I bought a great Igloo backpack cooler

I bought an igloo welded backpack cooler. And I tried it out on the lake last weekend.



It's basically a cooler that works like a drybag. This thing is incredible. Very thick insulation, and it kept ice for almost a couple days, even while opening it regularly.

And it wasn't sitting on a boat the whole time. We were swimming and floating more than anything. While swimming between rafts, it floated.

It's made with raft material. We were pretty hammered, and it proved to be tough as hell. It's obviously very well made.

The zipper pouch on the front is even water resistant. It's not perfect. But having a couple dozen drunk people splashing it, it did much better than I expected. It kept my smokables and lighter dry, until wet hands when into it too many times.

They were selling them at Sam's for about $80. But at the time, I had another soft pack. Once I decided to upgrade, I found this one online for $60.

But Igloo has discontinued it (they don't even show it on their website), in favor of a very expensive redesign.



They basically improved the appearance to a less rugged look. They added a drain plug, and made it 4 quarts larger, a mesh front pouch, and a bottle opener. But they now charge $180 for it instead of $80. I don't see any improvement that makes it worth double the price.

If you're looking for a rugged soft cooler (I specifically wanted a cooler backpack, especially for festivals), this thing is fantastic. Plus, it's still a drybag. So even if you have everything you need in a hard Cooler, this will still be useful on a river or lake trip.

The only thing I don't like, is that the clips for the dry bag are on the sides. It would be easier if one side has a female clip, so you could clip it at the top, like a regular drybag. But the new $180 version is The same way. It still works great, but gets annoying after a few beers. I may try to find a double female clip, and fix it myself.

There's still plenty online from $50-120 (eBay and Amazon have great prices on them). If you're in the market, you really can't go wrong with this cooler.