Soft Coolers / Guide
Soft cooler ice retention: what the tests measured, and what to expect at the beach
Nineteen soft coolers, one lab, one protocol. The best held food-safe temperatures for 3.6 days sealed indoors; most held one to two. Here is the whole table and the translation to a day in the sun.
By Mike M.Updated Researched · every figure sourced
#adReader-supported: we may earn a commission if you buy through our links, at no extra cost to you. It never decides a ranking. How we rank · Disclosure
The full table
OutdoorGearLab, “Best Soft Cooler,” updated September 15, 2026, days below 40°F (food safe) and below 50°F (drinkable), sealed, in a controlled room. Every row below is theirs.
| Soft cooler | Days below 40°F | Days below 50°F | Capacity | Price (OGL list) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| YETI Hopper M20 Backpack | 3.6 | 4.0 | 36 cans / 20.1 L | $325 |
| Engel HD30 | 3.0 | 3.3 | 63 cans / 41.8 L | $200 |
| IceMule Jaunt 15 (the 9 L Classic Mini is what is stocked) | 2.7 | 3.0 | 28 cans / 15.7 L | $110 |
| Engel Roll Top BP25 | 2.5 | 2.7 | 52 cans / 25.3 L | $190 |
| YETI Hopper Flip 18 | 2.4 | 2.6 | 30 cans / 16.4 L | $300 |
| AO Coolers 24 Pack Canvas | 2.3 | 2.5 | 36 cans / 23.4 L | $95 |
| IceMule Pro 33 | 2.3 | 2.5 | 56 cans / 31.4 L | $145 |
| Titan 30 Can Zipperless HardBody | 2.1 | 2.3 | 30 cans / 19.4 L | $70 |
| RTIC SoftPak 20 | 2.0 | 2.1 | 24 cans / 13.1 L | $99 |
| CleverMade Pacifica 30 | 1.9 | 2.1 | 38 cans / 18.5 L | $40 |
| Tourit Backpack 30 | 1.9 | 2.1 | 24 cans / 16.9 L | $37 |
| RTIC 30 Can Ultra-Tough Soft Cooler | 1.8 | 2.0 | 30 cans / 18.0 L | $129 |
| REI Co-op Campwell 18 | 1.7 | 1.9 | 34 cans / 19.0 L | $40 |
| Lifewit Large Insulated 24 | 1.6 | 1.8 | 24 cans / 13.2 L | $24 |
| YETI Hopper Flip 12 | 1.6 | 1.7 | 24 cans / 10.8 L | $250 |
| Sparter 30-Can Backpack | 1.5 | 1.7 | 35 cans / 17.5 L | $37 |
| Arctic Zone Titan Zipperless HardBody 24 Backpack | 1.5 | 1.7 | 22 cans / 10.8 L | $53 |
| YETI Daytrip 9L | 1.2 | 1.4 | 12 cans / 7.0 L | $145 |
| Carhartt Two Compartment Lunchbox | 0.8 | 0.9 | 15 cans / 9.6 L | $43 |
Source: OutdoorGearLab, September 15, 2026. Products not in this site's registry (IceMule, CleverMade, Tourit, REI, Lifewit, Sparter) are listed for completeness and are not ranked here because we have not sourced their maker pages.
The Yeti and RTIC numbers
Yeti: M20 3.6 days, Flip 18 2.4, Flip 12 1.6, Daytrip 9L 1.2; Outdoor Life separately measured the M20 at 55 hours with a one-third ice load. RTIC: SoftPak 20 2.0, Ultra-Tough Soft Cooler 30 1.8; the Ultra-Tough Soft Pro and Ultra-Tough Backpack were not tested by anyone we cite. Across the board, volume helps (bigger bags hold more ice per square inch of lid), and closures without zippers held longest. Hopper vs RTIC Soft Pack reads those two brands together.
From the lab to the beach
That is also why hard cooler vs soft cooler comes down to the job: the same lab measured rotomolded hard coolers at 4 to 7 days, so a soft cooler is the day cooler and the hard one is the trip cooler, and splitting drinks into the soft one keeps the hard one's ice.
Getting more hours
- Pre-chill in the freezer if the cooler fits; a soft cooler is small enough that this works. How to pre-chill a cooler.
- A hard ice pack on the bottom, cubes on top. Outdoor Life found the $8 Igloo MaxCold block held 31°F after four hours on a counter. Best ice packs.
- Fill it. Air melts ice; a half-empty soft cooler collapses and traps warm air.
- Shade and a towel over the lid. Worth more hours than any cooler choice on this page.
- Keep the zipper shut. Every open is a full air exchange in a bag this small. The full list.
The three that measured longest
Our picks for this
The soft coolers with the most measured ice in the registry
Ranked here by the lab number alone; the full rubric is on the roundup.
