Soft coolers are great for keeping food and drinks cold if you are going to a picnic, camp or hiking, kayaking, or fishing for one or two days. Comparing to hard-sided coolers, soft coolers are more lightweight, portable, and affordable. And thanks to new technology improvement, nowadays, some soft coolers can keep ices for up to 3 days.
In this post, we collect the best soft coolers of different shapes and sizes to help you find the cooler that best fit your need.
Best small soft cooler bag for lunch
If you need a lunch cooler bag for carrying lunch or snacks to work, this AKASO 6L cooler bag is perfect for you.
Mode of food-grade fabric, this small soft cooler bag is safe for keeping
The small soft cooler bag uses closed-cell NBR foam insulation to keep food and drinks cold for up to 24 hours. And made of food-grade fabric, the cooler bag is safe for the food, waterproof, and anti-mildew.
The lunch cooler bag is designed for convenience. It uses magnetic closure for you to easily access your food and drink and an adjustable grid to adjust the size of the bag to pack more food.
And it’s a collapsible cooler bag that you can fold up when it is empty after you have finished the food.
Best soft backpack cooler
A soft backpack cooler provides a great solution for you to carry a cooler to the beach, mountain, or park.
The AKASO 20L backpack cooler is a wonderful choice. It can keep ice for up to 72 hours by using a 5-layer insulation system and NBR foam insulation, which show great ice retention and UV resistance.
And made of 840D nylon Oxford fabric and TPU film, the backpack is waterproof and leakproof. It also features a few thoughtful designs, such as the integrated bottle opener for opening beers, daisy chains to carry little things like water bottles for your trip.
The 20L capacity can hold up to 36 cans(330ml/can). So there is enough room for snacks and drinks for the whole family.
Best soft cooler on wheels
Most soft coolers don’t come with wheels since they are usually small- or medium-size, lightweight, and can be carried or worn on your back.
Coleman 42-can soft cooler is a large soft cooler with wheels that can hold up to 42 cans and keep food and drinks cold for up to 34 hours.
There is a 4Way stretch pocket to hold a phone, keys, or snacks and a side mesh pocket to hold a water bottle.
Best soft cooler with hard liner
Top-notch soft coolers tend to have hard interior plastic liner since the coolers with hard-liner is more leakproof, easier to clean, and less likely to get mold.
AKASO offers a 12L soft cooler with hard liner. The cooler is capable of keeping ice for up to 60 hours. And made of 840D nylon Oxford fabric, TPU film, and IPX7 waterproof zipper, the cooler is durable, waterproof, and leakproof.
The cooler is easy to carry. You can carry it with your hands or use the removable shoulder strap to wear it as a bag.
Best soft cooler tote
Yeti OPPER M30 soft cooler is designed as a tote that you can throw over your shoulder to go outside. It uses magnets and quick-release buckles to close the cooler tote and has a wide mouth for easy packing.
The cooler can keep ice for up to 24 hours by using closed-cell foam.
How to choose a soft cooler
To choose the right soft cooler, you should first consider its ability to hold ice. Do you need to keep the ice for 1 day or longer?
Then the size of the cooler. If you need to carry food and drinks for a family or 4-5 friends, you need a large soft cooler that is about 15 quart to 30 quarts and holds 24 cans to 42 cans.
Soft or hard cooler?
Hard coolers have a larger capacity. You can find hard coolers of 100 quarts or even larger. And with larger capacity, hard coolers have better performance in holding ice and are much heavier than even the largest soft cooler.
Soft coolers are lightweight and are easier to carry around. More importantly, soft coolers tend to be more budget-friendly.
How to keep ice longer in a cooler?
Here are some tips to keep ice longer in a cooler.
- Use bigger ice chunks.
- Pre-cool everything before packing them in your cooler.
- Use dry ice, which lasts longer than regular ice.
- Using either sprinkle salt on the ice that you put in the cooler or mixing it in the water and freeze it makes ice longer.
Learn about more tips to keep ice longer in a cooler.
