Yeti Worth the money?
Elk
Contributors to this thread:
So I'm on my third Coleman cooler in 4 years. Pretty sure I've learned my lesson but so hard to spend $500 on a cooler!! Even though I have spent over $300 in the last 4 years and it's catching up to me. Question is this: I was looking at the Yetis originally and now they have some competition....Grizzly,Orca,Pelican, etc. Some of the other brands are a little less and some are actually a little more. Can anyone render an opinion on the above based one what you currently own? Looking to buy my last one. Thanks
Im in the same boat, costco had a 5 or 6 day cooler for almost $200 but it looked more like a 1.5day cooler, so not an option.
I have 1 yeti and 2 pelicans of different sizes. They will all keep ice for days if you keep them in the shade or cover them with something and don't open them much. If they are the drink cooler then not so much. Pelican and Grizzly have the lifetime warranty where Yeti has a 5 yr. I like the Pelicans the best for the room inside.
Also look at K2's and new one made in America (only one I know of) is Orca!
Just wandering, what in he world do you fellas do that tear up coolers so quick? God Bless
You must beat the crap out of your colemans....lol.
I have had the same 5 day coleman for years. Just can't justify the cost for the high end coolers. I'll just keep buying $70 colemans. I have had really good luck keeping ice, so from that regard, I think they are good. I have other things to spend $400 on.
That said I have done some research and like a couple of others have said, there may be better options, although you don't get the cool sticker to put on your truck.
I just bought my third yeti all of different sizes, I I believe they are a good vale when you factor in performance and longevity and lack of maintenance.
I can't figure out how a person would tear up that many coolers? If they are used everyday and moved from vehicle to vehicle by other folks maybe. My personal coolers I've had for years and never tore one up so bad it couldn't be used. I just got a 70qt Coleman Extreme and used it on a trip to the mountains. I used 3 Cooler Shock frozen packs and a gallon milk jug frozen and kept food cold from thursday morning to sunday morning. Never added a piece if ice at anytime.
Catering jobs and employees will kill a cooler fast. I had an employee use a cooler to keep a 550 degree over door closed! He broke the door and ruined a new cooler to try to hide the door! Didn't understand how he fired himself! Colemans won't hold ice as long as high end coolers.
Tearing up a cooler has never been much of an issue for me.
The high end coolers sure are nice. Fear of theft has kept me from the investment.
I've use the same coleman extremes for 10 years. I have 3 or 4 different sizes. Even flown them full of salmon back from AK a couple times. I'm SURE the Yeti's are very nice, but the coleman extremes (unless they've cheapend them since I purchased) are are a great value. If you are trashing them every year, then I'd say it's time to drop some cash and move up to the big boys (Yeti, etc).
I would certainly agree that if you were using them commercially they would be a good investment. My employees beat the crap out of everything we give them to use, from brooms to forklifts...to the building itself.
I talked to a charter captain about his Yeti cooler and asked if it was worth the money. What he said maid a lot of since. If your buying thousands of dollars of ice a year they will save you a lot of money because they do keep ice for days longer.
Joey, That is another thing I like about the Pelican brand is they are going to need cable cutters or a saw to get it because they have actual handle on them instead of a rope.
Check out Engel Coolers also. I have 2 and they sure are nice. They are the only high end cooler I've had experience with.
I have 2 Yeti's and it's nice not having to run for ice on a 2 week elk hunt.
I don't have any experience with keeping ice in one of the high end coolers, but if the Yeti cups are any indication.........I happened to find one that had been left behind and haven't found the owner. I had no idea what it was. My son says, that's a Yeti....Those things are great. Anyhoo, I washed it up and my daughter has been using it to carry water for volleyball practice. She filled it with ice and water....I think it's 32 oz......Three days later, with it in her car, I pulled it out and to my surprise it still had plenty of ice in it. Temps have been running in the upper 90s here. Had to be much higher in her car...I can tell you, THAT impressed the heck out of me.
I've used an Icey-Tek in the past that did pretty well. I think holding the ice longer is a bonus, but durability is the biggest factor to consider for me.
The biggest thing with keeping ice is opening and closing the lid. You should use two coolers, one to store things long term and another for your quick access items.
