Yeti Rambler Beverage Bucket Review: The Best Ice Bucket for Summer

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The product designer at Yeti must be a mad scientist.

Just a few weeks ago, my partner and I were sitting in our backyard, drinking a bottle of white wine. I had forgotten to chill it, and so we filled a mixing bowl (the very same she brought to a memorial potluck), with ice and water, and dunked it in. Within about a minute, the wine was still the same temperature, but all of the ice had melted under the Texas sun. The table was drenched with sweat from the bowls, and our dog was licking up the cold water, dripping onto the deck. “We really need an ice bucket,” my partner said.

It’s funny how life works out. Just a few days later, Yeti, the brand famous for its bear-safe coolers, announced it was launching just the thing. The brand sent me one of its new ice buckets to test out. After using it for a week, I can say it is beyond an upgrade to my mixing bowl, or a Home Depot bucket, or even an actual ice-bucket.

To buy: Rambler Beverage Bucket, $150 at yeti.com

The product designer at Yeti must be a mad scientist. It looks like they asked their factory to produce a Rambler Lowball Mug, designed for a giant (it measures 11.5-inches by 8.8-inches and weighs 6.7 pounds). Because of its similarity to the brand’s drinkware, my first thought was: This would be perfect for an oversized margarita. The brand told me it can hold 2 gallons of liquid, but added that I shouldn’t fill it with liquid, as that isn’t what it was designed for. Instead, the brand told me that the Rambler Beverage Bucket can hold 6+ cans of beer or 3+ bottles of wine. I can confirm, this is true.

Like Yeti’s mugs, the bucket is made with 18/8 stainless steel, which is puncture- and rust-resistant. It comes in four colors, including white, clay, blue, and gray. There’s also a honeycomb lid, which is helpful for transporting the bucket or for keeping bugs (it’s mosquito season, y’all) away from your drinks (by which the brand means closed beer cans or wine, not margaritas).

The brand added a double vacuum-insulation (the same you’ll find in its drinkware), which means this bucket can keep ice cold for a long time. I clocked it at over 24 hours with the lid on, and slightly less with the lid off. But one of my favorite features is the handle. It’s as sturdy as it gets and makes carrying the bucket easy. It is made with rubber, and unlike a Home Depot bucket, it only moves slightly with a tap and doesn’t fall over.

There’s one more thing I love about it. Because this is a hulking piece of stainless steel, I was worried about it damaging my furniture. But the brand added a clever little rubber guard on the bottom that serves as the perfect landing pad for wherever you want to place it.

This is all to say, the bucket is over-engineered to an extreme, and its price tag reflects that. It makes sense. Yeti is famous for coolers that can fall off trucks going 80 miles per hour without breaking. And since the brand has this over-the-top reputation, I had to ask: What else can this product do? While it was able to keep ice and beer and wine cold and was perfect in its intended purpose, what about something more unexpected? What about a different kind of ice bucket challenge?

I measured out the proportions for a 1.5-gallon margarita (the other half-gallon would be reserved for ice), and filled it to the brim. A full 24 hours later, the ice still hasn’t completely melted, and the margarita is still there (no bugs inside thanks to that nifty lid). I’m working on it — 1.5 gallons is a lot of margarita, and my friends were less helpful than I expected, but the bucket lived up to, and exceeded my expectations.

One more note: This thing is not inexpensive. It’s $150, which is definitely on the higher-end when it comes to buckets that hold frozen water. It’s $100 less than the brand’s previously released Tank Bucket (and can hold about 90 less beers), but still might be more than you’re willing to spend on a bucket.

For me, I think it’s worth the price. It’s exactly what you’d expect from the brand. It looks stunning. It’s perfect for drinking beer and wine outside. It’s durable. And you can even make a big margarita in it. I don’t recommend doing that. But I do recommend picking one up.

At the time of publishing, the price was $150.

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