Soft Shell Yeti? For realz?

[Uncle_Skwid]

So on a slight impulse I picked up this Yeti soft shelled cooler last year, like last May, the HOPPER, they call it, the HOPPER 20 or some such verbish-sounding noun (sense), 20 meaning the small one, or, like, the REAL small one now, or 20 meaning that it can apparently hold 20 pounds of ice, if you’ve got nothing but ice in your cooler. They’ve added some larger sizes (30 and 40 for I suppose the corresponding poundages of ice) for--I’m not really sure why, actually--larger people? I’ve been using it now for a year, primarily for day trips to the river or maybe two day- or (pushing its capacity to keep things cold) three day- trips in what we might call the “shoulder season”. It's definitely not the cooler for trips. Any longer than two and the HOPPER loses its essence, its soul, and you need to move to a double-walled hard shell if you want crisp vegetables and cold beer on like day 18. I'm a big fan of both, actually. Cold vegetables and cold beer. Especially on these hot summer days in Virginia when you come out to work on your strokes and learn to fall over.

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I paid full retail price (minus like 20 u.s.d. for some kind of Gander Mountain Credit Card deal--a place I do not frequent, for the record), meaning I paid like 280 green US dollars for the thing, before tax. Probably in the end I paid like 294 green US dollars, which may seem like a lot of money for a soft cooler. (I once paid 50 u.s.d. for an LL Bean soft cooler because I heard they were pretty tough, and it did last most of one summer in my boat, for which I was grateful. But then I thought 50 bucks was a little steep for not even one season.) Regardless, many people, including my wife, are like: You paid whaaaa? For whaaa?

My second disclaimer is that I don’t mind paying for what we might call technologically specific quality products. I recognize that a lot of time and thought, trial and error, testing and tweaking, wet nights and hot days--I suppose a lot of history and human experience--goes into a quality product, and if that product seems really expensive to you that might be because you don’t really need it, or maybe you won’t really be using it to the full edges of its costly potential and can therefore easily spend less on something inferior. (I could never justify, for instance, spending however much money people are spending now on a state of the art TELEVISION. My God. It's a TV. I simply could not use the thing to its full gaming/sound/3-dimensional entertainment/internet on acid potential.) The gnawing sense of expense and regret could also mean the product is simply overpriced (I won’t mention the $100,000 canoe seen elsewhere on this site because I’m certain in someone’s mind that is a fair price for a handmade product), which is why way back at the beginning of this paragraph I added the emphasis on quality. Like a specific quality. I might here also add grudgingly that the expensive feel of quality might come from the reality that you’re dirtbag broke like myself and EVERYTHING seems crazy expensive and out of reach until you come up with elaborate philosophies to justify your whacko spending habits…

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But so in the end quality can be sort of synonymous with high performance or maybe designed to meet specific needs arising out of specific circumstances blah blah blah and but so wow. Sorry. Rambling a bit. Suffice to say that in the end I don’t mind paying for really decent gear and as an example I appreciate being able in the 21st century to say, truly, that ALL weather is GOOD weather.

Anywho. I have found this summer that on my frequent swim trips to various local rivers I'm getting very directional and nearly hostile questions about my YETI HOPPER. Not about the integrity of design or quality of workmanship or durability of materials, which as everyone knows is absolutely hands-down top of the class. By far. Like best soft cooler ever. That's not even debatable. But about the price tag. What makes what is essentially a “day cooler” or an "overnight cooler" worth 300 bucks? Dude. In the dead of winter--at least around here--no one questions the $1000 price tag of a Kokatat Drysuit. A bomber drysuit in winter is probably more important than your boat, in terms of longevity and quality of life. But 300 bucks for a soft cooler?

Come on, dude.

