The Best Coolers like Yeti but cheaper

When searching for coolers like Yeti coolers but are cheaper there are a few different cooler brands that offer a similar experience with Yeti coolers.  Below I’ve outlined the what makes Yeti coolers stand out from the rest and what other cooler brands offer coolers that perform on par with Yeti coolers.

Construction

Yeti coolers use a special plastic molding process called rotomolding that produces an end product that is very durable and resistant to cracking or breaking.  Rotomolding is a process that begins with putting the plastic powder into a hollow cooler shell mold.

The mold is then continuously rotated while the mold is being heated so that the powder within the mold can be evenly dispersed.  Once cooled the plastic shell would then shrink to separate from the shell mold. You would then be left with the final product which would be the cooler shell. The cooler lids also go through the same rotomolding process.

Capacity

Another main consideration to make when buying a cooler is the capacity of the cooler. The larger the capacity of the cooler the more things you will be able to keep cold and the more beer you will be able to drink on your trip.  

One thing that stands out with other high-end cooler manufacturers compared to Yeti is that their cooler model numbers typically equate to the amount of quarts liquid that the cooler can hold.  With Yeti coolers, however, that is not the case, with Yeti coolers the number of quarts the cooler is able to hold is less than the model number.

With RTIC coolers their model numbers next to the cooler equal the number of quarts the cooler can hold so if you are looking at an RTIC 45, it can hold 45 quarts of water. Comparing that with the Yeti Tundra 45 it can hold 37 quarts of water.

Ice Retention

The main selling point of Yeti coolers is their ability to retain ice for long periods of time compared to their competition.  If you can find a cooler that can retain ice at the same level or close to the level of a Yeti cooler but for a lot less money that is going to be the better option for your wallet.  

Yeti doesn’t make any ice retention claims on their website.  However, based on the ice test challenges that I’ve seen online they usually can hold their ice for around 5 days without needing to be refilled.  

This would be under ideal conditions where you are only opening up the cooler to check the ice levels and then shutting it again. If you are going to be opening and closing the cooler a lot you can expect the ice to not last that long.

Insulation

Yeti will say that their coolers will have 2 to 3 inches of insulation on their hard shell coolers to help them retain ice.  Pelican and RTIC also say that their coolers have at least 2 to 3 inches of insulation as well so they are all comparable when it comes to the insulation used between the different cooler brands.

Price

Price is going to be the main difference between all three cooler brands listed in this article. RTIC is going to be the cheapest out of all of the brands that I listed in this cooler comparison.  

RTIC coolers are consistently around 100 bucks cheaper than Yeti coolers. Pelican coolers are a bit cheaper than Yeti coolers but usually around 50 bucks or so.  That goes without saying that Yeti coolers are going to be the most expensive coolers in this list and are one of the most expensive cooler brands on the market.

I say that if you can find something that is going to function at 80-90 percent of a Yeti cooler then why not go with the cheaper option. However, if you want the best of the best cooler on the market then Yeti is the one you would want to go with.

My Cooler Recommendations

 

Cooler Name	Capacity in Quarts	Link to Amazon
Pelican Elite 20 Quart	20 Qt.	Check Current Pricing on Amazon
Grizzly 15 Quart	15 Qt.	Check Current Pricing on Amazon
Grizzly 40 Quart	40 Qt.	Check Current Pricing on Amazon
Pelican Elite 50 Quart	50 Qt.	Check Current Pricing on Amazon
Seavilis 35 Quart	35 Qt.	Check Current Pricing on Amazon
MILEE Heavy Duty Cooler	45 Qt.	Check Current Pricing on Amazon
Driftsun 45 Quart	45 Qt.	Check Current Pricing on Amazon
RTIC 45 Quart	45 Qt.	Check Current Pricing on Amazon
RTIC 60 Quart	60 Qt.	Check Current Pricing on Amazon

Pelican Elite 20 Quart Cooler

If you are looking for a small cooler that performs like a Yeti but is cheaper then you would want to take a look at the Pelican Elite 20 quart cooler.  

Because this cooler is a bit on the smaller side it makes it a bit more affordable overall as the larger capacity of the cooler you go with will increase the overall cost of the cooler.  

