Ozark Trail Cooler VS YETI REVIEW & COMPARISON 2024

You can carry it like a cross-body bag, over the shoulder, or like ozark trail canopy a handbag with its removable strap or velcro handle. The Ripstop Oxford fabric with PU coating is also repels water, and the combination of an extra-thick PEVA liner and hot-pressed seams make it leak-proof. Though it can get wrinkled, the material is quite easy to clean.

So you can expect them to allow for much longer ice retention. A. Ozark Trail hard-sided coolers are the best option if you go camping regularly. They offer greater capacity than soft-sided models, so there’s plenty of room for the food and beverages you need for a two- to three-day camping trip.

Temperature, how many times the cooler is opened, whether or not the cooler was pre-cooled, the type of ice being used, the type of insulation in the cooler, ect. If you’re on the fence about spending the money, consider how long you will be gone and what it would cost to add ice to your cooler everyday. For us, while a YETI required a larger initial investment, we will save money (and use less water) over time.

The hard-sided coolers are designed to try to compete with the top-tier of the premium cooler world. Ozark Trail’s hard-sided coolers all feature one-piece construction without any seams. This allows the coolers to keep ice cold for long periods of time. Each Ozark Trail hard-sided cooler also has walls that are between two-and-a-half and three inches thick for excellent insulation. Best of all, Ozark Trail hard-sided coolers all feature a thick, freezer-grade rubber gasket that creates an effective seal for the lid.

The additional features also ride the line between being handy and excessive. The shelf is easy to knock loose and fall into the main chamber, and the bottle opener is not the best. For another low-cost option that’s more durable, check out the IceMule Jaunt. Ozark Trail Coolers showed us that it is possible to achieve the impressive ice numbers and rock-hard features of many of the top ice chests in the industry, but at a fraction of the price.

The AO and REI Pack Away are as easy to use as a simple duffel bag. The AO 24 features clips on the ends of the top zipper and a single long external pocket with plenty of space to bring along dry items and your favorite binoculars. The Pack Away adds to this design with four 3-loop daisy chains located around the body of the bag, and the ability to fold flat — adding capacity and making it easier to store when not in use.

That said, we don’t recommend these for anything other than grocery store runs or picnics, as they can be tiresome to carry and don’t often insulate as well as other soft coolers. Toss this on the kayak or paddleboard, or tug it along on your next float trip. Regardless, if it topples overboard, you can rest assured it won’t get soaked or sink.

It also has a small area to insert your hand for lifting, but it’s less comfortable to carry that way. Some other models are ozark trail canopy easy to use because of their excellent design and features. The Clevermade Pacifica Collapsible Bag 30 reigns supreme in terms of convenience—largely because of how easily you can collapse and store it. The soft sides, which snap into place when you open it, can fold into the strap at the base of the cooler when you’re done.

Additionally, a handful of these float in water, so you can tug them along on your next river day. These include the RTIC models, IceMule dry-bags, and the Yeti Flip. One of the most frustrating qualities of many models we tested is their challenging zippers. So far, manufacturers haven’t been able to produce a zipper that’s both fully waterproof and easy to use.

Ozark Trail soft-sided coolers are all designed to have multiple storage options. In most cases, the coolers feature a large, insulated inner compartment and exterior storage pockets on the front or sides. Front pockets usually have zippers, while side pockets typically have no closure and are made of mesh to hold non-food items. Some soft-sided models also have expandable tops that can increase the height of the cooler by as much as three inches to fit stacked cans or larger bottles. While many soft coolers have bulky zippers that are difficult to use or narrow openings that hinder access, this one does not. Despite being water-tight, the zipper isn’t hard to use and the tote-style access isn’t too tricky for packing.