Just do a Youtube search of the comparisons between Yeti and others...I personally can't see spending the "extra" after watching those.
Here's my advice to guys.
If you are going to use the cooler A LOT and you need something that can take a beating then it's worth the money - aka BigPizza is a prefect example.
If you are only using to transport animals once in a while and maybe a picnic or two then stick with the Coleman 5 Day kind because it's all you really need. I have used mine to ship meat back via UPS and airlines and they are still working well!
All that said if you have money to blow and want a great durable cooler then go for it. Rarely to you go wrong with buying the best quality.
My buddies who have offshore boats have these because of the beating they take on the seas plus the weight is critical so it's not all over the place.
I've seen some studies showing that Yeti doesn't really hold ice longer than the others but I've never used one. I have 2 colemans. One is 30 years old and Ive never had a problem.
Before I bought a new Coleman Extreme last month I did as sitO suggested. I watched every youtube video and test you could imagine. Lots of factors go into keeping ice. Having everything going into the cooler prechilled and even the internal cooler temps chilled before loading it. Heck even the temp of the ice going in is a huge factor. I've seen ice that is barely cold enough to stay in a solid form and then ice that rock solid. It makes a huge difference as to how long it actually holds ice. If you put room temp water or food into a cooler fresh out of the garage with barely frozen ice no cooler will work.
I have used the cheaper igloos and colemans for a while with no issues. One thing to look at is a lot of the cheaper coolers is that a lot of the lids are not as insulated, I drill a couple of holes and fill them with spray foam. Also use solid block ice instead of bags of smaller cubed ice. I use trays and fill and freeze. 5'thick, 10x10 tray and slack them in the cooler. Usually but one to two bags of ice to fill in the gaps. We leave ms with and ice and never have to refill until we come home. We do leave them in the shade so that helps too
" Colemans won't hold ice as long as high end coolers."
Not true.
Check out the unbiased cooler tests on YouTube and the Coleman Extreme holds ice just as well as the Yeti.
I justified my Yeti 65 because it can double as a casting platform on the front deck of my boat. It does do a good job keeping ice but heavy duty means it's heavy (even empty).
I've have some Colemans that have been back and forth to Montana for 15 years straight, sometimes driving, sometimes as checked baggage, and sometimes UPS'd and they are still in good shape.
The Yeti Tumbler like J. Ward was talking about however is a must have. I hate luke warm coffee. It will keep coffee HOT for hours.
(FWIW, the Yeti hats do not keep your head any cooler than a standard hat)
Good luck to everyone this season!
Paladin
All depends on whose money you're talking about..
Yours? Sure!
Mine? Probably not.
Guys this has NOTHING to do with how long it holds ice.
If that was the barometer then NO you shouldn't buy a Yeti.
You buy a Yeti for the same reason you buy an off-road truck vs. a standard SUV. Both can take you off-road but one will take you much deeper.
You buy a Yeti (or any like) because you need something that can take a beating over and over again.
I love my Coleman Extremes for certain things but if I was offshore fishing I wouldn't.
Absolutely worth it. I also tear coolers up and going on my 6th year with a 50 qt and as solid as the day I got it. Definitely holds ice better than any Coleman I have every had. The rubber gasket seal around the top is one of the main reasons. If you compare two new ones side by side, it probably doesn't make that much difference on the ice. But the plastic on the colemans warps over time and doesn't seal as well (Texas heat?), letting hot in/cold out.
You can usually find used Yetis on Craigslist for $100-150 off retail. Bought a 250 qt Yeti that way for $300 less than retail
That said, I think any of the clones: grizzly, pelican, etc would works well too. Plus those brands occasionally go on sale. Yeti almost never does
TXHunter hope all is well!!!
I'm still wandering how a person not trusting their gear to non-caring employees goes through a Coleman cooler every year. Here is why.
