Yeti Tundra 35 Hard Cooler

The Yeti Cooler was a tough choice to make. It’s just so damn expensive – how good could it be? The price tag had to signify something, a signal to any serious buyer or serious camper, that this was the one you were looking for. And it worked. If we were committed to the adventure – out on the road to parts unknown for a months long trip – better to get the best of the best because it was worth it and everything that followed would be better. Right? I wasn’t convinced.

Originally, I wanted to rig up a proper fridge. That’s what everyone else was doing. In my research for our trip, my only guides were the owners of converted trucks and vans. These were people invested on living independently. Often their rig is their only home and their goals and needs are very different from our own. None of these travellers would ever consider a cooler and in the beginning I was right along with them. No half measures. What a pain be to be forever on the search for ice. Did we want to be real adventurers, or forever weekend warriors? I saw our cooler turning into an expensive packing crate and our reliance on restaurants inevitable.

It took me a long time to mentally separate what we were planning to what others before us had done. A fridge was a ridiculous concept for our car, for our goals, for our nights in hotels. I wasn’t as intrepid as those others and that was ok. [Here’s a good plug of why this blog is different. You don’t need a $50k Sprinter or a camper you personally converted to explore.]

So of all the new or replacement gear we purchased, the Yeti Cooler was the most difficult. I knew in my heart that it wasn’t worth the price, but it was go big or make do with a Coleman. You don’t get to try before you buy. Like the Klymit and the Eureka tent, it comes down to going with your gut.

My choice was at last made for me after we wandered into a quirky little gardening/outdoors store to use up a gift card received for Christmas. This was not a store we had visited before and I was initially at a loss for how we would use the $200. But there along with pots and hand trowels and handcrafted birdfeeders, a big white cooler sat out in the middle of the display floor. It was fate, so I bought it.

Like everything else on our first test night of camping, the cooler failed to live up to the hype. It comes with three little ice packs, quick freezing and supposedly long lasting. I knew from earlier reading that you were supposed to cool the cooler (a funny phrase/concept) before placing in your items and also that you should pack it full (and of course avoid opening it a bunch). What I didn’t fully appreciate is that the icepacks are not magic (surprise!). They cannot do the job on their own. You should pre-cool it with sacrificial ice, then add the cooler packs and more ice. You need ice. And so on its trial run, I failed to properly prepare the cooler and it failed to deliver. We were annoyed.

On our second trial run to Stolz Pool, the cooler performed much better. Two nights, lots of opening, a medium amount of extra ice, and everything was plenty cold. That sacrificial ice I added on the Friday was still mostly ice when I tossed it out after returning home on the Sunday. It would have lasted an another day for sure, and maybe even more if we weren’t reaching in for drinks so much. 

Is it worth the price? No. These things are a huge jump in price from your standard cooler. But what are your options? A ‘regular’ cooler will not keep your goods cold through a weekend. It just won’t. If you need more than an overnight then you need to step it up. But it was good to learn early that Yeti isn’t magic either (see above). You have to learn good cooler etiquette and be realistic with what is possible.

Our cooler was field tested with two multi-night summer trips and the mixed results continued. Yes, we threw in frozen meat before we left home and it kept until we needed it three days later. But after those three days you almost need to stop, clean it out and start the process all over. It’s a real trick to keep the cold going (melted water adds up, you can’t get it properly cool). I don’t know how it will fare over weeks and months. We’ll just have to find out and report back.