The 5 Best Coolers Of 2024, Tested And Reviewed
To find the best coolers, we tested eight different coolers over a series of weeks to see which ones provided the most long-lasting insulation. In the end, we named Academy’s Magellan Outdoors Pro Explore the best cooler overall. It offers several unique features, costs a heap less than most of its peers and performed quite well in our insulation test—though it’s worth noting that Yeti’s popular Tundra 45 ultimately kept its contents the coolest.
After extensive testing, we found the top five best coolers of 2024 that shine in key categories.
Other models excelled in other respects, such as portability, durability and ease of use. So ultimately there isn’t one particular cooler that we’d always take to every beach outing, camping, tailgating and other festive adventure. The best cooler for you really depends on a number of factors in any given situation, which we’ll cover in greater detail below. And if you’re considering other options, check out our guides to the best soft coolers, beach coolers and backpacking coolers.
This versatile cooler tops the list of the best coolers because of its strong performance, ease of use and excellent value. In fact, based on its unique feature set and how well it faired during the insulation testing, it’s surprising to see such a low price tag. Given all those factors, it was an easy choice to crown the Magellan Outdoors Pro Explore the overall champ. To keep things simple, I’ll refer to this cooler from now on as “the Academy.”
Both visually and functionally, the first things that stand out about the Academy pertain to its lid, starting with the buckles. Most of the coolers I tested use some form of rubber pull-down latches—which I judge to be tricky to use, for the most part—to secure their lids. By contrast, the Academy features buckles that are simple to operate. Only the Igloo—which didn’t offer any means of fastening the lid closed—was easier to open.
The lid on Academy’s Magellan Outdoors Pro Explore can be opened on either side or fully removed.
Even better, with two latches on both the front and the back, you can open this cooler from either side or remove the lid completely—a unique feature amongst the testing group. What’s amazing is that even though the lid is so easy to open, the seal is plenty strong. Thanks in part to an integrated automatic pressure relief valve, it offers the best of both worlds in terms of ease of opening and effective insulation.
During the 60-hour insulation test, one of the big performance indicators was when a cooler logged a large contrast between its low internal temperature and higher external temperature. In that way, the Academy was one of only three coolers to post better than average scores for all five temperature check-ins. (Even more impressive, it was the largest cooler to accomplish this, besting the Orca and Yeti despite being 5 and 10 quarts bigger, respectively.) And it was one of only four coolers (including the Kong, Orca and Yeti) to keep all the test meat out of the danger zone (between 40 and 140 degrees Fahrenheit) the whole time.
The Academy cooler comes with a solid dry bin and combination divider/cutting board.
Other nice touches include a solid plastic dry bin (as opposed to the typical metal baskets that don’t fully protect your dry goods from melting ice). Its plastic divider pulls double duty as a cutting board. Stainless steel locking systems speak to its durability. The built-in bottle opener and leash for its 2-way drain offer cool conveniences. And not for nothing, it’s nice that Academy offers this cooler in 14 colors and four other capacities (25, 35, 55 and 75 quarts).
Despite being a standout amongst the test group, it’s not perfect. Though it rolls well on relatively hard and flat surfaces, it’s not really designed for long hiking treks or traversing sandy beaches. While it’s not on the bear-proof list (like other Academy models), it seems tough enough for most situations. And it’s among the heaviest when comparing the ratio of its weight to its capacity. But those all amount to minor quibbles about a clearly superior cooler. Be sure to read the full review of the Academy cooler for further insights and long-term testing results.
The 2024 Forbes Vetted Best Product Awards are here: Explore our 150 top-recommended items across categories after extensive research and testing.
Though you might not recognize every brand represented in this cooler roundup, Yeti is one you probably already know. For years, it has ruled this ever-growing sector, but even with a stellar reputation and a rotomolded cooler boasting up to three-inch thick insulation, that was no guarantee that it would come out on top. In fact, a few other entries gave the Tundra 45 a surprisingly good run for its money.
All things being equal, one of the big factors in this Yeti’s favor is the fact that it was the smallest cooler in the running. Despite the 45 in its name, its actual capacity is less than 35 quarts, well under the roughly 49-quart average of our test group. In fact, while setting up the insulation test, it was the only cooler that was difficult to close because it was so full.
