The highly insulated coolers (rotomolded or the quality injection molded coolers) have a lot more mass to chill or heat. Consequently, they don't perform especially well in many use scenarios:
If you just chuck warm beverages and ice into the cooler for today's bbq, the ice is going to take out the heat energy from your drinks and quickly turn to cool water. Nothing is going to appear to perform well. And if your goal is to chill drinks for only a few hours, you might as well get the cheapest, non insulated cooler of the right size.
If you're using the cooler for the weekend, something semi-decent like a Coleman Extreme is plenty good enough. There isn't an especially large amount of cooler mass to chill.
Relatively low demand for space and chill time means you can be lazy and throw warm and cold things together with plenty of ice and still make it through the weekend. You're basically buying some convenience by using more (really cheap) ice.
Premium ice chests shine when you are using them long term, think 5+ days. You want to pull the cooler out of warm places and let them cool off for a day or so. You should pre-charge them by filling them half full with ice 1-2 days in advance to get as much heat as possible out of the cooler. Then you want to pack it no more than 1/2 full of frozen or cold consumables and then get every ice cube you can get in there. Maybe throw a pound or two of dry ice in there if appropriate. Things that encourage frequent opening of the cooler, like beers and water, should go into a separate cooler. If you do all this and keep the sunshine off your cooler you will approach the ice retaining claims manufacturers put on their coolers.
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I have one of these in 26qt, picked it up a few years back for about $30. Great cooler, keeps ice for a long time (multiple days easily). Great build quality too. I'm tempted to pick up a bigger one, trying to come up with a reason why I need another cooler…
This "looks" like my knockoff roto cooler...but...
It also looks like it may have much thinner walls, could mean it won't perform well for extended use.
Total conjecture on my part
My first assumption was indeed that this was another injection molded cooler in a rotomolded style. However, this does indeed appear to be a true rotomolded cooler. At this price no one should expect the highest levels of construction, however, insulation performance is not likely to disappoint relative to the competition at this price.
H-E-B has settled a lawsuit that alleged multiple competitors had infringed on patents for its Kodi cooler.
The latest settlement — with the Home Depot — came Monday, the day the dispute was scheduled to go to trial in Waco federal court.
H-E-B and Home Depot filed a joint motion asking a judge to dismiss their claims. It came about three weeks after they disclosed they had reached an agreement in principle to settle the dispute and asked that the case be stayed so they could finalize a deal.
For those who are unfamiliar with the brand, H-E-B is a regional grocery chain in Texas.
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If you just chuck warm beverages and ice into the cooler for today's bbq, the ice is going to take out the heat energy from your drinks and quickly turn to cool water. Nothing is going to appear to perform well. And if your goal is to chill drinks for only a few hours, you might as well get the cheapest, non insulated cooler of the right size.
If you're using the cooler for the weekend, something semi-decent like a Coleman Extreme is plenty good enough. There isn't an especially large amount of cooler mass to chill.
Relatively low demand for space and chill time means you can be lazy and throw warm and cold things together with plenty of ice and still make it through the weekend. You're basically buying some convenience by using more (really cheap) ice.
Premium ice chests shine when you are using them long term, think 5+ days. You want to pull the cooler out of warm places and let them cool off for a day or so. You should pre-charge them by filling them half full with ice 1-2 days in advance to get as much heat as possible out of the cooler. Then you want to pack it no more than 1/2 full of frozen or cold consumables and then get every ice cube you can get in there. Maybe throw a pound or two of dry ice in there if appropriate. Things that encourage frequent opening of the cooler, like beers and water, should go into a separate cooler. If you do all this and keep the sunshine off your cooler you will approach the ice retaining claims manufacturers put on their coolers.
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Good luck!
Jon
It also looks like it may have much thinner walls, could mean it won't perform well for extended use.
Total conjecture on my part
Good luck!
Jon
https://www.expressnews
Good luck!
Jon
https://www.homedepot.c