Coast2Coast
New member
Here is my review on the new Pelican ProGear coolers, which are amazing:
I bought this cooler Friday afternoon and used it right away for a 4x4 camping trip in the rockies. I did not pre-chill the cooler as is recommended because I didn't have time. I threw what turned out to be a week worth of food, not frozen, into the cooler for the weekend along with 3 bags of ice. I then put in a case of WARM cans of twisted tea (the wife's booze), because the liquor store didn't have any chilled. Long story short I have never arrived home on a Sunday night with 2 bags of ice and then some remaining in my cooler to return to my freezer, until now!
We opened the cooler about 40-50 times over the weekend to get drinks,food, and ice for my whiskey. A few times I even found myself distracted by conversation and left it open for a few minutes at a time. By Saturday night I was pretty taken aback by the fact that there was hardly any water in the bottom of the cooler, especially considering that we had to put the warm case of cans in there. The cooler stayed in the shade most of the time and in the back of the hot SUV during the day with no A/C. Temperatures were 22 degrees C Friday and Saturday, 8 degrees for half of Sunday then 18 degrees for the second half.
The performance of this cooler is second to none. My Coleman xtreme, which also gets great reviews, does not compare in any way to this cooler because it would fail miserably. Everything about this cooler is rugged. A reviewer elsewhere was concerned about the latches but they are great. They are robust and easy to open with one hand or both at the same time with two hands. They don't rattle around and make noise like the little metal latches on other coolers. They open easily and are tough enough for the job.
The lock hasp is stainless steel so somebody can't just cut it open with a regular old camp saw, like the plastic hasp on a bear proof competing brand. This is a trivial feature, because I'm sure if somebody wanted to steal any cooler they'd just take it home and remove the lock anyway. If you were worried about theft, it has tie down points and you could use a bike lock, or even chain and a welder to permanently hold it down in your truck bed/boat deck if you were so inclined.
The rubber feet are robust and hold the cooler in place. I found this to be the first drawback, because it was impossible to slide the cooler around in my SUV. I had to lift it just to reposition it 1 inch to the left or right while loading and unloading the truck every morning and evening. This became hard on the back because it is HEAVY and lifting it while bent over in the back of an SUV is not ideal for the lower back. If I know things will get rough, I will always strap it down anyway. That being said, the feet will be perfect for marine applications, and guess what, it is a marine cooler. Also they may be removable, I haven't looked into that yet.
Pelican should sell a little snap on cart for this thing to wheel it around. What if your marina doesn't have any carts left to get to your slip thats half a mile away? I understand that they can't build wheels into it because it would take away from the insulation. Carrying it into the house/camp from your vehicle is not a big deal though if you are the strapping guy that needs a cooler of this magnitude, may be an issue for some of you desk jockeys though
.
The cooler is also quite a bit larger than a cheaper version of an equal capacity cooler because it is 2 inches thick and has a hella massive beefed up framework molded in around where the lid closes to make it strong enough to put the tie down holes and double handles.
When I got home Sunday night I drained the cooler first. I was amazed at how little water was in the bottom, there was less than an inch. There was one unopened bag of ice still frozen except for about 2 shot glasses worth of water, plus what looked like nearly a bag and a half of ice remaining in the cooler. I put it in big ziplock bags and back in the freezer to use it for precooling next time, since it will just be an awkward block of ice cubes after they freeze together.
I had gotten some mud,ash, and various soiling on the cooler over the weekend. I cleaned it inside and out and could not get the mud stains completely out of the lid on the textured surface that I assume is there to help fillet fish or something. There are also some black specks in groups around the edges of the lid that must have come from ash or something, they will not come out. I was a bit disappointed, because this cooler is white and will show dirt like crazy. I'm sure it will look like he(( by the end of this summer if each trip puts stains on it like that. Overall I don't really GAF about the stains. I just thought the shock value of the appearance of this thing when I first show my buddies might be dampened a bit by the dirt stains lol.