And I’m like: I know, right? Way too much. Way too much for the ordinary summer canoeist drifting with his feet kicked up on the gunnels and a fishing line stretched all the way up the river to the last riffle. But then,

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I’m probably not your typical summer shandy canoeist. I like to as they say work on my skillz. And when the weather gets warm, I spend a lot of time upside down in my canoe, which, in case you hadn’t noticed, has a really big hole in it that tends to let in a bit o' water. Which said water then infiltrates any soft coolers present. I also spend an unfortunate amount of time raking upside down over rocks, sucking wind in the washing machine--which is why I tend toward soft coolers in my canoe, by the by--swimming my crap to the nearest rock to get back in and do it again. I spend a lot of summer time learning to better dance the dance of water and boat. To learn better what it means to fall over so I don't have to fall over as much. To learn better what it means to canoe. And in the summer, when the sun is high and the water is warm, what better time? to be able to reach through what is essentially a dry suit zipper sewn onto a big waterproof pocket (no losing your ice on the first flip) made out of commercial raft PVC and affixed with six points of attachment so it never moves against the hull of my boat no matter the earthquake weather and pull out from the deep blue ice some cold celery, or a cold cucumber quartered with a pinch of salt, or a tomato sandwich on a hot day, or a crisp salad with oil and vinegar and a cold spot of iced tea or a delightfully wicked Hopsecutioner IPA after being half submerged breathless in river water for hours: Priceless.

Way too much money. Tough as crap. Waterproof. And after year one my Yeti Hopper looks just like it did the day I bought it. I'm totally impressed.

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[Canotrouge]

I like that guy^^^.... We think the same way, we don't agree on choice of food, or beer, but on the importance of good quality and craftsmanship!! Life is to short to spend time returning things that failed to the warranty department! I'm to cheep or poor to by anything but top quality gear, tools, boats, bikes...Coolers!!
Cheers

 

[makevx73]

Yeti products? The jury is out, since I don't own one yet. But I have been looking...

Your writing style? Priceless!!!

 

[Nodrama43]

nice writing! I too am of the "buy once, cry once" mentality. I am fickle when it comes to gear and tend to spend a lot of time researching until I take the plunge. When I was upside down in the Greenbriar River a couple of weeks ago I was cursing my cheap plastic cooler that was filled with river water. Maybe I need to take the plunge for a Yeti as well?

 

[yellowcanoe]

I'm on for looking at gear as an investment. But for me a cooler of any kind would be a waste. I've been canoe tripping since 1963 and never thought of taking a cooler, and never missed not taking one.

Floating feet up? Not in Woodland Caribou or the Missinaibi? O wait.. can you send me a sherpa so I can carry steaks and celery and that ilk on the Dickson Bonfield Portage in Algonqui?. Day 7 fresh food would be great!

now lets work on a nice Grade VI kneeling pad for you. Your knees look sore!

If I ever do need a cooler I know where to look! How long can you keep food cool?

 

[Uncle_Skwid]

Okay.

I mean, I think. Mostly.

But dudes (and dudettes), don't hear me wrong! I certainly do not recommend the Hopper. Too danged expensive. That’s part of the irony. I think. Or maybe the absurdity. That it DOES'N’T keep stuff cold for more than a day or two. That it’'s a dang useless piece of semi-flaccid plastic being pimped out for two hundred ninety-nine plus ninety-nine cents, pre-taxed United States of America Dollars! Hard shelled Yetis (and now Jacksons and Grizzlies and several others) can keep ice for two weeks, if you manage the cooler like an angry tyrant. In which case their excessive costs can be somewhat more easily justified, for those who, even occasionally, or randomly, pack a cooler on a road trip. And yet…

And yet the Hopper holds a welcomed place in my mounded pile of useless boating schwag, for reasons I have above attempted to bullseye, primarily by stabbing blindly at the linguistic space around the target (or trying to determine what is not important..?).

So but then. Neither am I suggesting a personal paucity of or aversion to floating feet up spider line stretched upriver--which is on the contrary a state of being I wholeheartedly recommend and practice with something like obsessive compulsion (admittedly to the gurgling laughter of river fish across the southeast), though I'’d probably get down on my worn out knees on my newly installed Grade VI kneeling pad for Thunderfalls--merely that the cost of the Hopper would in such a situation exceed the Hopper’s potential benefit, which apparently lies on a sort of absurdly thin line of cost-to-benefit usefulness, said line being the oblique and impossibly remote subject of discussion.

(As a side note I of a sudden feel like I'm stuck in a oddly hypnotic Nick Cave song.)

Of course, now that I think about it, my entire pile of useless tchotchke contained in my deteriorating house and the rack of worn out clothes stinking up the old wardrobe in the room packed with more useless bauble can probably be said to walk an absurdly thin line of usefulness, but.

Well. Even so.