Because this cooler has a capacity of 20 quarts it will be a bit cheaper than a comparable Yeti cooler.  When comparing the capacity of this Pelican 20 quart cooler with the Yeti Roadie 20, the Yeti Roadie 20 actually has 22 quarts which is the only Yeti model where the quart capacity is larger than the model number.  

The Pelican Elite 20 features 2 inches of insulation to help keep your items inside cold.  It also features a freezer grade gasket, reinforced lock mechanism, molded-in tie-down slots, and a stainless steel bottle opener.  

The features don’t stop there as it also includes 3-inch locking latches, 4 self-draining cup holders, and non-skid rubber feet. This cooler is definitely not light on the features that it offers.

Grizzly 15 Quart Cooler

If you are looking for a small cooler for personal use that is also rotomolded like a Yeti cooler but cheaper then consider going with this Grizzly 15 quart cooler.  

It has a capacity of 15 quarts internally and Grizzly states that it can hold 20 – 12oz. Cans of your drink of choice. One of the nice things about Grizzly coolers is the number of different colors that they offer on their coolers.  

This Grizzly cooler has a heavy duty shoulder strap so that you can carry it on your shoulder to transport it.  Other features include the rotomolded design, a plastic tray to hold your dry goods you don’t want to get wet and a bear claw latch system to help keep the cooler lid secured to the base of the cooler.  

For the price, I think that you can’t really go wrong with this cooler if you just needed one for personal use.  If you wanted to use this cooler for more than two people though you may want to look at going with a larger capacity cooler.

Grizzly 40 Quart Cooler

This Grizzly 40 quart cooler is a middle of the road cooler in terms of overall capacity and price compared to the other coolers on this list.  

The Grizzly 40 quart cooler features a 40-quart capacity compared to the Yeti 45 that has a 37-quart capacity.

This Grizzly 40 cooler is also substantially cheaper than the Yeti 45.  The Grizzly 45 also features 2 inches of foam insulation, an interlocking hinge, bear claw hatches, and molded-in handles. This cooler also comes with a dry goods tray designed to store your items that you do not want to get wet inside of your cooler.

The Grizzly 45 also features non-slip feet and a locking system to secure your cooler at your campsite.  The handle on this cooler is a rope handle that has a rubber sleeve that you can grab.

This Grizzly cooler also comes in many different colors to choose from if you want to get a cooler with a unique color.  I personally like the sandstone color the most and I think it gives it a unique look that most other coolers would not have.

Grizzly offers a limited lifetime warranty against defects and makes all of their coolers in the USA.

Pelican Elite 50 Quart Cooler

Pelican coolers are designed somewhat like Yeti coolers but offer a few more features that Yeti coolers would not have.  With this Pelican Elite 50 quart cooler, you get a capacity of 50 quarts.

If you wanted a comparable Yeti cooler with the same capacity you would want to go with the Yeti 50 as it has a capacity of 46 quarts, still less than the Pelican and will cost more than the Pelican.  

The Pelican 50 cooler offers 2 inches of insulation and 3-inch locking latches.  It also features a stainless steel bottle opener, molded-in tie-down slots, and 4 self-draining cupholders integrated into the lid.  

I personally would prefer these handles over the Yeti handles as they are made from the same material of the cooler rather than using a rope for the handles which I would think would be more likely to break.

Seavilis Rotomolded Cooler

If you want to just get a cheap rotomolded cooler and don’t really care about the brand you may want to check out this Seavilis Rotomolded Cooler.  

It has a 35-quart capacity and is still a rotomolded cooler like the other coolers on this list. It features 2 built-in bottle openers, a freezer-style gasket, heavy-duty nylon rope handles, a built-in compass, and non-slip feet.  

I don’t really know much about this brand or how well it would hold up against Yeti coolers or the other coolers in this list but if you are looking for a cheap rotomolded cooler then this cooler is an option.

MILEE Heavy Duty Cooler with Basket and Cupholder, 45 QT

With the last two coolers on this list, they look to be identical coolers just sold by two different distributors.  Their prices seem to be a bit cheaper on the MILEE 45 model compared to the Driftsun 45 model so I personally would go with the MILEE model if you were looking at one of these as they seem to be identical.  

