Some of life’s best memories are made around a cooler. Whether camping with family and friends, soaking up the sun on the beach, hunting in the woods, fishing or boating at the lake, or tailgating before watching your favorite team play, a good cooler is very important.
The appropriate, quality cooler does more than just keep food and beverages chilled to a pleasing taste. The correct cooler can provide you with safety, ease of use, convenience and even comfort. Selecting the right cooler for your event will help make those moments and potential great memories more carefree.
Great coolers provide long term assurance the contents are safe and healthy to consume and transport for long periods of time. Food safety is important, and some coolers today can keep ice up to 5 days at temperatures as high as 90 degrees, allowing for the fun and trips to last longer.
When considering a good cooler, always think about construction and weight. Coolers are most often constructed of plastic, metal, or cloth. Plastic is lightweight and a good insulator. Metal is a great insulator, but metal coolers are heavier and pricier.
If this is your year to provide the all- important sweet potato casserole for Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner you might want to consider a cloth or fabric cooler. These cloth coolers are lighter and store easier. However, they can tear easily and are not the best insulators over long periods of time. If cloth works for your needs, you will want to look for a cloth cooler that incorporates nylon in its design for insulation and durability.
No one wants to try to lug around a massive container that weighs a ton filled with cans, bottles, and food. You do not have to. Some leading manufacturers of higher quality plastic coolers make coolers as lightweight as 7.1 pounds with a 70-quart capacity.
If you need a larger cooler, you can save your back and purchase a cooler with wheels. If you plan on rolling your cooler across the little league field with loose soil or the sand on the beach, be sure to evaluate the wheels on your cooler. You may want to look for larger wheels when rolling through loose sandy terrain.
Of course, check out the handles and hinges and other components for durability and endurance and ease of use. An important feature of larger coolers is the drain. The larger the cooler the more you need a drain in the right spot for ease of lifting and utilization.
Perhaps some might argue the most important feature of the cooler is its bench opportunity! No one will dispute the best seat at any gathering is on top of the cooler! Some manufacturers build benches that can seat up to 250 pounds making the cooler the place to be.
So, decide on what your needs are, buy the cooler for you, and then claim the throne. Always remember with the right cooler it is easy to be cool and chill out!
