Cordova Outdoors Basecamp Class Hard Cooler - Insulated, Rotomolded, Made in America Ice Chest

I have been shopping for a rotomolded cooler for a couple of years now. What has deterred me from purchasing one until now has been the price. Most of the well-known names are very expensive and over-priced in my opinion. I am willing to pay more for quality and better performance, which the Cordova delivers. And, it's price is commensurate with it's quality and performance in my opinion.I have owned and used many ice chests/coolers over the last 25 years. Most of which were large capacity (75 to 105 quarts - 71 - 99 liters) because I go camping for several days 3 to 4 times a year in the Summer and Fall. My trips are generally 3 to 5 days in duration and are always remote enough that I can't pick up another bag of ice every day or two.I was on a 3 day trip last weekend, which was the first trip with the Cordova. I had two 10 pound blocks of ice and two 5 pound bags of cubed ice in the cooler with all of our food. The cooler was completely full. When I returned home on the fourth day, the blocks had barely melted and the cubed ice had melted about half way. Temperatures at my camp site were in the 60 to 75 degree F (15 - 24 C) range - we camped at about 7,500 feet elevation. The 6 hour drive to and from was in the 85 to 90 degree F (29 to 32 C) range.Other than price, there are two noticeable differences between the Cordova coolers and similar coolers on the market. The first is in the handles. These handles are aluminum with a very comfortable foam padded grip. The weight of the loaded cooler feels very stable and in control with you lift it. And my cooler is 88 quarts (83 liters), so is large, and heavy when loaded. Other coolers have rope handles, which I appreciate, because if the handle itself breaks over time, it can easily be replaced by the user without having to order potentially expensive and long lead time parts, but they swing a bit when you lift them. The second is the lid latching mechanism. It uses rubber latches like many of the other rotomolded coolers on the market, but instead of the rubber latch being pulled down to release it, the Cordova's are inverted, or turned upside down, causing one to pull up on them to release. My first reaction to this was not good. The tops of the handles stick up slightly above the top of the cooler. I thought they could be knocked open by something sliding off the top of the cooler while in transit. But the reason they are assembled this way is so that when you have the cooler packed in the back of your pick-up, SUV or what have you, and other items are stacked all around it, you can still access the latches and open the lid to access the contents. I have a pick-up with a tonneau cover and the height of the cooler is such that there is not much room on top of the cooler to place things when the tonneau is closed, so I had nothing on top. But on my first trip. I had to stop by a store on my way out of town to get some ice and I experienced the convenience of this latch system right away as I didn't have to move anything packed around my cooler to add the ice to the inside.I read one review on this cooler that said it only kept ice for three hours with the cooler filled with water (bottles, I presume). I have to think the bottles were not chilled before they were placed in the cooler. In that case, it is the warm water bottles melting the ice, not any inefficiency of the cooler. I always chill the cooler by placing a couple of 1 gallon jugs filled with water and frozen, the night before I load it, and be sure all my contents are at least refrigerated before loading the cooler. If some items can be frozen before being loaded into the cooler, all the better. This is true no matter which cooler you have, even those that are electric with a refrigeration compressor built in.

Looks good. Built good. Cools good.Not your average looking cooler. Had it up on the roof and rolling around job sites now the crew wants one. Kept my drinks cold for two days with just ice packs (Arctic Ice - Purple / Blue). The grip of the coolers feet is no joke. Damn near pissed me off when I was trying to slide it around. Cooler has molded handles which is way better than ropes and allows for a better grip. I’m neutral on the latches facing upwards.. looks odd and I haven’t been in the situation where they’re useful. Either way they work as intended and the material is durable.Had to purchase the machined aluminum handles from their website directly. Contacted Cordova in advance and they shipped my handles in the cooler so I didn’t have to pay extra shipping on them. Top tier customer service.

This cooler is fantastic! So happy to have a real cooler not those cheap chinese made plastic department store imposters that hold ice for literally 75%less time. Sure its heavy but so are most products that are quality in comparison to cheaper counterparts. Like the tray top that you can add a seat cushion to aswell as having a perfect place to setup up a cutting board or use to set things on without having cup holders that barely get used creating an uneven surface in some cases or just making it overall less useful in my opinion. The handles are perfect and so solid and the overall design and looks are a step above most of the competition . Only Chinese comparisons are in the same price range and I sure would rather buy a US made product whenever possible. There customer service is terrific after deciding to add a inside basket to my order they got back to me fast and made it easy to add it to my order and it arrived in the cooler without any problems and without holding up my order . The only tiny thing that's tuff for me personally is the rubber clamps that go up instead of down. I see the benefits and when it's on the ground or in a tight space its great but when reaching in the back seat to grab something its pretty difficult trying to close them but I'll admit my RA is the cause for most of that issue. Its seals amazing ice packs last me almost 3 days and the cooler is never fully packed and I'm only using maybe 5 or 6 large basic ice packs so compared to before in my cheap crap cooler they made it maybe maybe 12 to 18 hours not even in extreme heat I cant tell already this is going to make my life much easier as I'm living on the road alot and using my mini freezer to freeze ice packs it saves me from having to run the truck hours just to keep refreezing ice packs so everything doesn't go bad. Overall it was the best purchase I've made in a while and itger than it getting stolen I can see it lasting the rest of my life it feels that solid and sturdy. Highly recommend over far more expensive other brands that do not offer much if any benefit for what almost $200 plus dollars. This is the one. The hardest part is choosing a color. I wanted the black but didnt eant to lose ice time and figured it would show dirt and crud faster than the sandstone that I ended up going with which looks even better in person.

We love this product my husband uses it for work for him and the guys to store their drinks. It keeps ice very well and keeps the bottle super cold.