$200 pelican.com
Want to keep your food cold during an afternoon hackathon? Grab a styrofoam tub and some ice. But if you need a cooler that takes a lickin’ and keeps on tickin’, check out the Pelican ProGear Elite series. I played around with their 35-quart model, the smallest of the line, which ranges up to a monstrous 250-quart chest. They all pack the same heavy-duty construction: 2″ polyurethane insulation and a freezer-grade gasket, boasting ice retention of up to 10 days. I left mine on the deck one Sunday, sitting in the hot sun and opened at least once a day, and there were still chunks of ice inside on Friday. That performance has a price, however: The thing’s a tank, weighing in at 32 pounds bone dry. Still, the cooler’s efficiency, durability, and feature-packed design (the drain plug is threaded for a garden hose, for instance) make it totally worth its weight, especially in those situations where performance counts more than portability.
ADVERTISEMENT