People in the reviews of these products also noticed that these coolers are identical in their construction and features as well. Both the MILEE and DriftSun coolers will have military grade nylon handles, non-slip rubber feet, T-latches, a pressure release button, and two built-in bottle openers.  

I don’t know much about either of these manufacturers so you may want to end up going with a more well-known manufacturer such as RTIC, Grizzly, or Pelican.  With that said the Driftsun 45 seems to have sold more coolers than the Grizzly 40 quart cooler with the difference in the number of reviews on both models.

Driftsun 45 Quart Ice Chest

This cooler is identical to the MILEE cooler listed above because of that I would go with the MILEE cooler as it looks to be cheaper than this one on Amazon.  I’m not sure why this cooler would have more reviews compared to the MILEE cooler when they are identical and the MILEE model is cheaper.

RTIC Cooler, 45 qt

With its rotomolded design and 45-quart capacity, this RTIC 45 qt cooler is a good alternative to the Yeti Tundra 45.  The RTIC 45 features 3 inches of insulation in its walls, heavy duty T-latches, a freezer grade gasket, and non-slip feet.  

The RTIC has a true 45-quart capacity compared to the Yeti 45 that has a capacity of 37 quarts so it will be able to hold more inside of it than the comparable Yeti cooler.  It also features a rapid drain system, molded side handles, and no fail hinges. It is tested to be bear resistant and comes with molded tie-down slots to help you secure the cooler to your truck bed or campsite.  

RTIC coolers are going to be the cheapest options on this list and that is why I recommend them over the other coolers on this list.  They offer ice retention performance on par with Yeti coolers but at a much cheaper price overall.

RTIC 65 Cooler, Blue

Because I have such a high recommendation for RTIC coolers I wanted to put another RTIC cooler the RTIC 65 cooler.  It features rotomolded construction with 3 inches of commercial grade insulation.

When comparing the RTIC 65 versus the Yeti 65 the RTIC 65 is way cheaper. The RTIC 65 also has 65 quarts of capacity compared to the Yeti 65 at 52 quarts.

It has non-slip, a freezer grade gasket, and an integrated locking system.  With the integrated locking system, you can lock the lid to the base of the cooler to prevent people from getting into your cooler while you are away from your campsite.  You can also lock the cooler to an immovable object so that people won’t run off with your brand new cooler.

Like I mentioned in the other RTIC 45 cooler review the RTIC coolers are going to be the cheapest options on this list, however, they may eventually sell out of these models because of their lawsuit with Yeti coolers.

Cutting Open a Yeti Cooler

On the popular Youtube show what’s inside they decide to cut open a Yeti cooler and compare the differences between a Yeti cooler and a normal Coleman cooler.  When they cut them both open they first reveal the Coleman cooler that has foam insulation around the bottom portion of the cooler but does not have any insulation in the lid of the cooler.  

When they cut open the Yeti cooler and reveal what is inside of it the Yeti cooler has insulation all around the bottom of the cooler as well as in the lid of the cooler.  This explains why a Yeti cooler would be able to retain ice longer than a normal Coleman cooler. The Yeti cooler also had thicker plastic walls to help retain it’s ice longer.

I’ve included the video I’m am talking about below.

RTIC coolers

RTIC advertises that their hard shell coolers can retain ice in them for up to 10 days. In the tests that I’ve seen online RTIC can hold its own against Yeti.  The youtube video, I’ve linked below this man tests his RTIC 65 vs his Yeti Tundra 65 and at the end of the test.  It’s the RTIC cooler that comes out on top retaining three times as much ice as the Yeti cooler.  

He believes that the win for RTIC may come down to the physical size of the RTIC cooler versus the Yeti cooler. Because the RTIC cooler is larger than the Yeti cooler he thinks that was a factor in it being able to retain more ice.  In the end, though the RTIC cooler beats the Yeti cooler in the test and the RTIC cooler costs half of the price.

RTIC 65 vs YETI 65 Challenge

In another video comparing RTIC coolers vs Yeti coolers this guy compares the two coolers and shows that the RTIC cooler is comparable in quality versus the Yeti cooler, he points out that gasket of the RTIC is not quite as good and the Yeti has internal dividers that can be used.  

