Lifetime cooler, great cooler for great price

[oldmopars]

As everyone knows keeping food cold in very important on the trail. As much as I would like a fridge, there are a lot of reasons right now that I am not getting one. However I do need a good quality cooler.
I am sure everyone is familiar with the Yeti and RTIC brand coolers. I am too and also not a big fan of the prices. I searched for at least a month looking at every cooler on Amazon and other sites and figured I would get one of those. I wanted something in the 45-60 Quart range.
I visited several stores and nothing was right. Everything I looked at from every source was $150-400 for a cooler. I wanted a Roto-Molded thick walled, bear proof etc.
My wife and I visited Walmart and I was again looking at the coolers. I found the Lifetime coolers. These things are great.
I got a 55 Quart cooler. Roto-Molded, Stainless steel thick rod style hinges, cam lock latches, fridge style seal, a drain that hooks to a garden hose for remote draining, very solid and Bear Proof/resistant. The cam style lacthes are a big deal for me. I have really bad Arthritic and have problems with the Yeti latches. These are really easy.
All for just under $100, $104 with Tax out the door.
So far I am super pleased with it. I head out on Monday to California for work and I have loaded it in the Subaru. I want to avoid restaurants and save money so I got a Hotel Suite with full kitchen. I am packing food from home and this will carry it.
Also, one of the best things is that this cooler is made in the USA. Not a China knock off, but American Made.
I hope this great budget option helps someone else get a great cooler for a smaller investment. I have plans for the $200+ I save on this.

 

[Viking1204]

Nice, good to know Lifetime products or at least their coolers are American Made!

 

[Scout]

Soo how did it work out for you on the trip?

 

[oldmopars]

Soo how did it work out for you on the trip?

So far it is working really good. I have found that I need to put more Ice in it that I have. It is quite big and I did not take enough stuff to fill it, so there was a lot of air space.
One of the days I arrived at the job site and the car was parked in direct sun. The outside of the cooler was so hot I could not touch it. Things were still cool inside though.
So far I really like it. I maybe should have gone a size down, but when it is my wife and I we will need more space than I do right now.

 

[Downs]

I've got the 28 quart model. Could never bring myself to drop the coin on the "other" roto molded coolers. Far too rich for my blood. I precool mine and try to precool any items I'm putting in there and ice has no problem lasting 5 days as long as I can keep my kids out of it ha. I fill it up about 3/4 full with ice then place items on the bed of ice. Last trip I went on was March to New Mexico. I still had the original ice in there when I rolled back into the driveway 4 days later and it lasted another 3 days sitting in my garage before it was mostly water.

Well worth the money unless you just have to have a specific name on the side of the cooler and don't want to drop the coin on a 12v freezer/fridge.

 

[seawolf156]

This is great info! I have also been searching for a great cooler, thank you for the review

 

[Sputnik]

Decent price, USA made, and works pretty well from the sound of it...Walmart, you say? I may need to go find one of these. Ice doesn't seem to last but a couple days in my cheapo igloo.

 

[472HemiGTX]

I've got a friend who has one of these and swears by it. We call it a Weti (Walmart Yeti). But......week long hunting trips, trips to Mexico, extended day fishing trips, it has worked great and held ice as long as my RTIC or my other buddy's YETI. If I ever need another cooler, I'm going to look at getting a Lifetime.

 

[RoarinRow]

Yup I keep the 28Q Lifetime cooler in the shell 24/7.

 

[Matthew Reed]

I have the 55 as well and mine has gone on quite a few road trips and Overland adventures. No complaints from me! I’ve been thinking about getting the 28 as well as a drink cooler so I’m not constantly opening the big cooler every time I want a beverage. That should help my ice last a lot longer

 

[MuckSavage]

Nothing but good things to say about my Lifetime cooler. By the way, we call mine "FETI" (fake yeti)

 

[Fly_hippie]

I carry two 28L lifetime coolers and they are awesome. Pre-cool them before adding ice and they'll keep ice for longer than you'd expect.

 

[FranklinFamOutdoors]

How does one "pre-cool" a roto cooler? Just fill it with ice before you fill it with ice?

 

[reaver]

I've used my 52qt on several trips now (of varying Temps - the last being in the upper 80s to low 90s), and it's done great. Filled with two blocks on the bottom, and surrounded by cubes, and it lasted my entire 4 day trip. Going again in a couple weeks, and it will last just fine. We'll worth the money, I think.

 

[Fly_hippie]

I just throw in a couple of those frozen plastic freezer packs the night before heading off. Big difference in how long the ice will keep.

 

[huachuca]

FTR, the Lifetime coolers are blow molded rather than roto molded (see email response below). However, the hinges, latches, drain and seal they use are definitely an upgrade from what Coleman and Igloo used in the past. And those are the components I had to replace at least every other year. The Lifetime case also appears to be much more durable. I was on the Ozark Trail consumer evaluation panel a few years back and was given several sizes of their coolers for testing. These are roto molded and, I think, a good value for those who must have a cooler this method of construction but I doubt their ice retention is significantly different from the Lifetime's given the same profile of use.

Thank you for contacting Lifetime Products. The coolers are blow molded.

Thank you,

Sarah
Customer Service
Lifetime Products, Inc.

 

[FranklinFamOutdoors]

I just throw in a couple of those frozen plastic freezer packs the night before heading off. Big difference in how long the ice will keep.

Thanks, that's great to know!

 

[Downs]

How does one "pre-cool" a roto cooler? Just fill it with ice before you fill it with ice?

I just toss a frozen gallon jug in the cooler the night before then the day of drop 2 smaller half gallon blocks in then 1.5 bags of ice ontop of that. Some people use a "Sacrifical" bag of ice the night before. Toss the ice and refill with fresh ice right before you leave. Just pulling the cooler from the garage or attic into the house 24 hrs before can help preserve your ice quite a bit.

All this can greatly extend the time your ice will last even in hot weather.

 

[wahoowad]

I like my 55 qt Lifetime cooler, but in less than a year of very light usage we recently noticed a moderate amount of lid warpage has already occurred. I did a lot of research before buying and this was a good value compared to many other competitors, but now I realize none of those reviews were for brand new coolers and not anybody who owned one any length of time. Nothing has been stored on top of this and we don't use it for a seat or stepping stool. I sent photos to Lifetime's support team a week ago but no response.

Note in the last photo how the sides of the lid are bending up and away from where the lid seals to the bottom section.

 

[huachuca]

Downs (Post#18) - Good advice on the pre-cooling especially if its rotomolded. These are usually well insulated and tend to retain their 'starting' temp.

Wahoowad (Post #19) - That looks to be some serious warping. Please let us know how Liftetime responds.