The Best Hard Coolers for Tough-as-Hell Food and Drink Storage
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Nothing can put a damper on an outdoor event quite like a warm can of beer. OK, maybe a literal soaking-wet pack that’s floating in a pool of melted ice. What you really need — and the gear behind all successful outdoor bashes — is a hard cooler, which is tough to tip, ensures your food and beverages are cold when you need ’em, and thanks to its tough, durable walls, will help to prevent leaks in the back of your car or on your one-and-only outdoor blanket. Now, go make some more ice and read on for our tips on what to look for when buying the best hard cooler.
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In This Article
What Are the Best Hard Coolers
How We Chose the Coolers
Hard-Sided Cooler Buying Guide
What Are the Best Hard Coolers?
From retro-looking models, to heavy-duty rolling coolers, here are a few of our top picks for the best hard-sided coolers to pack up and use this season.
BEST OVERALL: RTIC 52 QT Ultra-Light Cooler
BEST FOR ROAD TRIPS: Yeti Roadie 24 Hard Cooler
BEST WITH WHEELS: RovR RollR 45 Wheeled Camping Rolling Cooler
BEST ICE RETENTION: Yeti Tundra 65
BEST BUDGET: Igloo Playmate Elite Cooler
BEST FOR COMMUTERS: Stanley Adventure Heritage Cooler + Bottle Set
1. RTIC 52 QT Ultra-Light Cooler
Despite the “ultra-light” name, this cooler isn’t some dainty, featherlight pick you can toss a couple brews in for the beach. What RTIC’s Hard Cooler has is solid build, even at just 21 pounds — it’s a cooler meant to be hoisted up with ease, lugged along for the journey, then parked in one spot for the long haul.
Trust us, you’ll want to have this multi-purpose 52 QT cooler as your camping companion, or for setting up and settling in for a long afternoon of tailgating. We took this cooler out to a lake for the Fourth of July, and the freezer-style lid combined with three inches of insulating foam kept pounds of ice and tons of cans cold all day long (specifically, 76 cans and up to 51 pounds of ice).
The heavy-duty rope handles made this cooler easier to manage, and while you do sacrifice some durability overall, the lighter weight and reduced cost make this cooler earn its top spot for us.
RTIC 52 QT Ultra-Light Cooler
2. Yeti Roadie 24 Hard Cooler
One of Yeti’s latest, the Roadie 24, is a highly durable cooler, and a versatile pick for most uses. We’ve tested and used this cooler for months, including on cross-country road trips and at home for quick access to cold beer when grilling outdoors (we’ve even used it as a side table a few times).
The Roadie 24 isn’t the largest hard-sided cooler you can get, but it will still work for holding cold treats on a road trip or on your way home from the grocery store until you can get to your freezer.
Yeti says it used PermaFrost insulation with the Roadie 24. Put another way, cheese, fruit and bottles of water and cold brew coffee that we packed on a recent road trip stayed cold for days without needing any extra ice. Meanwhile, it was still small enough to fit in the back of our car and sturdy enough to stack luggage on top of it — no leaking or damage to report.
It’s available in six different colors, and you can buy an assortment of accessories for it, from a storage basket for snacks, to a cushion that’s bound to be a tailgating staple.
Yeti Roadie 24 Hard Cooler
3. RovR RollR 45 Wheeled Camping Rolling Cooler
The best wheeled coolers could almost be called fridges-on-wheels, giving you enough storage space for a day’s worth of beverages and food, along with the convenience of having a couple tires for when you can’t find a parking spot close enough to your friends’ location at the park.
The RovR RollR Wheeled Camping Rolling Cooler offers a roomy 45-quart storage space, which is great to have if you’re hauling frozen meats to grill and a few bottles of beer.
We like that it comes with a bin to make organizing items a little easier, too, so you can load one side with bottles of wine, beer or waters with ice, while you keep produce and other foods on the other, safely stored without getting smashed in the bin. You also don’t have to stick your hand in ice and feel around until you find what you’re looking for.
The company says ice will last for up to 10 days. Ten days! It might sound like a bit much at first, but it’s great to have if you’re planning long trips or don’t want to have to refill your cooler with ice all the time.
The cooler can fit up to 60 cans and 10 pounds of ice (and 40 cans, if you’re going to use the included bin for fruits and veggies). With its 22-inch height, it’s also ideal for carrying things like bottles of wine with all you’ll need for a cheese plate in the separate storage bin.
