YETI Cooler advice

My girlfriend just bought me a Yeti YT45 model cooler last week for my birthday, and I heard that it takes a few weeks to get the cooler to reach its max cooling potential. I have read the owner's manual front to back, and all I have gained is that you need to fill the cooler with ice or keep it in a cool place before use. However, I tested it out by putting a 20lb bag of ice in there on Sunday morning with a few beers, and set the cooler in the back of my tahoe. It has been in the 70s this week in SC, and when I checked it this morning, all of the ice had melted. What gives? I thought these coolers were supposed to hold ice for a week plus, even in sunlight or extreme heat. Is it just because the cooler is new? TIA

You have to pre cool the Yetis. They arebt magic.

Put a couple bags of ice (no beer or anything else hot) and keep it closed for a day. When you pack your beer, it's obviously best if the beer cold. pack the chest with enough to completely cover the beer.

I keep mine inside my house when not in use. I put ice in Friday morning to pre cool. Judt emptied my ice maker, nothing special. That afternoon I put in my beer (a case) and emptied two bags on top. I bought an extra bag for the tailgate and laid it on top. I was in and out of the cooler for the baseball games Friday and Saturday and still had ice yesterday afternoon. About 75% had melted, but it was still cold. Very cold.

My dad hates his. Says its too heavy for his old arse to load up in the truck by himself. I am hoping he gives it to me this weekend

My buddy has the biggest one made for his offshore boat and we don't lose a piece of ice offshore in the sun for 2 days and he doesn't "cool it" or any shite like that before loading With ice from the ice machine at the camp

I'm going to be pissed off when my $340 ice chest does this. Pre-cooling an ice chest? WTF? It's 2012. Can't this nation produce an ice chest that holds ice?

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The guys I hunt with who have Yetis all say the same thing - if you are opening and closing them all day you might as well just buy yourself 2-3 igloos instead b/c the ice melts anyway and the latches are a pain. For long term cold storage, Im sure they are great but if you are going to use it as a beer chest then the constant influx of warm air is going to melt the ice at the same rate as a regular chest. that being said, Im sure "pre-cooling" the interior of the ice chest will help. My brothers buddy has a 65 qt(?) that he keeps full of ice and beer in the back of his F150 (chained and locked of course) and it seems to keep ice well, however hes not opening and closing it all day.

Yea, they're made for cold storage, not going in and out of like a beer cooler. That being said, it won't stop me from using mine for cold beer either.

never heard anything about a breaking in period.

I have one and have been underwhelmed by the difference between them and a high quality 'normal' cooler.

A Yeti is not a cooler that you want to open & close constantly.

The best results I have are to buy my beer cold and load the cooler to the top with ice. If we go offshore we usually load the Yeti just to keep the ice frozen...like Neck said Ice keeps for the entire weekend.

For those saying it isn't good for beer, that's all we use it for offshore actually going to the beach tomorrow for the weekend and we aren't bringing it down from the condo bc it is so heavy but it shoulD hold all the ice we need all weekend once we fill it up from the ice machine at his house before leaving


As for the cost,I just found out it is the 2nd biggest. He didn't buy it he did landscaping work for a marina and got that in exchange for his work, so I'd say pretty frickin expensive