Best cool boxes and bags for keeping food and drinks ice-cold

Best cool boxes at a glance

• Best overall cool box: Ninja FrostVault 28L, £199.99
• Best cool box: Outwell Ecocool slate grey cool box, £69.95
• Best investment cool box: Yeti Roadie 24 cooler, £225
• Best large cool box: Igloo MaxCold 40 Ice 38-litre wheeled cool box, £84.73
• Best cool box on wheels: Coleman Convoy 65 QT Wheeled Cool Box, £199.99
• Best cool box for day trips: Yeti Tundra 45, £300
• Best electric cool box: Vonshef 28L electric cool box on wheels, £84.99
• Best cool bag: Hydro Flask Carry Out Soft Cooler, £69.95
• Best cool box for camping: Petromax 25L Cool Box, £283.25

Jump to:

• Best cool boxes to buy in 2025
• How to choose the best cool box
• How to clean your cool box
• How we tested cool boxes

Best cool boxes to buy in 2025

Ninja FrostVault 28L

Available from Amazon (£179), Very (£179), Ninja (£179.99), Lakeland (£179.99), Robert Dyas (£179.99)

Best overall cool box

Pros:

• Easy to transport
• Looks stylish
• Second storage drawer for other foods

Cons:

• None

Star rating: 5/5

The Ninja FrostVault gives most other cool boxes a run for their money, in more departments than one. It’s simple to use and even easier to clean. Thanks to its all-terrain wheels and telescopic handle, transporting this cool box is easy — even when full. It comes in two sizes — 28L or 47L — and your choice of white or grey. As well as the ability to cool foods on ice, its Ninja FrostVault DryZone drawer means you can also carry and store picnic foods you don’t want to sit directly on ice.

We tested the 28L Ninja FrostVault and filled it with 6kg of ice and some drinks and popped some snacks in the drawer. Incredibly, 24 hours later, the ice was still frozen and the food in the drawer was still chilled. Its internal temperature at this point was 2.4°C. It ended up keeping ice for five days, after which the foods and drinks inside the box and drawer were still cold. According to Ninja, this cool box can hold and transport up to 48 cans without ice, or 20 cans with ice.

Available from:

• Amazon (£179)
• Very (£179)
• Ninja (£179.99)
• Lakeland (£179.99)
• Robert Dyas (£179.99)

Outwell Ecocool slate grey cool box

Best cool box

Pros:

• Powered by in-car socket
• Cable storage in lid
• Treated with a biocidal product for antibacterial effect

Cons:

• Air vents must not be blocked
• Energy rating F on the EEI scale despite its 'eco' name

Star rating: 5/5

This cooler ticked all of our boxes, from great cooling capacity to performance. It’s a well-thought-out bit of kit. There’s a rectangular water bottle which doubles as an ice pack and slots handily in the box as a divider, helping to maintain a low temperature.

It can be powered both to heat and cool, either in the car or with a mains plug, giving it versatility. Effort has obviously gone into the technology behind its energy efficiency, but its performance is more impressive than the eco credentials its name suggests.

Yeti Roadie 24 cooler

Best investment cool box

Pros:

• Well-made and hardwearing
• Available in lots of colours
• Sturdy construction protects contents
• Yeti ice packs available to buy separately
• Robust rubber feet

Cons:

• Expensive
• Heavy

Star rating: 5/5

This investment-level cool box is certainly pricey, but for the money you’ll get a top-notch, hardwearing piece of kit that should stand the test of time. It’s heavy and weighs in at almost 6kg when empty, so despite having a sturdy, comfortable handle, you won’t want to carry it too far – making it best suited to road trips, camping, or boat trips.

The lid locks firmly in place with two latches that help it form a tight seal. With the addition of a bag of ice, it kept our selection of drinks cold for an impressive 36 hours, but this will be reduced if you open it frequently.

Igloo MaxCold 40 Ice 38-litre wheeled cool box

Best large cool box

Pros:

• Reasonably priced
• Robust design
• Spacious interior
• Sturdy construction protects contents

Cons:

• Lid doesn’t have a latch or lock

Star rating: 5/5

This is a large-capacity rugged cool box with chunky wheels. It’s ideal for camping trips or festivals where you can’t park very close to your tent. Plus, the effective insulation can keep food cold for days under the right conditions. We filled it with food, drinks, and a bag of ice, and it was all still chilled 36 hours later.

At around 4kg it’s not too heavy, even when full. It’s well balanced with a big handle that’s sturdy and comfortable, so it doesn’t feel heavy to pull along. There’s plenty of space inside for bottles to stand upright and the simple shape means it’s easy to pack. The lid forms a tight seal, although we would have liked to see a latch to lock it closed.