RovR RollR Wheeled Camping Rolling Cooler
4. Yeti Tundra 65
Yeti has quickly become one of the best cooler brands since its foundation in 2006, their success boiling down to lasting insulation (that actually holds up during real use) and a virtually indestructible build. But when you think of a YETI cooler, you probably picture one of its most popular models, the Tundra 65. And who could blame you?
The secret to the Yeti Tundra’s durability is a rotomolded polyethylene plastic construction, the same as a kayak. As proof, Yeti says it had an actual bear try to open the Tundra cooler and a 500-pound man try to destroy the cooler. Neither succeeded.
There’s three inches of pressure-injected insulation packed into this beast, ensuring your cans will always be ready to drink, even in the heat. It’s one of the most versatile coolers out there that’ll be the envy of every camper, that’ll keep weekend’s worth of drinks and food for you and a few of your friends cool for several days.
Unlike those IPAs, however, this thing’s built to last you for years, thanks to that aforementioned bear-proof construction that’s tough, but still easy to clean with a hose and some soap.
RovR RollR Wheeled Camping Rolling Cooler
5. Igloo Playmate Elite Cooler
It’s tough to top a classic. If you’re looking for a straightforward cooler that’s easy to carry, offers plenty of storage for your tailgate or camping excursion, and has a budget-friendly price point, you can’t go wrong with the Igloo Playmate series.
Igloo also makes the best cooler collabs around — from bands like Iron Maiden and the Grateful Dead to series like WWE — but its 16-quart Playmate Elite checks all the boxes for a simple cooler that’s all about keeping your cold ones cold. We love the minimal design, but especially its handle, which lets you haul everything with one hand and makes sliding the swivel-style lid to the side for quick, seamless access.
When the cooler’s empty, it weights a little over 4 pounds, and only measures about 15.88 x 14.88 inches. It’s a great size for hauling anywhere you need to go.
Igloo Playmate Elite Cooler
6. Stanley Adventure Heritage Cooler + Bottle Set
We love Stanley’s thermoses for their durable insulation for everything from coffee to beer to homemade cocktails and gazpacho, and this cooler set gives you one that’s secured to the pack with the cooler’s own handle.
This travel-friendly feature creates some extra room inside the cooler itself, so you can fit all your main dishes and sides for lunches or a picnic when you’re on the road. If you need to, say, make a PB&J for a hike or need some space to set down a plate or container, you can even use the lid as a flat surface.
When you’re not using it to store your food, you can load it up with about nine cans total, perfect for a small-but-durable cooler for tailgating or travel.
Stanley Adventure Heritage Cooler
How We Chose the Coolers
The size and carrying capacity of your next cooler can be a tough decision to make, but we considered coolers based on how much you’ll use it and where you plan on carting it. The best hard coolers are equipped with things like reinforced handles, wheels, as well as extra accessories you can buy for organization. When researching this list, we picked coolers that checked all of the boxes in terms of insulation, storage and style.
Hard-Sided Cooler Buying Guide
These are the things to consider when you’re choosing a hard-sided cooler for your next adventure.
Storage: Many of the best new hard coolers can fit a variety of bottles and your cold snacks or sandwiches and food containers. While the coolers in our guide cover a range of storage capacities, you can get away with storing at least a six-pack of sparkling water or beer in even the smallest cooler in our guide. Just don’t forget that when you’re picking your cooler, you should also account for the fact that you’ll need to add a bag of ice or add ice packs.
Size and Weight: Will you be taking your cooler to the park or tailgating? Are you packing it in the back seat of your car for a road trip? You can find coolers in every size that fit every situation you’re using it for, from picnics to the stadium parking lot on game day.
Portability: Hard-sided coolers aren’t quite as easy to carry around as a soft-sided cooler, but they’ve recently become a little more portable. From wheels built into the base of large-capacity coolers to hand and shoulder straps that make it easier to commute with your ice-cold beverages, the best new coolers are available in a variety of different travel-friendly versions. Coolers with wheels are a no-brainer for larger models, while sturdy handles and durable straps are ideal for smaller-sized units.
Design: Unlike some soft coolers, the best hard coolers aren’t as easy to break or tear, even after years of use. Many are also designed to be used outdoors. Some of our favorite hard coolers can be sealed shut thanks to easy-to-close latches, as well as lids that can withstand your bodyweight in case you need an extra chair or table.
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