Hard Coolers

Try to pinch your hand between the handle and the cooler body. Now lift the cooler and see if it feels like you’ve got positive control. That’s why. As a bonus, the design isn’t just pretty, it’s functional – bottle openers are integrated into each side plate (another patented feature of our hard coolers).

There is an art to ice retention. Don’t just toss a bag of ice from the grocery store in your cooler and expect it to last a week. That won’t get it done. Put in the prep work and your Cordova cooler will absolutely perform as advertised. Here’s how to do it:

• Freeze our Packice units solid ahead of time and use them as the base of your cold-keeping strategy. Yes, it’s like we’re trying to sell you more stuff, but they WORK and extend the life of cubed ice by 30%. A ratio of 10 qts of cooler capacity to 2 lbs of ice pack is decent. So, two two-pounders are good for the 20 qt cooler. Four four-pound Packice's will handle an 88 qt. When in doubt, use more Packice.
• Unless it’s colder outside, bring your Cordova cooler inside 24 hours before you plan to pack it.
• Fill the cooler with ice to bring the temperature of your cooler’s insulation down. This ice will melt relatively quickly as the insulation cools.
• Drain the water and fill your Cordova cooler with Packice, your provisions, block ice if you have it, and then fresh cubed ice.
• Use COLD ice. (Ice, like water, does vary in temperature. Ice that is dry to the touch, as opposed to wet and slippery, is colder and will last longer.)
• Packice is the best, and block ice is preferable to cubed ice – it will last longer.
• An ice to provisions ratio of 3:1 is ideal. Prechill provisions when possible.
• Air is the enemy of ice retention. Fill the cooler up. If there’s extra space with all the ice and provisions packed and you don’t have any more ice, use towels, foam, anything that will take up space and hold the cold.
• When in use, keep the lid closed and latched unless retrieving or returning provisions. Ice retention drops by about an hour for every minute the lid is wide open.

Absolutely. If possible, isolate the dry ice by wrapping it in a towel or putting it in a box. Dry ice will freeze anything in direct contact with it. You can also use a combination of dry ice (frozen CO₂) and regular ice (frozen H₂O). We recommend dry ice on the bottom, ice on top of that, then your goods, and a final layer of regular ice on the top.

Yes. All plastic used in every cooler other than Obsidian is made from virgin material and is indeed food safe. Our Obsidian cooler is made with the same FDA-approved, BPA-free polypropylene as the rest of our Basecamp Class™ coolers, the material has simply been reground and remolded.

Out of direct sunlight, in a cool dry area, unlatched, with the drain plug removed (if applicable), and placed inside the cooler so it’s easy to find, for ventilation.