I just loaded up my new Coleman extreme on Memorial Day weekend. Set it on the tailgate and MEANT to tie it up against the other gear before pulling out Notice I said MEANT. It stayed put for about 8 miles. Until I shot the gas to the truck and slid it off the tailgate at about 60 MPH. It did bust one of the handles but, I imagine if 70 pounds of me hit the asphalt from 3.5 feet up doing 60 mph, my handle would have busted too. I'm still using it. It held ice from the 18th to the 22nd of July, in 95 degree heat, in Front Royal VA a few weeks ago. It'll work. Just a little harder to carry now. God Bless
For those of us that don't routinely take a sledgehammer to our coolers, I personally don't think a Yeti is worth the bank.
I bought a Yeti so I'd never have to buy another cooler. And then they came out with that cool blue one and I had to have it. And then the Yeti hopper. Who couldn't? And then the coffee mug. I hate cold coffee.
Honestly, I've got one 50qt that was a Christmas present. My wife tries to belittle it because she throws a case of hot soda and a bag of ice in and expects magic to happen. One day, it's gonna crunch down on her fingers and she'll think magic!
Now that I think about it, I've got a coleman that I've had for 20 years already and I don't expect to be around for more than another 20 years. Another Coleman would have sufficed. What was Santa thinking?
Ok, so I was in the same predicament you are in now, so I did a lot of research. I ended up buying a pelican and here is why.
Yeti is the most publicized so originally that was going to be my first choice but when I dug a little deeper here is the facts I discovered.
Yeti only has a 5 year warranty and Pelican has a lifetime.
Yeti is also deceiving in its advertising. They are the only cooler I know of that has models like 65, 75, 95, etc. but those numbers aren't the actual quarts it holds, there just model numbers. The quarts it holds are quite a bit less than that number. So your paying more money for less quarts and less of a warranty.
I would absolutely go with either Pelican or Grizzly.
Just an FYI, the review from sportsman warehouse I did had the Grizzly and Pelican at 13 days ice and the Yeti at 11
Sorry correction, I did not do the review I just read it.
Another mistype. Sportsman news, not sportsman's warehouse.
Tony, just FYI...there is an "Edit" button atop each of your post's to the right, next to the red|black Alert|Editor button. Click on it and you can always edit your first post.
Here is a pretty good link:
http://thebestcooler.com/
I am wondering what happened to your three coolers in the last 4 years? What broke, and how?
I have a Yeti cup, and if it is any indication of how well they hold temps, I will be buying a Yeti cooler soon as well. I can leave cold iced tea in this thing, in the car, for 5-6 hours while fishing on a hot day (85+) and come back to a nice cold drink. It is my current 'favorite thing'...
Higher end coolers can certainly be worth it. There is a good comparison on rokslide right now.
I had a customer that had a Yeti in the back of his truck behind his 5th wheel hitch. Somehow his 38' 5th wheel came out of the hitch, and landed on the Yeti cooler. It didn't break, didn't even bend enough for the 5th wheel to make contact with the truck bed rails. I'm sure he thought it was worth the money at that point. Either way I was impressed.
Camped last weekend. 1 midsize Yeti- the tan one. 4 coolers of different makes igloo Coleman etc etc. $35 (9 bags) in ice during the 85-90 deg. Weekend. The Yeti we added 1/4 of a bag. There may be others just as good. If they are buy them. The Yeti as we discovered IS worth the $, in the long run.
It depends on what you're using it for IMHO. If I'm camping I an buy A LOT of ice for the extra couple hundred dollars.
What I get a kick out of is how they brag that they're roto molded like a kayak. I can buy a 12' kayak for half the money LOL!
I bought a Yeti 35 and 45 at an auction last year, paid $150 for both of them. Not sure I would pay full price for them. They are nice, and I love taking them fishing/camping, but my 120qt. raggedy old coleman still cant be beat to hold game easily. Ive thought about modifying my old coleman with foam insulation or something, it simply doesnt hold ice at all, maybe a day tops.