Best backpack cooler
YETI Hopper M20 Backpack Cooler
3-yr warranty9.2/103.6 days below 40°F, first of 19; 55 hours at Outdoor Life; 3-year term.
$325.00YETI Hopper M20 on Amazon#ad · Price as of November 5, 2026 · Disclosure for the link to YETI Hopper M20 Backpack Cooler
Best soft cooler for ice retention
Engel HD30 Soft-Sided Tote Cooler Bag
1-yr warranty9.1/103.0 days, 63 cans, $200; 1-year term.
$179.99Engel HD30 Soft-Sided Tote Cooler Bag on Amazon#ad · Price as of November 5, 2026 · Disclosure for the link to Engel HD30 Soft-Sided Tote Cooler Bag
Best value soft cooler
AO Coolers 24-Can Expedition Canvas Soft Cooler
Lifetime warranty9.1/102.3 days at $95; 30-year design; warranty unverified.
$85.95AO Coolers 24-Can Expedition Canvas on Amazon#ad · Price as of November 5, 2026 · Disclosure for the link to AO Coolers 24-Can Expedition Canvas Soft Cooler
The ranked roundup is at the best soft coolers.
Size is part of this answer and it is looser than it looks — the 20-liter Hopper M20 out-held the 42-liter Engel HD30 in the same test. What size soft cooler do I need lays the measured volumes against the measured days.
How we scored this
What we checked before picking
Every pick on this page is built from documents you can open yourself: the maker's published capacity, insulation, dimensions and weight; the warranty term quoted from the maker's own warranty page with the date we read it; the parts catalogue, to confirm the latches, gaskets, plugs, lids and straws can actually be bought; and the third-party ice-retention tests that measured these models (OutdoorGearLab, Outdoor Life, Treeline, Outside, Gear Patrol), credited to the publisher that ran them. Every figure links to where it came from, so you can check the pick before you buy it.
Scores run from 8.4 to 10: 9.5–9.8 is category-defining, 9.0–9.4 outstanding, and 8.4–8.9 excellent and strongly recommended. Nothing below 8.4 is listed here — a product that cannot earn 8.4 on the rubric gets replaced by a stronger one rather than published with a weak number.
Scores are editorial judgments built from that documented research. Commissions never set a score or decide a pick. The rubric and its weights are published.
Questions
Frequently asked
How long does a soft cooler keep ice?
Sealed in OutdoorGearLab's lab: 0.8 to 3.6 days below 40°F across 19 soft coolers, with the YETI Hopper M20 at 3.6 and the Engel HD30 at 3.0. In use, about a day for the good ones.
How long does a Yeti Hopper keep ice?
M20: 3.6 days (OutdoorGearLab) and 55 hours at one-third ice (Outdoor Life). Flip 18: 2.4 days. Flip 12: 1.6 days.
How long does an RTIC soft cooler keep ice?
SoftPak 20: 2.0 days; Soft Pack 30: 1.8 days, per OutdoorGearLab. The Ultra-Tough Soft Pro has no measured figure we could find.
Which soft cooler keeps ice the longest?
The YETI Hopper M20, at 3.6 days, in OutdoorGearLab's September 2026 table.
Where do these measurements come from?
Every figure on this page is OutdoorGearLab's or Outdoor Life's.
Keep reading
Related on Chill & Chest
- Best soft coolersThe rubric applied to these numbers.
- Best soft coolers for ice retentionThe bags ranked on these hours alone.
- Best backpack coolers for hikingMeasured days against empty pounds.
- Best cooler totesMeasured days for the carry-by-hand bags.
- Best soft coolers for the beachLab days turned into beach hours.
- Cooler ice retention chartThe hard-cooler table.
- Hard cooler vs soft coolerBoth tables, side by side.
- How to keep ice longerThe hours you control.
- How ice retention tests workWhat 'days below 40°F' means.
Receipts
Sources
- OutdoorGearLab — "Best Soft Cooler", updated September 15, 2026, comparison table (read 2026-09-21)
- Outdoor Life — "We Tested the Best Coolers Head to Head", May 28, 2026, one-third-capacity ice test (read 2026-09-21)
- Outdoor Life — "Best Ice Packs for Coolers", June 12, 2025, 36-hour freeze test (read 2026-09-21)
- Switchback Travel — "Best Soft Coolers of 2026", updated June 25, 2026 (read 2026-09-21)
- L.L.Bean (authorized YETI dealer) — YETI Hopper M20 Backpack product page (read 2026-09-21)
- RTIC — Soft Pack Cooler product page (read 2026-09-21)
- AO Coolers — Canvas Series 24 Pack product page (read 2026-09-21)
Specs come from the maker's own product pages (linked on every product), warranty terms from the maker's warranty page with the date we read it, and ice-retention measurements are attributed to whoever measured them. Prices are the live Amazon price with the date they were last checked. Where a figure isn't published anywhere, the page says so. Read the full method.