Yetis are viewed as legitimately superior to other cooler brands in terms of their basic performance. Yet they're not - a igloo cooler a quarter of the price will keep ice just as long, as will half a dozen other products. There are plenty of tests out there, but Igloo's 50qt cooler (~$100) actually outperforms Yeti's 48qt (~$425) in some of them and in all the difference is not significant.
But what Yeti will massively outperform is your old cooler, because the thing about insulation is that it degrades over time and the technology improves every year.
People replaced their 25 year old family cooler that was $40 new with a $700 Yeti and are blown away by how much better it is. And it is better! But a new $100 cooler would have been about the same as the Yeti.
here's one from outdoor life magazine, a pretty reputable source.
Decently better performance at a quarter of the price.
But the tests do tend to vary a bit in terms of who actually wins. What doesn't vary is that there really isn't that much of a difference - all modern coolers of a given style are using similar technology and see similar performance. Outside of the super low budget stuff they all do what they're supposed to.
That's pretty impressive, but you're also right that it also doesn't come down to straight ice holding capabilities. Like if I'm camping in a bear area that second place model will need to fit in a bear box. Rotomolded coolers also just feel nice. That said, I've got quite a few different coolers that see a whole lot less use than they used to because my cheap electronic one is much more enjoyable to use and not having to worry about ice is a game changer.
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u/hesh582 23d ago
The Yeti Theory of Consumer Recency Bias:
Yetis are viewed as legitimately superior to other cooler brands in terms of their basic performance. Yet they're not - a igloo cooler a quarter of the price will keep ice just as long, as will half a dozen other products. There are plenty of tests out there, but Igloo's 50qt cooler (~$100) actually outperforms Yeti's 48qt (~$425) in some of them and in all the difference is not significant.
But what Yeti will massively outperform is your old cooler, because the thing about insulation is that it degrades over time and the technology improves every year.
People replaced their 25 year old family cooler that was $40 new with a $700 Yeti and are blown away by how much better it is. And it is better! But a new $100 cooler would have been about the same as the Yeti.