I really like my pelican. It is 150 quarts I believe and picked it up at a yard sale for $100. Something about a no good husband, also bought a scanoe(coleman canoe) for $50 bucks at same sale. The pelican when used with block ice and stored in the shade and opened only once or twice a day will keep ice for ten days before it all melts. That said I have an old coleman from 1984, that was part of a camping package my Mom and Dad bought for me as well as a Camel 3 man tent. I still have that too. This old coleman will keep block ice for a week, again if stored in a cool place and not opened but once or twice a day. The coleman was 9 dollars way back than and other than the drain plug having been replaced with a cork it is still in fine shape. Those two coolers will be going to Kansas with me this year and hopefully bringing back my venison. I myself would look at the 95 quart pelican as a good all around size. I know several people with the Yeti's and they are completely satisfied but the Pelican's warranty is better. Shawn
Bottom line is some people use a bushnell scope and some use a Ziess. Some look through Burris binocs and some look through Swarowskis.
If you have the coin, the Yeti type cooler is definitely worth it and you won't regret it.
Who says? Enough Independent testing doesn't say it is better in any aspect, versus a good extreme cooler, with the exception of being abused. And, I did say abused. You can't tear stuff up at the rate people complain of tearing up cheaper coolers unless you are abusing it. Anything you own can be tore up if used incorrectly. And, coolers are no exception.
The "coin" isn't the problem either. Some people don't need a tank to protect their ice and food, while others obviously need an armed guard. We have choices and, that is awesome. I love them. But, if you treat any of the "better" brands the same way you treated your Coleman, you will tear it up in time. Whether that Cost/benefit is right for the consumer depends on the consumer. But, holding ice in the same conditions is not where any of the higher branded coolers win out. That has been tested to death and, mimics what everyone that has owned both have found.
So, the question remains. Which is better and, are they worth the "coin"? Well, I guess that depends on the user and what they intend to do with it. If i ever find the need to abuse a cooler than I'll probably buy one. Until than, I just stick to what works for ME and fits under the normal guidelines of cooler use. God Bless
I was in store a couple of weeks ago and notice some of the larger coolers. Either a YETI or Grizzly. Not sure which because after looking at the $800+ sale price I wasn't even interested.
Heck! I can buy a brand new 7CF freezer and a generator to run it for less than that!
Absolutely worth every penny if you are in a part of he country where ice is $5 a pound.
Hi, my name is David, and I abuse coolers.
I throw them in the back of pickup and shove other things up against them. I throw heavy stuff on top of them. I drive over steep/rough mountain roads without tying them in place. I leave them outside in the 100+ Texas heat. I sit on them. I open the lids without thinking about the cheap hinges and latches.etc, etc, etc
However, I have treated the Yeti I have in the same way for about 6 years and it is solid as the day I first got it.
So I could either enter a 12 step program for cooler treatment, or keep my Yeti. Hmmmm.
I had the same thoughts when I bought my tundra 65 and after putting it to the test I now own the roadie , 35,65,110, hopper 35 and the coffee cup , and koozie. Need I say more? I've never been so impressed with a product. You can replace every part and they're indestructable. Only thing is depending on what size you get they can be pretty damn heavy. I don't even take the 110 off my boat anymore too much to carry that thing around
I have 3 Coleman Extreme 5 day coolers. The oldest one is the best. Thick walls, thick lid. The other two suck. I found some YouTube videos where guys were "Yetifying" them. I lined the inside of my 70qt one with 1" foam insulation board and covered it with aluminum duct tape. My yes was with a milk jug of ice. Kept it for over 72 hours in 80 plus degree heat. Probably doubled the efficiency.
I have a handful of coolers, including a Yeti, a Pelican, and a few Igloo Sportsmans. The Igloo isn't anywhere near the same league as the roto-molded coolers like Yeti and Pelican. If a piece can break on the Igloos, it has -- hinges, latches, handles, you name it.
That being said, the Igloos have their place in the rotation. The weight to cooler space ratio is where they excel. When I go elk hunting, they are my cooler of choice for transporting any elk because they offer lots of cooler space in a smaller footprint. The Yetis are pretty damn heavy and it's not practical to take two or three to transport an animal imo.
I use my Yeti to store my drinks and food and ice and that's where it excels. I don't want to be moving it much and don't rely on it to pack out an elk. I have the 110 and its heavy enough as is when it's empty!
what do you guys do to tear up them coolers..... lets see what I have done,,,,,, dropped them off the truck, back up into two of them, one fell off the 4 wheeler into a canyon, one fell out of the boat in Lake Michigan, when no one was watching,,,,,,,,,,,, ha hha ha
I have replace hinges on the Igloo's..... to me the Yeti does not hold enough meat, I am sure its great, but I know I would wreck one of them also, some how.......