This cooler came in at about $100 less than a bear proof competing cooler of equal size, which is what I was going to get until 2 days before purchase time. I discovered this cooler on an online review search for the bear proof competitor. I decided to go with this one because it looks more rugged, comes from the company that originated rugged cases, and has dedicated tie down loops. For 4x4 excursions, some of them being up to 2 weeks long, rugged is important to me. Don't get me wrong, bear proof competitors are awesome coolers too, and they make more sizes than pelican which gives them the advantage of a broader market. I'm still thinking of buying the smallest competitors cooler (for the road)for weekend trips when I only need to keep a bit of meat cold and a bag of ice for whiskey
The Drain, its actually built into the lowest part of the cooler, coming out the side! Funny how 95% of coolers out there miss the fact that putting a drain 1" above the bottom of the cooler will not lead to a fully drained cooler without turning the %*$#@ thing upside down... Pelican did not miss, the drain hole is set down into a special channel, and drain channels start at the opposite end of the cooler, and run their way on an angle down to the drain hole, absolutely brilliant, yet so simple.
This cooler has a lifetime warranty, which you will probably never have to make a claim on unless you're chuck norris and you have a bad temper. I am really kicking my (kiester) for not buying this cooler sooner and wasting my time with all those other Canadian Tire ones. See you out there.
I posted this review on the vendor's website so it's aimed at the general public. Note that I specifically bought this cooler for heading into grizzly bear territory for up to 2 weeks at a time and it's direct competitor for me was the Yeti. That's the cooler I keep referencing as the "bear proof competitor". Yeti's are the only cooler that is a certified bear proof container. I still chose this cooler because I liked the features better than the Yeti.
I also had spotted a large grizzly about 3/4 of a mile from our remote camping spot on saturday evening but unfortunately he was not drawn in to the smell of our smoked sausages roasting on the fire and did not show us whether or not the new Pelican is bear proof I'm posting this here because I know pretty much all of you guys probably own a cooler and I didn't even know these coolers existed until last week. Note that this is being posted from Canada so some of you 'Merikans might not be familiar with some references in this review :laugh:
I bought this cooler Friday afternoon and used it right away for a 4x4 camping trip in the rockies. I did not pre-chill the cooler as is recommended because I didn't have time. I threw what turned out to be a week worth of food, not frozen, into the cooler for the weekend along with 3 bags of ice. I then put in a case of WARM cans of twisted tea (the wife's booze), because the liquor store didn't have any chilled. Long story short I have never arrived home on a Sunday night with 2 bags of ice and then some remaining in my cooler to return to my freezer, until now!
We opened the cooler about 40-50 times over the weekend to get drinks,food, and ice for my whiskey. A few times I even found myself distracted by conversation and left it open for a few minutes at a time. By Saturday night I was pretty taken aback by the fact that there was hardly any water in the bottom of the cooler, especially considering that we had to put the warm case of cans in there. The cooler stayed in the shade most of the time and in the back of the hot SUV during the day with no A/C. Temperatures were 22 degrees C Friday and Saturday, 8 degrees for half of Sunday then 18 degrees for the second half.
The performance of this cooler is second to none. My Coleman xtreme, which also gets great reviews, does not compare in any way to this cooler because it would fail miserably. Everything about this cooler is rugged. A reviewer elsewhere was concerned about the latches but they are great. They are robust and easy to open with one hand or both at the same time with two hands. They don't rattle around and make noise like the little metal latches on other coolers. They open easily and are tough enough for the job.
The lock hasp is stainless steel so somebody can't just cut it open with a regular old camp saw, like the plastic hasp on a bear proof competing brand. This is a trivial feature, because I'm sure if somebody wanted to steal any cooler they'd just take it home and remove the lock anyway. If you were worried about theft, it has tie down points and you could use a bike lock, or even chain and a welder to permanently hold it down in your truck bed/boat deck if you were so inclined.