Yeti’s Tundra 45 offers excellent insulation in part due to its thick roto molding and tight gasket … [+]
That lack of non-insulative air trapped inside definitely helped. To be sure, I noticed a pretty consistent correlation that—except for the Igloo—the insulation performance across the board went from better to worse as the cooler capacities increased. (Remember, I put the exact same amount of ice and goods in every cooler, regardless of capacity.)
Caveats aside, the Yeti did sport the lowest internal temperature for four out of the five twice-daily check-ins, along with the lowest overall meat temperatures. And at the end of 60 hours, the Yeti still had 2 pounds of ice left. That was second only to the Orca and Academy, each with 2.4 pounds—which is impressive all around, considering I only implemented the minimum ice to goods ratio recommended by Comerford and other experts.
The Tundra 45 uses fairly typical rubber pull-down latches, which I found unnecessarily difficult to … [+]
In many circles, Yeti is considered a premium brand with a price tag to match. But here, it was just average, with two coolers within $5 of it and two others over $100 more expensive. To put things back in perspective, it was easily the most costly in relation to its small capacity.
It also receives strikes for being tough to open (with rubber latches), only coming with a fairly standard metal basket for separating dry goods and not being tall enough to accommodate 750-milliliter wine or 2-liter soda bottles. Yeti’s site offers a range of optional accessories—along with solid advice and the ability to see what their iceboxes would look like in your vehicle. Like many of their models available in a wide variety of capacities, the Tundra 45 is certified bear-proof. And it remains one of the top contenders in any field of coolers.
Rather than rotomolding like most of the other entries on this list, RTIC employs injection molding when building its Ultra-Light coolers. Thus even though this particular cooler is up to three inches thick with highly effective closed-cell foam insulation, it’s still relatively light. For example, this RTIC has roughly the same outer dimensions as the 40-quart ORCA I tested but it offers 30% more capacity and yet remains 30% lighter.
Of all the coolers with rubber latches, this was the simplest to operate. Rather than having to get a strong grip and stretch them down, fastening is just a matter of pushing each one into place. Thus securing and opening the lid was a cinch.
The RTIC 52 Quart Ultra-Light features the only easy-to-use rubber latches.
In addition to being lighter (and therefore easier for one person to carry) and having reasonably easy rubber latches, the RTIC earns ease-of-use points for being one of the three coolers on the list (along with the BruMate and RovR) that’s tall enough to accommodate soda and wine bottles vertically. That makes loading less toilsome. And it was the only cooler I saw with two drain ports, making it easier to clean, drain and maintain.
One other unique feature is the RTIC’s divider. Instead of doubling as a cutting board like some others, this ingenious divider is a highly functional, reusable ice pack. I didn’t incorporate this frozen divider during the insulation test because that seemed like an unfair advantage, but it certainly would’ve boosted this cooler’s results in that assessment.
The divider RTIC includes with the 52 Quart Ultra-Light is ingeniously also a freezer pack.
Compared to the rest of the field, the RTIC’s overall figures in the multi-day insulation challenge were middling. At the 36- and 48-hour check-ins, the RTIC posted above average data with respect to internal surface temperature and the differential to its external surface temperature. But in the end it fell apart—all the ice melted and the meats rose a few degrees above the 40-degree threshold. It offered better results than the Igloo (also 52 quarts) and RovR (60 quarts), but not as good as the other five entries (four of which are smaller).
Like the Academy, this RTIC retails for $200. Because its results weren’t as good, it’s not quite as strong a value. But aside from the outlying Igloo, the RTIC offers the best price and weight per its capacity. And it stole the show for overall ease of use.
Winning the Best Designed accolade doesn’t mean that you’ll see this cooler toted down the catwalk in New York or Milan. But it does mean that the Kong ice chest repeatedly displays the careful thought that went into its construction, features and functionality. And it ultimately does a lot of things right.
When it comes to securing and opening the lid, these cam-action latches are built into the body rather than the lid. To close it, you catch the buckles on the lid and pull down. This closure system gets high marks for being both simple and secure.
The Kong 50 utilizes easy-to-operate cam action pull-down latches.
But how they open is where they might (literally and figuratively) pull away from the competition. Though the Academy buckle is a little quicker and easier to open, the Kong lid itself is specially designed so that—unlike other coolers—even if it’s up against a wall, you can still crack it open 45 degrees, which should leave plenty room to fish out a tasty chilled beverage.
Next let’s talk about the included div