Make your own YETI - Update!

[Goldeneye]

I got one of these (Coleman Esky) in a silent auction the other day for $200.  I was pleased since that was about half of retail.  In comparing it to my Yeti it looks like they tried their best to copy the Yeti.  This does have a few more bells and whistles than the Yeti.  It'll be put to test side by side with my Yeti at elk camp in November.  I'm guessing it'll have similar performance.

http://www.eskyseriescoolers.com/product/esky-series-85-quart-cooler-kaki/3000003047?contextCategory=300000#.VBxqwBCGdNN


washelkhunter,

  I'll be interested to hear how your homemade Yeti clone performs.  It looks good on everything I can see in the pic's and your description.

[washelkhunter]

OK; here's the straight skinny during an unseasonably warm ML season. Filled my DIYeti with the 2 one gal frozen jugs, 6 h2o bottles and 6 brewskis. I had 2 basins in the cooler as shown to hold food stuff I want to keep dry. I filled the remaining empty space of the cooler with half of a large bag of cube ice. My second cooler is a 70qt Coleman extreme which I used as the freezer. All my frozen foods went in there. I loaded that with 2 blocks of ice, 1 large bag of ice and the other half of the lg bag I poured into the DIYeti. This was on the morn of Oct 1st. I came home yesterday eve 6ish and had to go to dinner with the misses cause it was her B-day. Started to unload my rig at 11:30 AM today.  The 70qt extreme still had 1/3 of the block ice remaining and no cubed, which we were actively using for mixed drinks. All meats were thawed. The DIYeti's jugs were thawed out. I had added 1/2 small bag of ice to this cooler on the 6th of Oct tho I still had cubed in there. Both these coolers were kept in the shade of the kitchen but with the sun beating down temps in there were rising to 80*+. In conclusion the Coleman extreme outperformed my DIYeti by 1 to 2 days, but the water in the DIY was still very cold. There was no spoilage noted. It was a fun project and worthwhile as well as cost effective. I'll keep using the DIYeti but if I was in the market for new coolers that aren't going to break the bank I'm buying more Coleman extremes. 

[CAMPMEAT]

Who's the ATV lovin' guy ?

[Buzz2401]

Hard to beat the coleman extremes.  They keep stuff cold as well or better then the high end ones and are very affordable.  I get about 8 years out of the Colemans so I feel they hold up well enough.  I am sure a yeti will most likely last decades but I'm not willing to risk the theft of a $500 cooler.