The Best Soft Coolers that Actually Keep Drinks Cold | America’s Test Kitchen
Looking for the perfect lightweight soft-sided cooler? Julia Collin Davison and Adam Ried put soft-sided coolers to the test, to see which model kept all cookout essentials cold and protected in place.
Get The Engel HD20 Soft Sided Cooler:
Buy our Complete America’s Test Kitchen TV Show Cookbook here:
Get exclusive access to every recipe, review, and more via our homepage:
Sign up for our free newsletters to receive more delicious recipes, cooking tips, and exclusive content:
Watch full episodes of America’s Test Kitchen and Cook’s Country for free on our new full episodes YouTube channel:
ABOUT US: The mission of America’s Test Kitchen (ATK) is to empower and inspire confidence, community, and creativity in the kitchen. Founded in 1992, the company is the leading multimedia cooking resource serving millions of fans with TV shows (America’s Test Kitchen, Cook’s Country, and America’s Test Kitchen: The Next Generation), magazines (Cook’s Illustrated and Cook’s Country), cookbooks, a podcast (Proof), FAST channels, short-form video series, and the ATK Essential Membership for digital content. Based in a state-of-the-art 15,000-square-foot test kitchen in Boston’s Seaport District, ATK has earned the trust of home cooks and culinary experts alike thanks to its one-of-a-kind processes and best-in-class techniques. Fifty full-time (admittedly very meticulous) test cooks, editors, and product testers spend their days tweaking every variable to find the very best recipes, equipment, ingredients, and techniques.
If you like us, follow us:
We have a 1st generation Yeti hopper/tote. The zipper is very hard to operate and the bag is hard to access. I know those bags have been updated (more than once), but I would still definitely go with the square form factor if buying again.
Honestly for a quick trip any of them would work. I’ve taken a no brand soft side cooler to the beach and come home with some ice. For a road trip, a day at the beach or a park anything will work as long as you pre chill your food/drinks and the cooler itself.
I still love my hard Coleman and igloo coolers. Even though they’re the hard coolers, I have one on wheels with an extendable handle that I got from Walmart, and my other ones fit into a portable wagon with extra space in the wagon to carry more items. Matter of fact, my 100 qt cooler fits into the wagon for when I go to bbq’s and family gatherings.
I wanna see Project Farm review ATK
Were the tests done indoors out outdoors? Direct sunlight makes a difference as well
I like my RTIC and it wasn't $200!
A great job guys ! Thank you. R/Jr. 😮
Shiti Coolers!!
Shiti Coolers!!
For those asking, seems their Best Buy rec is the Coleman XPand.
The question should be how many times did you open it and how cold was it afterword. You can open a fridge and it will eventually decrease the efficiency of it's capacity to keep anything cold.
Nah, I stick with the Yeti
Not the Black and White infomercial video 😂
I agree with Sandra. Not everyone can plunk down $200 on a cooler. We need a Best Buy cooler.
$200?
😱😱 Sadly, I think for the past like 2 to 3 years these people have fallen off… It used to be good information they gave us but now it's just affiliate links and they just want to sell products they don't give good reviews anymore and it's not only these two people the other two women are the same in the little Test Kitchen 😢 it's all fake and scripted just to have us click some Link to buy something so they get money.. Even their website is very focused on sales you can't look up anything this channel has lost its value.. And yes like someone else said, poor reviews…. They're missing so much stuff
The grey scale footage of loading the coolers feels like one of those classic latenight infomercials of a person who can't do some mundane task
You didn’t mention ambient temperature! That makes a difference in Texas. These will be used at campsites, not in your comfy kitchen.
Also we find that a thermoelectric cooler running off AC or DC helps a lot.
No Best Buy?
**$200**** for a friggin' cooler???? Are you people nucking futz?????
I purchased that Engel a couple of years ago at a significant cost and never use it. The zipper centered on the top is extremely difficult to keep open enough to place items inside. Inserting rectangular containers and 4 litre milk cartons are a two person operation. After using two or three times I gave up in frustration and purchased a hard sided cooler with a flip top lid. Although the Engel is ostensibly soft sided it is a rigid cooler and weight is the only benefit. Had I known I’d never had wasted the money on the Engel.
And which was the budget alternative?
I like AO Coolers. Built to last, works a treat, and reasonably priced. I have a 24-can and a 12-can.
Yay! Thanks for this review! Very helpful.
Look at polar bear coolers, soft and hard side –
This 3 minute video tells me all I need to know versus getting bogged down in a 12 minute one. Thanks ATK!
Lol my ikea $19 bag in lime green works as well as i need it to to keep stuff cold all day while driving in the summer heat without air conditioning. And it is bigger.
Thrift stores. I got a soft drinks cooler from a beer company at a thrift store for about $5. Works like a charm keeping my drinks cold at the beach and for perishables and frozen food from the grocery store.
Edit: it’s for beer but I use it for soft drinks, sparkling water and lunches at the beach.
This video should have come out in April/May/early June … since I already bought one before the summer hit.
Please do a review on kitchen scrap composter. Thanks ahead.