Coleman 54-Quart Steel Belted Chest Cooler (Stainless Steel)

if you asked me last year, i would have given this 5 stars, but since we've been using it on camping trips it has failed miserably.

i used to go camping as a child with my father with the old, bombproof coleman cooler. it was extremely well made & lasted for years. it is someplace in my brother's garage.

the old lid was held down by a metal hook that cinched the lid tight & sealed it well. the "new, improved latch" is a thin cylinder that slides into a spring tentioned plastic groove in the lid. problem is the lid pops open with a tug and even worse if it gets knocked over when full.

the old design has a screw drain plug attached by a chain. the new design has a plastic cork-like stopper that can (and will) get popped open when placed into an suv full of gear (drenching the back of your car during the long trip). what was wrong with the screw drain plug? it stayed in place & never opened... even through the roughest of conditions.

they also removed the built-in bottle opener that used to be in the handle mounts.

i'm now looking on ebay for the old coleman cooler or looking to find metal latches to replace the stupid closure they have on it. i'm also looking at epoxying a guard over the drain plug so that it won't get unexpectedly dislodged.

it looks great, but they really ruined the design with all these "improvement".

Just what we wanted for our fifth wheel trailer. We have a portable ice maker that produces 35 lbs of ice per day and we place the ice in the chest, as the ice melts we pour it back into the ice maker and repeat the cycle. We always have ice.

On road trips or long days at the beach, this cooler really does a nice job of keeping things cool.

When Coleman designed this cooler, they left off a way to stop the lid from opening past 90-ish degrees. This results in the lid opening about 180 degrees, which stresses the hinges, and breaks the outer stainless layer away from the inner insulation. I have been through two lids, and now the body of the cooler is breaking away the same way. Yes, it does have a 100 year warranty, but I bought expecting the same build quality as my grandfather's that is 60 years old. There is just no comparison.

Coleman also says it will keep ice for 3 days at 100 degrees. This couldn't be further from the truth. It will not hold ice for 24 hours at 85 degrees.

Bottom line: Buy a good Igloo marine cooler, and use the extra $70 to fill it with your beverage of choice.

This is a great cooler works fine ..beer is cold the only problem is it doesnt have an opener..You would think for $100 they would have thought of that leave it to the Japanese. Its the little things