I have been looking for a cooler that is worth a darn and that can hold up to the Arizona heat for more than 2-3 days without a refill on ice or dry ice. My old Igloo 65 just could not cut the mustard on some of my long camping vacations (7-10 day) and hunting (7-17day) trips. I will admit I have been very hesitant on purchasing one of these high end Yeti coolers because I figured I could buy a metric S-ton of ice for the price of one. I was also uncertain of the coolers performance due to the lack of reviews from users in hot climates and no review of how well it kept dry ice.
I started to pay attention to how many times I had to go to town for ice on my last Archery Deer hunt during August 2012 here in Arizona. I made 2 trips to town for ice and dry ice over 11 days with a buddy bringing me ice once also. I decided to add up the monetary cost of each trip for ice. Here is how the math plays out. I would drive about 70 miles round trip for ice at 14MPG equals 5 gallons of gas at $3.50 per gallon is $17.5 per trip. Now add in the two 20lbs bags of ice and the 12-15lbs of dry ice you are at a minimum of $17 for a total of $34.50 per trip approximately. Granted this is still not a whole bunch of money but it will add up over time and after two trips you are at $69. If I had to throw in a third trip now I'm at $103! Now try to figure in how much time I take away from being in the field and you can't put a price on that!
So here it was the beginning of June 2013 and I had another 10 day camping vacation planed and my buddy has an archery Elk tag for September. I always plan on being gone for about 17 days for these September archery Elk hunts. Plus I'll have an archery Deer hunt or two to work into the mix for the year. I said screw it, I'll take some of the money I squirrel away every check that is just for hunting and hunting equipment and buy a Yeti to try out.
The last week of June I loaded up the truck with the camping equipment and the family and head off to Colorado with the new Yeti filled with all of my frozen foods (I always pre-cook as many meals as possible for any trip) and dry-ice. Well unfortunately the area the wife picked out for the annual family camping vacation was not the coolest place in Colorado plus with the west under an extreme heat advisory that week, it did not help things one bit. Where we were camped there were several days that were 100 plus degrees, enough to make any garden verity cooler crap out. Well after 6 days the dry-ice was almost gone with a few good chunks remaining. Every thing remaining inside was still frozen solid and I know I could have went another full day at minimum if not two or three without getting more dry ice.
Needless to say I am very happy with the performance of the Yeti as a freezer and so was the wife. Heck the wife was so impressed she gave the go ahead and suggestion to buy a second Yeti! I am looking forward to using the Yeti this August during the Deer hunt and in September for the Elk hunt. I hope this review helps anyone that is on the fence over putting out the money for one of these coolers.
Happy hunting!
I started to pay attention to how many times I had to go to town for ice on my last Archery Deer hunt during August 2012 here in Arizona. I made 2 trips to town for ice and dry ice over 11 days with a buddy bringing me ice once also. I decided to add up the monetary cost of each trip for ice. Here is how the math plays out. I would drive about 70 miles round trip for ice at 14MPG equals 5 gallons of gas at $3.50 per gallon is $17.5 per trip. Now add in the two 20lbs bags of ice and the 12-15lbs of dry ice you are at a minimum of $17 for a total of $34.50 per trip approximately. Granted this is still not a whole bunch of money but it will add up over time and after two trips you are at $69. If I had to throw in a third trip now I'm at $103! Now try to figure in how much time I take away from being in the field and you can't put a price on that!
So here it was the beginning of June 2013 and I had another 10 day camping vacation planed and my buddy has an archery Elk tag for September. I always plan on being gone for about 17 days for these September archery Elk hunts. Plus I'll have an archery Deer hunt or two to work into the mix for the year. I said screw it, I'll take some of the money I squirrel away every check that is just for hunting and hunting equipment and buy a Yeti to try out.
The last week of June I loaded up the truck with the camping equipment and the family and head off to Colorado with the new Yeti filled with all of my frozen foods (I always pre-cook as many meals as possible for any trip) and dry-ice. Well unfortunately the area the wife picked out for the annual family camping vacation was not the coolest place in Colorado plus with the west under an extreme heat advisory that week, it did not help things one bit. Where we were camped there were several days that were 100 plus degrees, enough to make any garden verity cooler crap out. Well after 6 days the dry-ice was almost gone with a few good chunks remaining. Every thing remaining inside was still frozen solid and I know I could have went another full day at minimum if not two or three without getting more dry ice.
Needless to say I am very happy with the performance of the Yeti as a freezer and so was the wife. Heck the wife was so impressed she gave the go ahead and suggestion to buy a second Yeti! I am looking forward to using the Yeti this August during the Deer hunt and in September for the Elk hunt. I hope this review helps anyone that is on the fence over putting out the money for one of these coolers.
Happy hunting!