Fwiw- we don't use the yeti for fish or game. Unless it's processed. The first guy putting a fish in this yeti will end up in there with it!:)
We have longer cheaper coolers for fish and game.
Weight is the only thing they have a problem with. However, at least the weight doesn't go up as much as the capacity.
35- 20lbs 65- 29 lbs 125- 48 lbs 250- 70 lbs
I don't think many people are going to try and move a full 250 without unloading it, but even a light 250 would be really heavy full. Pretty much have to unload them unless you have lots of strong help.
However, the weight and the no slide feet are nice once you get them where you want them. They don't slide/move and they don't tip over
As far as holding enough meat, you just have to buy a bigger one! Although someone pointed out that the Yetis are not really as big as the "number" would imply. I measured my 250 yeti and it actually has around 235 qts. Seems like the other brands actually have as much space as they say, so if you wanted a 150 qt, you might be better going with a grizzly/pelican.
Metikki, isn't that kind of like putting a lift and mud tires on a 4 wheel drive truck, only to drive it to wal-mart?
Yep, the most valuable items I put in my coolers are fish and game.
Rut- currently our yeti protects the most important items-food and water. Now should we go elk huntin that may change. Last weekend we added a 1/4 bag of ice. To make room we had to break up the ice that was in there- it was frozen solid. After nearly 2 days the ice was frozen. The cooler frankly isn't big enough for an elk quarter nor a 10 lb walleye.
FWIW- my F150 has a 2-1/2" leveling kit with 32" Dynapros. Never had it off road but if it's necessary, it equipped:)
I use Igloo marine coolers which do extremely well. They keep things frozen or cold for a long time. I take good care of my stuff.
I also have a Yeti cooler that is at least 150 quarts. I bought it from a guy who bought it new to take on an elk hunt. He never saw an elk and the cooler was never used. I bought it for either $100 or $150. It does very well. I have tricks to keep things cold, so is the yeti better? Yes, but I would never pay full price.
Fill bottles with reverse osmosis drinking water and freeze. The bottles of water as ice to keep things cold. As it melts you have great drinking water. keep your cooler full, put in clothing or towels to fill openings. Use block ice. Put all frozen stuff together in a cooler with ice on top. Always put ice on top. Cold sinks. Do not open the cooler with frozen stuff unless you know what to get. Get in and out quick. Fill the vacancy.use duct tape to seal the cooler. Keep your cooler in the shade and covered. Be careful where you load coolers in vehicles - in a pickup bed over the exhaust? My dads truck put out heat from the transmission that radiated back along the drive shaft so we split loads with opening down the middle of the bed.
Have a cooler for drinks and other stuff that you want to access frequently. Don't expect much out of it.
Prechill or prefreeze everything. Don't add warm stuff except to your drink cooler, but you will need to add ice too.
Pack a cooler of just ice and rely on it late in your trip.do all the tips to keep it cool and you will have ice late in the trip. Like maybe to ice down a deer or elk or antelope.
Think about what you are doing. Spending $600 on a cooler to save $20 of ice isn't the plan. What is the plan is that if you can save ice, you can ice down your game properly at the right time at a remote location saving yourself maybe a 4 hour round trip drive - even if they have ice available and at what crazy price. That keeps you hunting, in the game, saves your own energy for hunting, and saves truck fuel which may also be scarce and u may be hauling in fuel.
And it gives tremendous personal satisfaction in being self reliant and taking care of yourself in a good way.
Try some of these tips. Sorry too tired to make it neater
Best wishes.
I've got a 140 qt Orca cooler that I used in Arizona last fall. I froze water bottles prior to leaving and after 17 days out in the wild they still were half frozen. I would consider that worth the cost. Plus, I picked the cooler up at half cost.
A Yeti cooler large enough to hold adequate food & drink along with ice is extremely heavy. The cooler alone is heavy. When you open a Yeti cooler the storage space is disappointing. I to have had a Coleman cooler for about 15 years, no problem with quality or performance.
