Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I bought this ice chest because I take rafting trips where I put the raft in the river and then take it out a week later. I take off road trips in my Jeep where I may be in the boonies for 4 or 5 days. I have a brand X ice chest that if I am really careful will keep my food for 3 days. After that is canned food and warm soda. But, it was a leap for me to spend this kind of money on an ice chest. I took the leap. I then left for a 4 day trip around the eastern Oregon desert. Friday morning I put one 12 pound bag of ice in the Yeti. I then put in a 6 pack of soda, 4 small bottles of juice, eggs, hash browns, bacon, lunch meat, cheese, condiments.. you get the idea. I did not pre cool the food or the ice chest. The soda an juice were bought off the shelf, not from the cooler. I wanted to pretty much give the Yeti a good reason to fail. I figured if the Yeti ran out of ice, I would divert to a town and take care of it. I took no special care about how many times I opened it. It probably was opened 6 times a day to get stuff out and put stuff back. The following Tuesday I arrived back home and the Yeti was still keeping everything cold. Not cool, cold. I removed the ice and weighed it. 6.3 pounds left of the original 12 pounds. To those who gave this chest a bad review for not keep ice, I have to ask, did you close the lid? I mean I can’t figure it out. To those who gave this chest a bad review for being heavy I have to ask, did you not read the specs? How do you order something that says it weighs 10 pounds and then complain when it shows up and low and behold, it weighs 10 pounds? And guess what? If you put 12 pounds of ice and 20 pounds of food in it, it now weighs 42 pounds. The ice/food/drinks will always be the lion’s share of the weight, not the ice chest. It is well made. You will have to tighten the drain plug to keep it from leaking as it is not one of those cheap push caps, but it made so little water that I never had to drain it. Besides, 12 pounds of ice is about 1 1/2 gallons of water. The less than 6 pounds that melted is less than 3/4 of a gallon. Not enough to flood anything, much less a car. If all you want is something to keep t your stuff cool for an afternoon, I can see why you might be upset by the price or weight. If you need an ice chest to keep your food fresh for a week and the alternative is canned beans and hot soda, this the one for you. This thing works. It does what the manufacturer says it does. Buy it with confidence.