the "marine" series igloo is simply a white cooler with stainless screw. it is nothing at all remotely special to help keep ice retention. the only "economy" cooler for ice retention is the COLMAN XTREME 5 Day series. I have a 175 and it truly is a 3 day cooler. BUT and a big BUT is the fact that it has 90-130# of ice in it and that mass of ice does great. That Igloo is basically a large 15 gallon bucket with a lid in my eyes. You have to be in the extreme or 3,4,5 day class to truly keep ice long term. These days the word "marine" is just a sales ploy, they are the same as the colored coolers structurally. Some have ss hinges and latch but other than that upgrade they do not keep ice any longer than your regular $35 red cooler.
now yeti is the biggest player advertising wise and one of the founders. But you cannot leave out: K2, Ozark, Grizzly, Pelican, Yukon, Orca, ICYtech, RTCH ( they are identical to a yeti "made int he same factory" half the price BUT you have to wait like 3 weeks for delivery because of back log)
One other note that applies to all coolers. PREP. Ok so if you grab a 90* cooler out of the shed and toss hot beer in it and 20# of ice on top you will have roughly a 60% loss out of the gate on your ice as the beer and the cooler are sucking the energy out of the ice to cool the physical cooler and contents.
out west expiditions gets 7-10 days in the summer out of their coolers yeti and grizzly and a few others. They put the empty coolers in a walk in freezer for a couple days ahead of time. This gets the structure cool. They add already cold contents. This is the 2nd and possibly the most important element to ice retention. Then the use of cold cold ice (not your half melted wet ice) you want ice that is not wet (you know what i mean). Large blocks or ice packs aid int he longevity. and fill the air space of the cooler.
the above yields very efficient ice retention for a day out.
If i know i am going in the boat saturday i will ice down the cooler the night before so the contents and structure cool. Knowing that i will have loss i will top off the ice the day of the event of the boat trip. This is the key to my tailgating cooler success and boating.
For the long weekends and you want food to stay frozen. The nice thing about the construction of the yeti unlike your regular coolers is that the Yeti is built to withstand DRY ICE direct contact. get a couple blocks at the grocery store and toss on the bottom. Then add a piece of card board so the food packages do not freeze to the blocks.
A friend drives a truck at the beach all summer selling ice cream in the direct sun all day. A yeti with dry ice setup and ice cream will stay frozen 3-4 days int he direct sun and being opened and closed constantly.
Remember that the prep is key. Even being a yeti you cannot grab a hot yeti and toss hot beer in it and ice on top and expect that to last your 5 days.Simply because of the LOSS FACTOR and this is where so many people mess up on all makes of coolers. plan ahead or be prepared for the ice to disapear.
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