I will say, YC, that if you ever needed some fresh celery and a deliciously rare beef steak at Lake Bonfield, and I was trudging along with you, then a Sherpa it would be! Scott Lindgren had 60 porters trudging across the Tibetan Plateau for his first decent of the Yarlung Tsangpo, at about 100 yuan/day per porter (2002 prices: like 12 u.s.d.). I think we could manage one. If I sold my Yeti Hopper. But only for you.

 

[yellowcanoe]

What I need this weekend is something to keep food warm.. no.. just kidding. The Atlantic Ocean keeps stuff pretty cold!

Dam thread. The local Ace Hardware has a big banner on their fence.. YETI Ill try to resist one more day while I drive to the farm to get peas.

 

[Nodrama43]

I like the way it sits under the thwart. Looks like it was made just for that location. I wonder how dry ice would work in the thing? My last trip I had a dozen 12 oz. bottles of Gatorade on ice. I had it strapped in so the lid would not come open on a capsize and three days later everything was still real cold although a little river water was mixed in.

 

[yellowcanoe]

And yet the Hopper holds a welcomed place in my mounded pile of useless boating schwag, for reasons I have above attempted to bullseye, primarily by stabbing blindly at the linguistic space around the target (or trying to determine what is not important..?).

let me help you convert to cash.. It might be useful on Lake Superior this summer if nothing else it wont mash my grapes prematurely. Nor my sammich. I dislike rooting in the barrel for lunch.

 

[Guest]

Design wise the soft side Yeti looks a lot like a Polar Bear Cooler.

http://www.polarbearcoolers.com/

I don’t know how the Yeti compares in cost or efficiency to a Polar Bear, but those were pretty much the gold standard for soft side coolers. The Yeti definitely has a more robust zipper than the Polar Bear.

I had a zipper failure on a Polar Bear, unfortunately at the very start of a long trip. An inoperable zipper turned the Polar Bear into a non-waterproof, poorly insulated duffle bag. And in the Polar Bear design that zipper is hopeless to replace.

The zipper failure was due to my overloading the cooler, and a shuttle driver’s mishandling. Polar Bear did replace the cooler at cost, but zippers on any gear are suspect in my mind, especially on satchels with 20 lbs of ice and grub stressing the teeth.

Critter nibbleage on a soft side coolers is another issue.

 

[Uncle_Skwid]

So like yeah. People:

NoDrama: No dry ice. The gases will explode something. (The cooler is air tight.) Unless I guess you regularly release the gas. Check their recommendations. Yeti has suggestions concerning dry ice. Like: DON'T use in soft shells. DISCLAIMER: If you really want to keep ice for days on end go HARD SHELL. Vacuum sealed, etc. YETI's hard shells will keep ice for many, many days. I'm not arguing the benefits of hard shell coolers here.

Yellow Canoe: I'm certain Yeti Coolers are not for you. Since 1963 you have understood the art of the canoe cooler: no need. Since then, nothing has changed. Like politics, religion, and canoes.

Mike McCrea: Polar Bear coolers are probably a lot like LL Bean coolers used to be (they are similarly priced): nothing like a soft YETI. Not even close. Seriously. Polar Bear coolers are child's play. YETI is in a completely different world if you're looking for that sort of thing in a soft sided cooler. The YETI hard shells are standing now with competition.This review is not concerned with the hard shells. If you're into keeping things cold for weeks you have a plethora of choices and I don't typically use a cooler for weeks-long-trips. Soft shells won't keep your crap cold for more than two days so they have not yet spilled into the copy-cat market. Soft shells are my concern with this entry. YETI is the only one of its kind (IN THE SOFT SHELLED VARIETY...)

But you'll pay (Yeti looks like 2.5x the Polar Bear). That's the catch. (OR wait a while, I guess.) If you want the nibbler-free PVC shell and drytop (with rubber drylock) zipper. THINK DRYTOP zipper on your cooler. Check it out. For realz. The zipper does NOT compare. The material does NOT compare. The price does NOT compare. If you're into that sort of thing...

 

[Canotrouge]

Only thing that compare is where they are made... I wish the thing was made in USA like most of there hardshell cooler.

 

[yellowcanoe]

Oh I see it now... McCrea prowling upscale neighborhood yard sales ( if there is such a thing) for a gently used Yeti. or a used Watershed duffle to be retrofitted with pieces of minicell foam for insulation.

I can see it now. in the bowels of BMO his favorite cave.

