the first time). Skip the Styrofoam next time you need a disposable cooler. The paper pulp of the Recool composts easily in the backyard, and it performs igloo electric cooler basically as well as any cheap single-use cooler. The handle and wheels on the Yeti Tundra Haul are the best we’ve come across. This cooler feels like you can roll it across anything without the handle straining or bending, or the wheels breaking.

No matter what your need is you will find an Igloo cooler that is right for you. You do not get a more fun cool than this limited-edition Star Wars cooler from Igloo. This is a cooler that will have everyone talking and you will smile every time you eat your lunch. After the cooler is warm empty the water and add your foil-wrapped meat into the cooler.

You can fit about 18 cans in this cooler and it only weighs about 2.2 pounds empty. This cooler has almost 10,000 reviews with almost 80% five-star ratings. Some reviews didn’t think it retained ice well but, in our experience, this is from putting ice in a cooler that was already hot. It needs to be cool so the cooler can function properly and keep that cool temperature locked inside. The IMX is a better cooler that is a more heavy-duty cooler, and you will find it to be more expensive.

Air bubbles that do not share cell walls and in effect stay insulated from one another are better at reducing the overall transfer of heat through the foam. Closed-cell foam is also much more expensive to produce than open-cell foam. The resulting product is strong and especially rigid feeling, and typically it weighs more than 1.7 pounds per cubic foot with more than 90% of its air cells closed to one another. Closed-cell foam is also water-impermeable—so it’s an ideal material for, say, surfers’ wetsuits. The Original is made with an exterior of 840-denier UV-resistant nylon wrapped around open-cell foam.

Even many of their larger plastic coolers are available in wheeled configurations. So for anybody who needs a cooling solution and anticipates being on the move quite a bit, they should look into what Igloo has to offer. Whether you’re headed to the beach, tailgating before your favorite sporting event, or camping in the wild, there’s a good chance you’ll want to keep your food and drinks cold. Thankfully, the market is packed with high-quality coolers that excel at everything from short day trips to week-long adventures. Below we break down our favorite hard-sided designs of 2023, including budget-friendly Coleman models, ultra-premium YETIs, and popular offerings from brands like RTIC, ORCA, Pelican, and more.