Coleman Convoy 65 QT Wheeled Cool Box

Best cool box on wheels

Pros:

• Easy to move
• Can be used as a seat
• Anti-bacterial lining helps avoid odours

Cons:

• Expensive
• One large space, so pack carefully

Star rating: 5/5

You can imagine the coolest crew at the festival rocking up with this amazing box on wheels – and with its whopping 66-litre capacity, there will be more than enough chilled drinks to go round.

Large bottles can be stored upright, and there’s plenty of space to pack picnic goodies for everyone, so it's a great choice for larger families or for those who are entertaining al fresco. Obviously, if you’re travelling light, things could shift to the end of the box when on the move, so if not packed to capacity, we’d recommend adding some tea towels or extra protection to the bottom to avoid things getting squashed to one side.

The foldable handle and chunky wheels make this large box easy to manoeuvre even over grass or on the beach, and it feels top quality, with substantial rubber fastenings, side rope handles and stainless steel hinges. It’s so sturdy, the Have-A-Seat box lid can also be used as a handy perch for your guests.

Yeti TUNDRA 45

Available from Amazon (£299.99), Yeti (£300)

Best cool box for day trips

Star rating: 4.5/5

The Yeti Tundra is a great option for day trips — its 45L capacity can fit provisions for a family of four for one whole day. It’s not the easiest to transport as it doesn’t have a telescopic handle or all-terrain wheels, so we wouldn’t recommend taking it on a hike, but it’d be great for a picnic day at the park or a trip to the seaside. Its construction and handles are both strong and sturdy and it even claims to be bear-proof (we didn’t quite manage to test this!). There’s a huge choice of colourways and it comes in various sizes — from 35L to 350L — so you can buy based on the size of your family and your requirements.

Our tester reviewed the 45L Yeti Tundra with 8kg of ice plus some drinks and utilised the wire basket for snacks. After 24 hours, the ice in the cool box was impressively still frozen — the internal temperature was 9C at this point. The ice eventually melted on day five, at which time everything inside was still nice and cold. This cool box is easy to open and simple to securely close. Inside sits a metal basket that you can use for foods you don’t want to sit on ice but you’d still like to be cold. According to Yeti, it can hold a whopping 54 cans of drink.

Available from:

• Amazon (£299.99)
• Yeti (£300)

VonShef 28L Electric Cool Box On Wheels

Available from VonShef (£84.99), Amazon (£84.99)

Best electric cool box

Pros:

• No waste of food/drink storage space from ice
• Easy to transport thanks to telescopic handle
• Cools fast

Cons:

• Needs to be plugged into power to work
• Only reaches -18C below ambient temperature
• Lid is heavy making it top-heavy when empty

Star rating: 4.5/5

If you’re on a budget but would still like your money to stretch to something sturdy and reliable, this VonShef electric cool box is a great option. It doesn’t need ice as it’s powered by electricity and comes with three adapters — one USB, one AC and one for your car. It makes travelling easy thanks to its wheels, an ergonomic handle and an extendable handle. It’s not something you’d take on a hike or camping trip, but for a day trip, it’s perfect. As it requires power to work, it can be tricky to take it away from your home or car, but our tester did note that once switched off at 0.5°C, it stayed at fridge temperature (below 6°C) for at least 12 hours.

Simply enough, you only need to plug it in and insert the pre-frozen drink flask which doubles as a divider to separate your foods and drinks. Our tester noted that it took less than 10 minutes to reach fridge temperature from room temperature. It can reach up to -14°C, depending on the ambient temperature, but we didn’t see it reach below 0°C.

Available from:

• VonShef (£84.99)
• Amazon (£84.99)

Hydro Flask Carry Out Soft Cooler

Best cool bag

Pros

• Comfortable, padded carry strap
• Inner pockets for smaller items
• BPA-free lining

Cons

• Larger items had to be stacked rather than storing side by side

Star rating: 4.5/5

One of the most stylish cooler bags we looked at, the structured walls of this lightweight carry bag meant that more delicate items weren’t bashed on the way to our park lunch.

We also liked the shape, as it was taller than some other cool bags we tried, meaning our own lengthier water bottles could stay upright on the way to the park. It will also take 20 330ml-sized cans of drink (without ice packs) if you’re catering for thirsty kids.

In a range of pale pastel colours, the water resistance on this cool bag’s outer fabric was easy to keep clean with a damp cloth after use. The wide, zipped lid also made every area inside the bag easy to access and keep free of sandwich crumbs. We liked the longer, removable cross-body strap, too, which had great padding, making it comfortable to wear for the designated picnic pack horse.

A small outside pouch was useful for stashing things like condiments and salt and pepper. With 24-hour cooling, we could keep a range of picnic foods out overnight, with a couple of ice packs at either side. By lunchtime the next day, wine was still perfectly chilled and our food items were at the perfect temperature, although our ice packs had almost completely thawed out.