 

[Odyssey]

A couple years ago we loaned our soft cooler to our daughter for a road trip/move. That soft cooler bag had been to any number of outdoor concerts, picnics, beach fiestas/siestas...I missed it, but not nearly as much as my wife it seems. Our long distance Sunday Skype visits nearly always end with "So, do you still have our cooler?" "Um, yup." "Are we gonna get it back?" "Um, maybe, when are you coming back out for a visit?" "Your dad misses it." (no I don't, well, yes I do, but it's no big deal) "Tell dad I'm taking good care of it."
Just the other day I thought I'd be a big spender and blow my big roll of Canadian Tire cash on a new soft cooler. (It might get my wife off my back). WOW. Cheap soft coolers aren't so cheap anymore! As it happens, that day my wife was meeting me in Canadian Tire after work. She found me in the camping aisle looking lost and forlorn in front of the soft coolers. I pointed out the steepish prices and the questionable quality. Like a newbie husband I'd walked straight into another "I told you so" trap...'SEE!! NOW you know why I want OUR cooler back from YOUR daughter! (She"s always "my daughter" when we have this discussion.)
I'll keep this uber rubber Yeti in mind for an extravagant Christmas gift. But with my luck the other daughter will take it on a road trip/move and I'll be fluffing up my dog house pillows all over again.
My tripping philosophy is such: If after a week in backcountry heaven a warm economy beer swilled in the sun isn't good enough for you, well then you haven't earned it.

 

[Guest]

Mike McCrea: Polar Bear coolers are probably a lot like LL Bean coolers used to be (they are similarly priced): nothing like a soft YETI. Not even close. Seriously. Polar Bear coolers are child's play. YETI is in a completely different

Hence the “Polar Bear was the gold standard”. I have not seen a LL Bean cooler. Likewise I have not seen a soft side Yeti, but the Yeti hard shells I have seen are impressive and I would expect a $300 Yeti soft side to be equally well designed and constructed.

I do know firsthand how important air tight is for ice retention. Gobs of insulation do little good with a leaky lid or seal.

The Polar Bear 24 we have was $60 when purchased some years ago by my wife as a Christmas gift. I was happy enough with its performance and it lasted 5 or 6 years until a shuttle driver mishandled it. I did wish she hadn’t chosen black.

But to be honest pretty much the only thing I carry in a cooler is cans of beer. Usually far more beer than ice. I’d rather run out of ice than beer and even the Polar Bear will keep ice (or at least cold water) for 3 to 5 days. No food odors may be why my soft side coolers have never been nibbled.

My tripping philosophy is such: If after a week in backcountry heaven a warm economy beer swilled in the sun isn't good enough for you, well then you haven't earned it.

My philosophy is: Life is too short to drink warm beer. Or cheap beer.

Past the melted ice stage I still use a cooler to keep beer cold. If the nighttime lows dip far enough I leave the cooler open overnight and close it in the morning to keep the chill in. Or find some water cooler than air temps and fill the cooler with that. Even straight from the drag bag into the cooler works well enough.

I like my DIY soft cooler better than the Polar Bear and most often bring it. It is air tight, and has other sneaky advantages.

 

[Guest]

I had a zipper failure on a Polar Bear, unfortunately at the very start of a long trip. An inoperable zipper turned the Polar Bear into a non-waterproof, poorly insulated duffle bag. And in the Polar Bear design that zipper is hopeless to replace.

Well, tricky, but not hopeless. I took the zipper-busted Polar Bear cooler to the local country sewing shop. The nice Ukrainian lady who runs the place had a look and said “Yah, I do. Thirty five dollars”

I considered it, but I have a replacement cooler from Polar Bear, and standard YKK zippers leave a lot to be desired in blowing sand and salt water environs (advantage Yeti waterproof zipper).

Before the busted Polar Bear went in the trash I cut off all the hardware, fastex buckles, oddly shaped strap grommets, the velco strap handle closure and the monogram my wife had factory embroidered.



I strip all of the “hardware” off any and all dead gear, and having a bag of assorted buckles, ladder locks, tri-glides and hooks is dang handy. A lot of that stuff is ITW Nexus, and it is nice to find what I need in the bag of miscellania.



If what I need isn’t in that bag-o-parts, and I have to search out, order and wait for some Nexus oddity, I’m gonna buy a half dozen for future use, just in case. Which reminds me, it appears I have used all of the ladder locks from that bag o parts.