One of the main points of the video is that with the warranty of the Yeti you can contact a local dealer to you and they can send you a new Yeti cooler while your warranty is being sorted out.  

He mentions that with the RTIC cooler they use a consumer direct model so you have to mail them your cooler and they will review the cooler for defects if they do find one they will send you a new one.  During this process, you would be without a cooler though.

In my personal opinion as long as you didn’t have a big trip coming up having to mail out your cooler is not that big of a deal especially if the cooler is significantly cheaper than the Yeti cooler.  Ultimately that is your choice to make.

One thing to note about RTIC coolers is that they were in a lawsuit with Yeti coolers because their coolers look so similar to Yeti coolers.  RTIC was ordered to quit making that design of cooler that looks so similar to Yeti’s design so the ones listed on here may be in limited supply until they are eventually all sold out.

If you wanted to read more about that lawsuit I’ve included a link to an article about that.

Yeti vs RTIC coolers Lawsuit

YETI Vs. RTIC Coolers Which one is really Better?

Pelican coolers

Pelican coolers say their hard shell coolers can retain ice for up to 2 days but based on the head to head tests that I’ve seen online Pelican coolers can hold up to Yeti coolers ice retention capabilities pretty well.  All Pelican coolers are designed with the same roto-molded construction as Yeti coolers so they should be able to hold ice just as well as Yeti coolers.

With Pelican coolers their model numbers will also equal the number of quarts of liquid that the cooler could hold so like RTIC coolers, Pelican coolers are going to be physically larger than their comparable Yeti cooler.  In an ice retention test video on youtube, a Pelican 35 qt cooler and Yeti Tundra 35 cooler are put to the test to see which one is better.

His first test is just a basic ice retention test where he sees how long both coolers can retain their ice.  He reports that after 8 days the Yeti still has some ice left where the Pelican cooler does not have any ice left.  

The second test catches both coolers on fire to test their fire resistance properties.  Both coolers stand up well to the fire test.

On his third test, he locks both coolers up after filling them with soda and then drops them off of a moving truck bed to see how well they are able to resist scratching and if they are able to keep their items inside them instead of spewing them all over the road.  Both coolers hold up well to this test and both are able to keep their soda cans inside of the cooler.

In his fourth and final test, they compare the two coolers by shooting at them with shotguns.  Both coolers fail this test but the coolers were not designed to be used for target practice they are designed to keep your food and cans cold.  

In summary, he thinks that the Pelican cooler holds up well against the Yeti cooler but he still prefers the Yeti cooler over the Pelican cooler in the end.

I’ve included that test of both coolers below.

Grizzly Coolers

Grizzly Coolers are another popular rotomolded cooler brand that makes coolers like Yeti but are cheaper.  All Grizzly coolers are also heavily insulated to provide superior ice retention capabilities compared to normal non-rotomolded coolers.  Grizzly coolers are manufactured in the USA at their Decorah, Iowa facility.

Grizzly coolers and are made for outdoor enthusiasts in mind and are some of the best-rotomolded coolers on the market that also happen to be cheaper than Yeti coolers.  They are also manufactured to help protect against animals in the wilderness by being certified bear resistant.

One of the nice things about Grizzly coolers is the number of different colors that they offer their coolers in.  Grizzly offers colors like lime, red, orange, teal, and my personal favorite sandstone. They also offer more traditional colors such as grey, white, and tan.

In the video below this guy tests a Yeti 45 versus a Grizzly 40 for its ice retention and the Yeti came out ahead but if you are going to be saving some money.

In conclusion

If it were me I would go with an RTIC or Pelican cooler over a Yeti cooler.  If you are looking at an article named coolers like Yeti but cheaper you will probably want to go with one of those two brands.  

Yes, Yeti makes the best coolers in the cooler market but you are going to pay an arm and a leg for one. I would go with one that is going to do hold up almost just as well as a Yeti but come at a significantly better price.  

Personally, I would go with RTIC because they are even designed to look like Yeti coolers and are about half the price of a comparable Yeti cooler.