Petromax 25l Cool Box

Best cool box for camping

Pros

• Superb insulation
• Keeps ice frozen for days
• Spacious

Cons

• Expensive
• Large capacity means it can be heavy to shift when full

Star rating: 4.5/5

If you’re the sort of person who spends sunny days on the patio with the barbie going full blast, this cool box could almost be seen as a mini chiller that will free up space in your kitchen fridge. There’s also a 50-litre version that could handle an entire family’s worth of food for the week.

We kept bags of ice and freezer blocks in this unit, and they were still practically intact six days later when we went to add our picnic ingredients – with just the tiniest bit of water collecting on the bottom of the unit. The manufacturers claim the box will still keep ice frozen for up to 12 days without electricity, which is ideal if there’s no power source for a mini fridge in a summer house or home office, for example.

With integrated handles on either side, it may well be a two-man job to move this cooler from car to picnic blanket once loaded up, so it’s more of a choice for those who like to have barbecue food and ice-cold drinks close at hand in the garden, caravan or camper van.

The double-walled insulation on the Petromax cool box was superb, but that does come at a price. But if, for example, you’re loading for a weekend in the open air, you can rely on this quality box to keep everything in tip-top condition until it's time to head home.

Other cool bags tried and tested

• Coleman 50QT Xtreme wheeled cooler, £95.55

How to choose the best cool box

Where you plan to use your cooler will affect your choice. They are often made from heavy-duty plastic and insulated with polyurethane foam, which tends to keep food colder for longer. In most cases, you'll need to add ice packs to keep the temperature down.

Cool bags are generally lighter than cool boxes and once emptied, you can pack them down for easier storage. You may forfeit capacity for portability, as the largest bags will be the heaviest to carry when loaded – which is when wheeled options come into play.

In all cases, think about size. Do you want to be able to stand a litre bottle upright inside, or perhaps you have a casserole dish that needs to sit comfortably in the base?

Electric cool bags and boxes with a cigarette-lighter charging cable are ideal if you’re heading on a long car journey. They increase the duration of cooling, but will add more weight. Once you've decided the type of activity you require a cool box for, we recommend considering the following in order to buy one that fulfils every need:

• Weight: a cool box for keeping drinks cold in the garden can be weighty, but if you're travelling with it over a short distance, a lighter option with wheels will be better.
• Capacity: how many people will you be catering for? The size of cool bags are often described in litres rather than people, but as a rule of thumb, 18 litres will carry between 25-28 cans, 30 litres will fit around 50, and anything above this will be large enough for a variety of food and drink vessels.
• Bag or box: if portability is the goal, cool bags are a much more flexible for transporting, often featuring straps for carrying it over the shoulder or as a rucksack.
• Durability: you want to be confident that a fully packed cool bag or box will be able to support the weight, and also won't be let down by its handles, straps or wheels when you attempt to move it.
• Easy-clean inner: cool boxes should be wipe-clean and rinsable.
• Waterproof capabilities: particularly important for cooler bags if you're taking them out and about, but also that the lining is leakproof.

How to clean your cool box

At the end of a long day in the sun, it can be easy to forget to wipe down your cool box, but always at least try to collect crumbs and wipe out any spills immediately.

A combination of bacteria from food stains and hot weather can make things a bit whiffy when you next go to use your box, so use anti-bacterial wipes to tackle this job when you get home, as this will help avoid nasty odours or mould appearing if the weather turns and the box goes back into storage.

What about deep cleaning? Strongly-perfumed sprays and wipes can taint the food you’re next going to pack, so use gentler solutions where possible when it comes to maintaining the interior of your cool box after it’s been packed away.

Use bleach and hot water on the interior of hard-walled boxes, but never apply it neat as this could damage the materials used. Or check the labels – some bags can be machine washed on a delicates setting. If not, then try making a paste of bicarbonate of soda and washing up liquid, then rub with a soft cloth.

When it comes to drying off the bag before use (which is important to avoid mould), get it out into the fresh air to dry naturally. Sunlight can help sort out any staining too.

How we tested cool boxes

Sturdiness: coolers are often heavy when they're packed as the weight of cans, ice blocks and food all adds up. We wanted handles that made it easy to hold.

Portability: unless you’re only planning to use your cool box in the garden or for fridge overflow, portability is important. Extra points were given where coolers were especially easy to transport.

Keep-cool capability: this was key to our choices, being the primary function of a cool bag or box. A good seal and effective insulation were a must.

Additional features: in-car electric chargers, wheels, drinks holders and easy-carry options were well rated among the sea of products on the market.

Easy to use and clean: anything that carries food needs to be easily cleaned before and after use, so we looked for interiors that could be easily wiped clean.

How we tested: we filled each of the coolers with bags of ice, ice packs, drinks and typical picnic foods. We then checked the contents at intervals using a thermometer and timed how long it took for the ice cubes to melt.

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