Pelican Coolers vs Yeti Coolers

When researching high-end coolers to buy there are a few different options.  I’ve compiled a list of features and buying criteria that you should know about before you decide to make your purchase.

Pelican coolers

Pelican Products were founded in 1976 by Dave Parker an avid scuba diver in his California garage.  Dave recognized the need for rugged protective products and first started the company producing rugged flashlights and cases different products to help protect them and make them waterproof or more water resistant.  

Eventually, they expanded to producing high-end rugged coolers with the Pelican Elite product line. Pelican coolers are designed for outdoor enthusiasts and are developed with a focus of being able to retain ice for long periods of time without needing to be refilled.

Pelican coolers in the Elite line are also some of the toughest coolers on the market designed with roto-molded construction to be able to handle whatever you throw at it.

Pelican Coolers Cost

Pelican coolers are almost expensive as Yeti coolers so they are going to be a bit pricier than if you went and bought a normal Coleman cooler however a Pelican Elite cooler is advertised as being able to hold ice for up to 8 days even in the summer heat, and some have said that their coolers have been able to retain ice for up to 10 days.  

A normal Coleman cooler will run out of ice over a weekend trip so if you are planning on making a long trip where you won’t have access to ice you may want to look at getting a Pelican cooler so that you can keep your food or drinks cool on your trip.

Pelican coolers construction

Pelican Elite coolers are designed with roto-molded polypropylene plastic and are insulated using polyurethane foam with latches made of ABS plastic.  

Some cool features of Pelican Elite coolers are that they have a built in bottle opener which could come in handy if you went on your camping trip but forgot to bring along a bottle opener along.  

They also have molded in can holders to help secure your drinks on top of the cooler so that they are less likely to fall off and spill on the ground. They also have rubber feet to help keep them from sliding around in your truck bed or boat.

Pelican Elite coolers are designed with molded-in handles to make them more durable and less likely to break off with use.  They also feature tie downs to allow you to secure the cooler to your truck bed or boat if you want to make sure that it does not slide around on you or to prevent people from trying to steal the cooler if you are not going to be around.

Bear Proof

Pelican Elite coolers are also certified bear-proof which means that they sat the cooler in front of a bear to see if the bear would be able to get into the cooler, if the bear is not the cooler is certified bear proof. Yeti coolers also carry this rating. The Pelican Elite line also has a ruler built into it which could come in hand if you ever need to measure something and didn’t bring along a ruler.

The weight of Pelican coolers vs Yeti coolers is comparable, they are both going to be heavier coolers that are going to be bulky and not as easy to transport around so keep that in mind.  In some of the reviews that I’ve read on Amazon people complained of the weight of the cooler when it was fully loaded. The Pelican Elite 50QT is listed as weighing 26 pounds on Pelican’s website.

Pelican coolers also come with a limited lifetime warranty that will cover the cooler in the event that it was not constructed properly or came with a defect.  

Colors

Pelican coolers also offer more color options than Yeti offers on their cooler product line so if you want your cooler to be unique or if you like certain colors over a basic white or blue cooler then you may want to look at getting a Pelican cooler.  Pelican currently has 14 different colors available on their Pelican Elite product line and even has one camo color if you are into that sort of thing.

Yeti coolers

Yeti coolers were founded in 2006 so they are much newer company than Pelican.  Yeti coolers are also designed for the serious outdoor enthusiast that wants the best of the best.  Yeti coolers focus mainly on producing coolers and not other products. Yeti coolers are definitely are on the pricier end of the cooler spectrum as they are one of the most expensive if not the most expensive cooler brands on the market.  

However, you usually get what you pay for as with the Yeti Tundra cooler line you can expect your cooler to last a long time because Yeti made them with durability in mind. They also have a focus on ice retention like Pelican coolers with their Yeti Tundra line advertising ice retention of 5 days even in the summer heat.

Yeti coolers cost

Yeti coolers sell some of the most expensive products on the cooler market, however, are also highly engineered to be durable and hold up for a long time.  Yetis coolers are comparable in cost with Pelican coolers but Pelican coolers are going to be slightly cheaper so Pelican is going to have a slight edge over Yeti in this department.

However, if you want to tell your buddies that you got a Yeti cooler or if you think that they just look better than Pelican coolers then you may still want to go with the Yeti cooler but Pelican definitely has the edge in this category.

Yeti coolers construction

Yeti Tundra coolers are hard shell coolers also designed with rotomolded plastic as well so like Pelican coolers they are designed to be rugged and hold up to some abuse.  They are designed with 2 inches of insulation to help the cooler retain ice longer.

Yeti Tundra coolers are designed with military grade polyester rope as their handles so they may not be as rugged as Pelican coolers that have their handles molded into the shell of the cooler so keep that in mind.  

Yeti Tundra coolers feature heavy duty rubber latches that are designed to never break but can be replaced in the event that they do. Like Pelican coolers Yeti coolers also feature anchor points built into the coolers so that you can tie down the cooler to a truck bed or boat or prevent it from being stolen at your campsite.  Yeti coolers also feature an interlock lid system to prevent the cooler from accidentally being left open.

Yeti Coolers Colors

One area that Yeti coolers are lacking vs Pelican coolers is their color selection.  For most of the Yeti Tundra lineup, only a few colors are offered with some of their coolers only available in one color, white.  If you want your cooler to stand out more or if you just don’t want to get a boring white cooler you may want to go with a Pelican cooler over a Yeti cooler for that reason.

Pelican Coolers vs Yeti Coolers comparison

With all of that said I personally think that the Pelican cooler is going to be the better value over getting a Yeti cooler.   I think that Yeti coolers are nice but if you can get a cooler that pretty much does the same thing for cheaper why wouldn’t you do that?  But if you want the absolute best cooler for ice retention you would want to go with the Yeti cooler.

Pelican coolers vs Yeti coolers stress test

In this youtube review, this guy and his daughter put a Pelican Elite cooler and a Yeti Tundra cooler to the test by subjecting them to different stress tests to see how long they would be able to retain their ice.  He first does a basic ice test to see how long both coolers would be able to hold ice if he set them outside for a few days in his backyard.

He reports that after 8 days the Yeti Tundra 35 still had ice after 8 days but the Pelican 35 QT was not able to retain its ice for 8 days, so in this real-world test the Yeti did better than the Pelican cooler.  In the video, he also mentions in the video that the Yeti Tundra 35 is a bit smaller on the interior of the cooler than the Pelican 35 QT which could also attribute to why the Yeti cooler held up better in the ice test.

The next stress test he puts the coolers through is setting them on fire to see how they would hold up.  They both held up pretty well the Pelican ended up having the most damage of the two but the Yetis handles did not hold up that well.  

The next test they put them through was they loaded them up with ice and soda closed them up and then loaded them up in their truck bed.  They then went and drove down the road and then drop them both out of the bed of their truck to see how well the coolers would hold up to that abuse both held up well with comparable damage and both did not open or spill out their contents.

On the final test, they do is see how well they hold up they decide because they don’t have a bear around to be able to test the bear-proof rating as advertised by Pelican and Yeti that they would do the next best thing that they could and shoot the coolers with shotguns.  It’s safe to say that both Pelican and Yeti coolers are not shotgun proof.

In Conclusion

Overall I’d say they both held up well in the grueling tests and they both are very durable. If you are looking for a high-end model cooler search no further by getting either a Pelican Elite cooler or a Yeti Tundra cooler.