Whether picnicking, hiking, fishing or camping, a soft-side cooler is a must-have for keeping snacks and cool drinks at hand. Because soft-side coolers and cooler bags aren’t made of rigid plastic, they’re lightweight and easy to carry virtually anywhere, often weighing not much more than what’s stored inside. However, we can’t quite get the top rolled tight enough to be waterproof, though it only leaks little drips when completely inverted.
The coolers we tested feature a wide variety and quality of materials. We assessed durability over months of use, paying attention to how they handle daily rigors. We threw them around, dropped them on the ground, and filled them to the brim with heavy drinks. We also packed, emptied, repacked, and bounced them around in back seats and truck beds, left them out in the sun for hours, strapped them into water-logged boats, and anything else we could think of. By adding a fully supportive, weight-bearing waist belt, this cooler is ideal for relieving your shoulders when you need your cooler filled to the brim with delicious picnic provisions.
A tight seal is another great trait, as it can both keep unwanted moisture out of the cooler as well as keep an internal spill from ruining your clothing. It’s a versatile box, setting you up for a day on the kayak, at the state park for a meal or two, or in the car in the midst of a scenic roadtrip. The closed-cell foam insulates exceptionally well, pretty much the whole point where coolers are concerned.
We took the aesthetic fishpond Blizzard Soft Cooler ($100) out fly fishing with two anglers. The compact cooler was full of brews, sparkling water, and lunch food. We really liked the touch of the side rope handles — they’re smooth, tough, and easy to grab and hold. Our other grievance is the zipper only goes around halfway, stopping at an awkward spot that limits access and ability to clean the inside of the cooler.
Instead, you should use freshly frozen cubed ice, ice blocks, or reusable ice packs. For road trips, you can separate daytime beverages and snacks into a soft cooler, which limits opening of the hard cooler and preserves ice. Soft cooler totes are long, slender, and streamlined against your side. However, taller coolers get trickier with access to buried items, so you have to be mindful when packing the cooler. Choose a soft cooler based on the storage capacity and type of support you need for the load. A super malleable product like the Snow Peak Soft Cooler might not be the best for carrying dozens of heavy cans compared to a more rigid design like the YETI Hopper M30 Soft Cooler.
While all of these soft coolers have a touch of black on the outside, the three main choices for colors are agama teal, blaze red and acid green. Each bag weighs less than 1 lb., and storage space ranges from six to 36 cans. The items in this cooler will stay cold for long than most of Igloo’s other options, as the ice retention can function for two days. This
comes in handy for triathlons and other long competitions that will require plenty of drinks and snacks for refreshment. The REI Cool Haul features several webbing loops, two exterior pockets, and an internal zippered pocket to keep you organized. It has a bottle opener (that works) attached to it, so you’ll never have to worry about forgetting one again.
Even with a friend to help, this fully-loaded bag isn’t the ideal cooler to cart a mile down the beach. Plenty of soft coolers are fairly comfortable to use and reliable (as long as it’s not too sunny or scorching hot out) in the less-than-$100 category. Those choice designs include a range of designs such as the Mountainsmith Takeout ($30), REI Co-op Pack-Away Soft Cooler ($50), and Arctic Zone Titan Deep Freeze Bucket Tote ($53). Soft coolers may have shoulder straps — which are typically removable — buckles, attachment points, and interior or exterior pockets. Some pockets have durable, waterproof zipper closures, but many are not weather-resistant or secured with a closure. Ultimately, due to the ice retention, this tote is a solid option for errands and small trips but be sure to cool the bag before use.
Color options for this cooler include slate blue and tan, sandstone and red, and tank green and black, which should blend in depending on what environment you’re exploring. Ice bags weigh between 1 and 3 lbs for an easy carry, and you can carry up to 30 cans, depending on which bag you choose. The retention foam allows drinks and food to stay cold for a whole day, which will
keep everyone at the occasion you’re attending satisfied. With 25% more foam, your items will stay cold for longer periods no matter how quick the ice melts. Weights for Igloo Marine Ultra options range from 1.5 to 3 lbs., making it easy to carry over your shoulder. Color options include white and navy or gray and seafoam, emphasizing design for trips on lakes or at beaches.
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.
Some 24 hours after we put ice in the coolers, the inside temperature of the Boss increased by 19 degrees compared to just 7 degrees in the Yeti. And where the Yeti still had about half of its ice frozen, our testers reported only about 20 percent of the ice placed in the Icemule stayed frozen. Dry bags are a staple of river trips, as are heavy, bulky hard-sided coolers. The Icemule Pro essentially combines the two into an insulated, durable dry bag perfect for a day on the water. Like a good dry bag, the Icemule Pro has a roll-top closure that it claims will not let water in or out and allows you to trap air inside for extra insulation. Our testers noticed a bit of a leak from the roll-top closure when inverting the cooler.