Yikes.......I didn't know this was such a controversial topic. Seems like I hit a nerve on people with disposable income or something. At any rate, thanks for all the opinions both pro and con. That's what I was looking for. I wasn't having any issues with keeping ice, that's easy to fix. However when the hinges break, or the plug falls apart, or your cooler isn't "bear proof" and your in the field for a week or more......a nice cooler seems like a bargain, whatever the cost. Kind of like when your freezing your ass off in a tree stand.....if someone could walk up and offer you warmth right on the spot, what would you pay for it in that moment? Or when you feet are killing you cause you didn't buy the best boots you could afford....what would you pay for those same boots in that moment in the field? Interesting thought right? I always thing about that when I'm wet, cold or hungry and I had the opportunity to solve that before it was a problem but was too cheap to do it. The price you pay for cheap stuff will end up getting you in the long run. AKA....I've spent almost enough money already to buy a good cooler, yet I still need to buy another one and in the meantime the whole time I owned the others they all caused headache for me at some point on a trip. Should have bought it once. It's been said on this site and many others "buy the best you can afford" and that's probably the best way to look at it. Regardless of what your personal net worth is or what you think is reasonable to pay for something it's all relative to each of our own circumstances. A nice cooler, boots, bow, or pack won't put an animal on the ground but if you can afford them.....they make things more comfortable while your doing it.
We're really close to the season, hope all of you are ready and best of luck to everyone. Looking forward to your pics and posts of success soon. THANKS!!
Hunt and fish all across the country. I have three coolers and my yeti. Even though the yeti is heavy when filled up I never grab any of the others ever. I have been through so many coolers in my life with my business I do not want to take a chance of something breaking while on an Elk trip (how many lids on a Coleman have you all had break or the closing tabs). When going on Big trips I fill her up with food and drinks Ice her down and then the last town before camp I drain and re ice her. Ice seems to last forever even in June on a 5 day outing and it was 90+ degrees with two kiddos always grabbing drinks. I think the drain and second Ice down is the key for us. To me it is never about the price of the ice, it is more about having it there when things need to be cooled down.
Yeti, K2 or whatever high end cooler. People seem to forget 2 very important things on performance:
1) If you open it frequently to get a drink out it doesn't really matter how good the cooler is; you're defeating the purpose of good insulation when you open and let warm air inside. High end coolers only differentiate themselves on ice retention if you leave them shut for a while
2) The same properties that make a high end cooler retain ice longer makes them a bad option for using if you let it stay in your 85 degree garage before use. It will eat a bag (or 3 depending on the size of the cooler) to cool the inside of the cooler down. After that it starts being a good cooler. But the great insulation components of it make it hard to cool down initially. So they're bad options to grab in the morning, throw a few ice packs in and run down to your hunting property for the day. A cheap cooler is better for that.
I just bought a 35 qt Pelican cooler off Amazon shipped to my door for $200 less than a Yeti. I think yeti is a good cooler but if you shop around it seems like there are better deals to be found on other top brands. Plus the Pelican has a lifetime warranty and its made in the USA.
Downside of Yeti: price, weight and actual storage capacity relative to the size/footprint of the cooler.
Upside: they work.
I own one midsize yeti that I received as a gift but for weekend trips especially if I'm alone I use a Polar Bear soft side which is a good price, light weight and is amazingly efficient at keeping stuff cold.
As Candor said, pre-chilling any cooler makes it work much better.
Yeti do not hold ice any longer than any of the others and there are youtube videos to show it.
My wife has a Yeti drinking cup. She puts ice in it with her drink at 9:00 am. When I leave for work the next morning at 6:00 am there is still ice in the cup.
One word, No....well a few more...RTIC
sbschindler's Link
Not sure this was a fair test. The cheaper coolers will get the insulation to cold quicker than the high end coolers. Therefore they use less ice in the first 24 hours to reach "cold". The better and thicker the insulation, the more ice it will use up to get the cooler cold.
The most fair test would be if they put a bag in the cooler overnight, then dump that and fill each cooler. You could make an argument that most people won't do that in the real world and that is true, but I can tell you that when I re-ad ice to my Yeti, it keeps ice better than it would indicate with that "test".