The rubber feet are robust and hold the cooler in place. I found this to be the first drawback, because it was impossible to slide the cooler around in my SUV. I had to lift it just to reposition it 1 inch to the left or right while loading and unloading the truck every morning and evening. This became hard on the back because it is HEAVY and lifting it while bent over in the back of an SUV is not ideal for the lower back. If I know things will get rough, I will always strap it down anyway. That being said, the feet will be perfect for marine applications, and guess what, it is a marine cooler. Also they may be removable, I haven't looked into that yet.
Pelican should sell a little snap on cart for this thing to wheel it around. What if your marina doesn't have any carts left to get to your slip thats half a mile away? I understand that they can't build wheels into it because it would take away from the insulation. Carrying it into the house/camp from your vehicle is not a big deal though if you are the strapping guy that needs a cooler of this magnitude, may be an issue for some of you desk jockeys though
. The cooler is also quite a bit larger than a cheaper version of an equal capacity cooler because it is 2 inches thick and has a hella massive beefed up framework molded in around where the lid closes to make it strong enough to put the tie down holes and double handles.
When I got home Sunday night I drained the cooler first. I was amazed at how little water was in the bottom, there was less than an inch. There was one unopened bag of ice still frozen except for about 2 shot glasses worth of water, plus what looked like nearly a bag and a half of ice remaining in the cooler. I put it in big ziplock bags and back in the freezer to use it for precooling next time, since it will just be an awkward block of ice cubes after they freeze together.
I had gotten some mud,ash, and various soiling on the cooler over the weekend. I cleaned it inside and out and could not get the mud stains completely out of the lid on the textured surface that I assume is there to help fillet fish or something. There are also some black specks in groups around the edges of the lid that must have come from ash or something, they will not come out. I was a bit disappointed, because this cooler is white and will show dirt like crazy. I'm sure it will look like he(( by the end of this summer if each trip puts stains on it like that. Overall I don't really GAF about the stains. I just thought the shock value of the appearance of this thing when I first show my buddies might be dampened a bit by the dirt stains lol.
This cooler came in at about $100 less than a bear proof competing cooler of equal size, which is what I was going to get until 2 days before purchase time. I discovered this cooler on an online review search for the bear proof competitor. I decided to go with this one because it looks more rugged, comes from the company that originated rugged cases, and has dedicated tie down loops. For 4x4 excursions, some of them being up to 2 weeks long, rugged is important to me. Don't get me wrong, bear proof competitors are awesome coolers too, and they make more sizes than pelican which gives them the advantage of a broader market. I'm still thinking of buying the smallest competitors cooler (for the road)for weekend trips when I only need to keep a bit of meat cold and a bag of ice for whiskey
The Drain, its actually built into the lowest part of the cooler, coming out the side! Funny how 95% of coolers out there miss the fact that putting a drain 1" above the bottom of the cooler will not lead to a fully drained cooler without turning the %*$#@ thing upside down... Pelican did not miss, the drain hole is set down into a special channel, and drain channels start at the opposite end of the cooler, and run their way on an angle down to the drain hole, absolutely brilliant, yet so simple.
This cooler has a lifetime warranty, which you will probably never have to make a claim on unless you're chuck norris and you have a bad temper. I am really kicking my (kiester) for not buying this cooler sooner and wasting my time with all those other Canadian Tire ones. See you out there.
I posted this review on the vendor's website so it's aimed at the general public. Note that I specifically bought this cooler for heading into grizzly bear territory for up to 2 weeks at a time and it's direct competitor for me was the Yeti. That's the cooler I keep referencing as the "bear proof competitor". Yeti's are the only cooler that is a certified bear proof container. I still chose this cooler because I liked the features better than the Yeti.
I also had spotted a large grizzly about 3/4 of a mile from our remote camping spot on saturday evening but unfortunately he was not drawn in to the smell of our smoked sausages roasting on the fire and did not show us whether or not the new Pelican is bear proof
I'm posting this here because I know pretty much all of you guys probably own a cooler and I didn't even know these coolers existed until last week. Note that this is being posted from Canada so some of you 'Merikans might not be familiar with some references in this review :laugh:
