Igloo Polar ICE 120 qt cooler

[kcscout]

I recently purchased a 120 QT Igloo cooler and thought that this would be the perfect size for when I start doing some family campouts this summer. Everything seems really nice about the cooler with one exception. one of the latches doesn't appear to work worth a darn, and I've messed with them a bit to make sure that they would The latches have 2 screws at the top and then a hole in the latch to close against a plug (so to speak) on the cooler. It seems straight forward enough and I may have gottne a faulty cooler although it seems like there shouldn't be much to a latch.

Just wondering if others have had any experience with these and wondering:
1. If you had experience with these if you have had problems with the latches or if there is a trick to how they go on to get them to latch snugly?
2. What other types of coolers would you recommend.? I raelly liked the 120 quart size as a perfect family sized that can hold lots of food for the family and keep it cold through a long weekend.

On a side note I thought that these were priced really well too. Got this one for around $60 off walmart.com although I think they list for a lot more close to $100 on amazon...

Thanks for your feedback and experience... and by the way.. although the yeti / yukon etc coolers look really cool and rugged, I will never need something that rugged...

[swebob]

Re: Igloo Polar ICE 120 qt cooler

The cooler i have is a Igloo maxcold 40 qt just because it my girlfriend and i. My cooler has no latches but is self sealing when you close it.

What i find with some coolers like mine is the lid is hollow and has no insulation in it. What i have done to make it cooler is i had a old reflective sunshade for a car and cut it to size to fit over the contents in the cooler and it makes a difference.

I was in Basspro shops which is like Gander or Cabela's and igloo's they had seemed to have hollow lids also. The only good coolers were the Yeti's but i refuse to pay over $300 for a 40 qt cooler.. I plan on going to lowes and getting a $13 roll of reflective and make a giant cozy for my cooler.

Also i use half gallon milk jugs full of water frozen and it lasted me through my 4 day trip and still was cold enough to make the ride home.

[05Kingquad700]

Re: Igloo Polar ICE 120 qt cooler

The cooler you got seems to have pretty good reviews. Maybe you just got a faulty one. With Walmarts return policy, you might want to return it and get another one. I like the yeti's as well, just not the price. I use 2 of the 50 QT Coleman Extreme's. One for drinks, one for food. I don't know how old your kids are, but it seems like mine are constantly in the coolers. Last year I took to putting a bungy cord on the coolers to make sure the kids were closing them properly. I also found that King Soopers sells dry ice, which I will be using next summer. I have heard wally world sells dry ice as well, but ours didn't have any.
Coolers are like tents, pretty wide variety and ways people use them.

[kcscout]

Re: Igloo Polar ICE 120 qt cooler

At this point I am almost 100% certain to return the cooler... however, I'm thinking I will just buy a different cooler versus replace the existing one. With the caveat that I was at a BassPro shop earlier and they had almost the same cooler, only the Glide which is 110 QT so 10 less quarts whatever that is worth, but it had a large handle that extends out and 2 wheels which seems to make sense for a large cooler because if you have to move it any distance whatsoever... you come to enjoy things with wheels. I stayed away at first because I don't want something too bulky. One key difference too is that unfortunately that cooler is about double what I paid for this one... and then some.. but the cooler looked like it would stay closed and also the latches worked well.. I saw the same Glide cooler listed online only for Target (of all places) but also noticed that the difference was cheaper latches, cheaper, etc... so the moral of the story may be to just buy some things in the store where you can check them out in person.

[sarahspins]

Re: Igloo Polar ICE 120 qt cooler

What i find with some coolers like mine is the lid is hollow and has no insulation in it

I drilled holes and filled my hollow lid with great stuff (spray insulation). If you get the right kind (water based) it WILL eventually set inside an enclosed space, it just takes much longer than the product indicates it should. I did mine last May and I left the lid outside in the sun for about a week before the foam was solid inside and no longer sloshing around. Of course for $18 more I could have bought the version of my cooler (Igloo's 70qt Ice Cube, which seems to retail for about $38-45 when you can find them) with an insulated lid, but they hadn't had them when I was initially looking and I didn't find one until about two weeks after I had already modified mine

I posted before on another thread but with adding block ice (and a limited amount of dry ice once - it was free with our groceries) to that cooler as needed (when we restocked our food supplies) I had some of my original "ice" (frozen water bottles - many of which we drank along the way as they defrosted) last through an entire 9 day road trip. We easily fit 4 days of food for our family of 5 in a 60qt cooler... which was as long as we would want to stay in any one place, so getting groceries (and more ice) along the way isn't really a problem for us.

I also highly recommend having one cooler for drinks and another for food - stay out of the food one except for meals and it will stay colder longer than if you are constantly opening it to get drinks out. I found a an Igloo 36qt marine cooler that fit perfectly behind my driver's seat and we used that smaller cooler for drinks, and while we did replace the ice in that cooler often, there was no worry about anything in there "spoiling" if the ice melted. Our drinks just weren't super cold without ice - not the end of the world by a long shot.

Of course, my needs for a cooler may be different than some - I drive a small car and had to figure out how to pack everything for a family of 5.. and we were very tight on space utilizing both a roof box and the extra space on the rack for strapping our camp chairs down. I'm not even sure I could fit a 120qt cooler in my car - one of my main requirements for a cooler that would work for us was that I could fit it in my car and it didn't take up so much of my cargo area that I couldn't carry anything else. The Ice Cube fit my needs perfectly because it's taller than it is wide, so it saved a lot of space, but I was also very happy with it's performance.

[kcscout]

Re: Igloo Polar ICE 120 qt cooler

I looked all over the Internet and plus / minus for coleman, vs Igloo, vs etc... I went to Cabelas the other night and they have an extremely nice selection of coolers from $20-$800 !! I originally liked a coleman cooler that they had there, but when I compared it to the Igloo Glide that I looked at the inside looked a little bit sleeker and a better built handle. Personally I think the snaps are mostly for looks and add some value for keeping the cooler closed, but the BIG difference between the Glide and the previous Polar ice cooler is that the Glide actually closes snugly without the snaps(Latches) and then the latches just add extra benefit of helping close the cooler. I think the idea of 2 coolers is a really good idea, but I was set on having one bigger cooler and having wheels makes it easy to move around.

As another side note, I noticed that Target had this same cooler (Igloo Glide) but one of the interesting things is that I see that places like Target / Walmart sell the same coolers, but they are cheaper versions, and the cheaper versions are what caused my issues to begin with.

[Coastie]

Re: Igloo Polar ICE 120 qt cooler

I purchased the 7 day Ice igloo marine Cooler which seems to be good. It has latches that work well. This cooler was around 79.00 at Academy Sports