Add that to the fact that with time in the back of my truck or in my garage in Texas heat garage, they cheaper coolers don't seal as well, whereas the rubber gasket around the top end of my yeti is still fine.
Not to mention this cooler will be servicing me for probably decades to come.
Anyone check out the RTIC coolers?https://www.rticcoolers.com/
If the high end coolers take longer to get cold due to having more insulation, they will hold the cold longer after getting there due to the thicker insulation. It is pretty simple physics. God Bless
Exactly! I would like to see a comparison using that knowledge
http://yeticoolers.com/pages/maximizing-ice-retention/
It's called common sense. And, taking an unbiased look at things. The Yeti info applies to all coolers and does nothing to verify what you think is a "more fair test". Besides, I thought the idea was to buy less ice versus more to make it work better?
These type tests have been repeated many times and can be linked on the web to verify Yeti's do not hold ice much, if any longer than a cooler that costs $350 less. According to the last link, it looked to me to have less ice than all but the Igloo. Is it more durable than the same cheap Coleman cooler it can't out cool? Absolutely. Better for keeping ice? Not so much according to non-biased tests.
To each his own. I'm not trying to argue either. It's your money and your choice. Spend it how you see fit. I'm just pointing out the obvious realities here. God Bless
Yep, but for a variety of reasons, people still buy Swarovski binocs instead of a good pair of Nikons. Is it worth it? Most people that buy them would say yes, but to each his own. Just like most people who own a Yeti will say it is worth it.
By the way, I would put my Yeti up against anyone else's 5 year old coleman in the ice test. Between loosened hinges/latches and warping of the plastic, mine will win.
Sure it will. It is yours. :^)
One thing is for sure, It better had because a person could buy a new Coleman extreme every 5 years of their adult hunting life and still be as cheap as a comparable sized Yeti. God Bless and good hunting
I had it with cheap coolers a few months ago. Bought a yeti 35 and a hopper 30. Really like them both and very happy with the purchases.
The hopper is great for the beach, picnics, etc as it is easy to carry. I like the hard side for bonfires, camping, etc.
Looking to get a bigger one now, probably the 110.
For the record, I made no mention about ice keeping being an issue. You can rig a cheap cooler to hold ice longer besides.... ice is cheap. Not worried about that. It's durability and bear proof that I'm looking for.
I have a good customer who owns one of the plastic companies that makes these coolers, among many other things. I asked him about 2 hours ago what the skinny was and although he is biased, he definitely said yes- worth the $$
michael
Anyone still reading this? So my experience shows that the yeti travel mugs are..... Awesome. Worth the $35 and some.
I've had a lot of coolers over the years. The Yeti is fantastic compared to the various Cold Max and Extremes I've had. I held out for a LONG time until I picked up a 75 at the Bargain Cave for $171 :-)
The Yeti mugs are fantastic. You can put a hot coffee in at 6 am and have it still be hot after sitting all day in a 20 degree car in the winter. Cold is just as good. I'm going to pick up one of the big mugs for cold water all day and keep the 20oz for coffee.
"One thing is for sure, It better had because a person could buy a new Coleman extreme every 5 years of their adult hunting life and still be as cheap as a comparable sized Yeti."
I have no argument with that statement, although Many of us are obviously harder on coolers than you are.
Are Yetis overpriced? That could be argued too and hopefully as more competition emerges, they will come down in price.
However, I think you are missing my point (and the point that the OP was after) DURABILITY. For many of us, not having to get a new cooler every few years, not to mention what do you do to dispose of the old one says us aggravation and time. As I get older (and have some extra coin) time and aggravation is worth a lot! And for most things I AM CHEAP, but I learned a long time ago to buy quality if that means buying only once. What constitutes "quality" is in the eye of the beholder. Ours eyes are different!
Plus, I have yet to pay "sticker price" on a yeti. I have a 50 and 250 and paid $400 less than "sticker" on the 250 for one that had been used twice by a church! Kids kept saying it was a coffin! There are certainly deals out there that make it more than worth it IMO.
I didn't miss your point at any time throughout this thread. Only, I took issue with your reasoning why the unbiased tests weren't fair. God Bless