I am a huge fan of outdoors and nature, and I believe that there’s so much waiting to be explored — if only more of us could simply unplug long enough to enjoy it! Over the years, I’ve discovered that one of the best ways to enjoy the outdoors is with a good cooler with great ice retention. Convenient, portable, affordable, and durable — an ice chest is a great piece of gear that will reward you with years of memorable stories and adventures. While the hard-side spectrum focuses on resilience and replaceable features, soft-sided Ozark Trail coolers take the higher ground via their impressive final layout.
Hard-sided coolers are the largest Ozark Trail coolers and the most durable, so you’ll pay more for a hard-sided model. They also keep ice long and, in my opinion, are the best designed soft sided coolers out there (with the exception maybe of the Pelican soft sided cooler). You may be familiar with brands like Yeti, RTIC, Engel and Pelican which are all big names in the cooler space. Each of these companies make their own soft sided coolers and the Ozark Trail is Walmart’s attempt to compete with these and sell their own brand.
Moreover, this Yeti cooler comes with a couple of extra features that make it even more useful and convenient. One of these features I particularly liked is the presence of LipGrip handles – carrying ozark trail canopy this thing around is as easy as it gets. I also liked the model’s T-Rex lid latches, as these keep the Yeti cooler completely sealed at all times and ensure that the lid doesn’t pop off.
In this Ozark Trail soft coolers review we’ll look in detail at these soft sided coolers, the features and performance as well as do a deep dive into the build quality of these coolers. On the contrary, the premium ozark trail cooler soft coolers and particularly their hard-sided coolers have more of the traditional features we look for when we think of long ice life. So you can expect them to allow for much longer ice retention.
The model is particularly good at maintaining the temperatures of cold drinks, just as I expected. It’s a durable and versatile product that easily outperforms most of the competition. A. Wet a sponge or rag with a mixture of warm water and mild dish soap, and wipe down both the interior and exterior of the soft-sided cooler.
Featuring a fish ruler and confirmed bear-resistant by the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee, it’s perfect for back-country adventures. Not to mention, it has a built-in bottle opener and four drink holders on the lid, so you can have a good time no matter the temperature. We have been receiving a lot of complaints as of late from people who are mentioning that the zippers on their soft-sided coolers are going out after 6 to 12 months. We are looking into this problem in more detail and may adjust this review accordingly once we get to the bottom of it.
After all, this brand is not a favorite of millions of outdoor enthusiasts all over the world for no reason. Just like most of the other Yeti products in this comparison, this one is also made out of 18/8 stainless steel. In other words, you won’t have to worry about the model’s durability – it will hold up in the wilderness.
Also, the stainless steel hardware and orange accents on the latches and handles look very sharp. We hope that in the future, Ozark Trail decides to expand on the color choices and perhaps have some customization options as well. Ozark Trail, despite their best intentions, doesn’t quite live up to the level of ice retention and toughness of a Yeti. While they do have many of the same features, there are more notable quality issues with Ozark Trail models.
This comes thanks to both the large, insulated area as well as storage pockets on the front and/or sides. The pockets on the front will be zippered while any on the sides will be open and mesh. These are perfect for sticking your cell phone, keys, wallet, or anything else that you don’t want to get potentially cold and/or wet in the insulated area. To start with, you will find an oversized drain that makes short work of any melted ice that is inside. The threaded drain can easily be removed and will be held in place thanks to the mounted chain it is on.
Depending on what you’re using the cooler for, the leaky drain spout might not be a big deal. For us, however, we keep our cooler in our car while traveling and we often camp in bear country. I don’t want any cooler water intermittently leaking and leaving food smells. The other downside to the Ozark Trail cooler is that it weighs 31 pounds empty.