Small Cooler

What makes a small cooler its own thing

A small cooler isn't a shrunken camp chest. It does a different job. A big cooler gets packed once, shut, and opened a few times a day. A small one gets grabbed, carried, opened, set down, opened again, and stuffed in the cab between the seat and the door.

That changes what you should care about. Days of ice matter less. Weight in one hand, how fast the lid opens and what stands up inside matter more.

The shared hard-cooler basics (shell types, gaskets, ice claims, packing order) are on the coolers page. This page sticks to the small end: hard coolers of 30 quarts or less, which is the line this site uses for small. The table under this text lists them with capacity, can count, construction, latches, drain plug, weight and interior and exterior size as the maker lists them, or the Amazon listing where the maker is silent (marked as listing values; weight is the maker's alone). A dash means neither states it.

Where a small cooler fits at deer camp

Here's where small coolers earn a spot in the truck:

• Lunch in the blind or the truck: a day's food for one or two people
• The drink cooler: the one everybody opens, so the food cooler stays shut
• The cab cooler on the drive up: snacks within reach, not buried in the bed
• One-night trips: Igloo's size guide names a one-night camping trip as a small-cooler job
• The second cooler for a hunting partner who brings his own sandwiches (Walt, specifically)

The drink-cooler job is worth spelling out. The FDA suggests packing drinks in one cooler and perishable food in another, so the food isn't hit with warm air every time someone wants a soda. One maker's ice guide says the same thing from the other direction: a separate drink cooler keeps the main one closed. A small cooler is cheap insurance for the big one.

How to pick a small cooler, spec by spec

At this size every inch of inside space counts and every pound shows up in your forearm. Here's what to read in the table.

Capacity: picture the space in gallons

Quarts are hard to picture. Gallons are easier: four quarts to the gallon, so a 20-quart cooler holds roughly a 5-gallon bucket of space. That's a big bucket, not a bathtub.

At this size, shape matters as much as the number. Igloo's size guide notes that cans and juice boxes stack evenly, while packaged food and glass bottles are harder to arrange, and that ice takes its share of the room too. A small box has no slack to hide a bad fit.

Igloo's ranges, for scale:

• Mini personal coolers: 6 cans or less, 7 to 12 cans, or 15 quarts or less, for lunch, snacks or a small picnic
• Small hard coolers: up to 20 quarts, lunch and a few drinks
• Medium: starting at 21 quarts, which is where the rest of this site's small range sits

Real talk: buy for what you'll put in it, not for the bigger number. UMaine Extension points out that a large cooler with only a little food has extra air space, which makes it harder to keep cold. A half-empty cooler is mostly warm air with a lid.

Can capacity: check whether the ice is counted

Can counts are the most common size number on small coolers, and they're based on the 12-ounce can. The trouble is that makers count differently. One maker lists its 20-quart rotomolded cooler at 24 cans with 5 lb of ice. That's an honest number because it tells you the ice assumption.

A count with no ice in it describes a cooler you'll never actually pack. When the maker doesn't say, treat the can number as a hint and compare quarts instead.

Interior dimensions: what stands up under the lid

This is where small coolers trip people up. Wall thickness doesn't shrink with the cooler, so a thick-walled small box loses a bigger share of its outside size to walls.

One maker's 20-quart rotomolded cooler lists its exterior at 20.25 by 14.5 by 14.25 inches and its bottom interior at 14.25 by 9.25 by 10.25. The outside looks like a mid-size box. The inside is a 20-quart box.

So check interior height for the tallest thing you'll carry: a thermos, a wine bottle, a 2-liter, a stack of containers. If it doesn't stand up, it lies down and takes the room of three cans. (Ask me how I know. The answer is a thermos and a very wet sandwich.)

Weight: a small cooler you can't lift with one hand isn't small

The weight column is the maker's empty weight. On small coolers, it swings a lot with construction. One maker's 20-quart rotomolded cooler is listed at 16 lb empty, before ice, food or drinks. A thin-walled lunch-size box weighs far less.

Neither is wrong. The heavy one holds ice longer and doubles as a step or a seat. The light one is the one you'll actually carry from the truck to the blind. Decide how far it walks before you decide how thick it should be.

Construction: how long does it need to hold cold

The construction column says how the shell was made when the maker states it; rotomolded is a maker claim only. At this size you'll see the full range:

• Rotomolded: thick, one-piece shell; the heaviest and longest-holding small coolers
• Injection-molded or blow-molded: thinner walls, lighter, the everyday small cooler
• Steel exterior: one maker lists a steel outside on a 20-quart model; the classic look
• Lightweight dry-box style: thinner insulation, built light

How long each holds ice depends on wall thickness more than size. One maker puts its lightweight boxes with thinner insulation at 12 hours to 2 days in real-world use, and its thick rotomolded hard coolers at up to 10 days under ideal conditions. For a lunch cooler, the short number is often plenty. For a drink cooler that sits on a tailgate all weekend, it isn't.

Ice retention claims: useful for comparing, not planning

The ice retention column is a lab number. Igloo's published test fills the cooler to 90% with 10°F ice, keeps the lid shut, and holds it in a 90°F oven. A small drink cooler at camp gets opened dozens of times. No lab test opens the lid for Walt's fourth soda.

Use the claim to rank small coolers against each other. For a day trip, the frozen packs you put in matter more than the claim on the label. More on that below.

Latches and lid: you'll open this one a lot

On a small cooler, the lid is the part you touch most. The latches column lists the style. A push-button or simple snap lid opens with one hand, which is handy when the other hand holds a coffee. Rubber T-latches and other pull-down latches seal tighter against the gasket and hold better when the cooler bounces in the truck.

One maker's 20-quart cooler pairs latches that need no extra hardware with a rubber gasket and a stainless steel carry handle with a foam grip. That's the trade at small size: one good handle beats two molded-in side grips when you're carrying it alone.

Drain plug: nice to have, not always there

Many small coolers skip the drain. The table shows whether the maker or the listing lists one. On a small box you can tip it and pour, so a missing plug isn't a deal breaker. A plug helps most on the drink cooler, which ends every weekend full of meltwater.

Keeping a day's food safe in a small cooler

Food safety is the part of a small cooler that isn't optional. It isn't complicated either.

The FDA's line is 40°F or below for cold food. Perishables shouldn't sit out longer than 2 hours, or 1 hour when it's above 90°F outside. Clemson Cooperative Extension says bacteria multiply fast between 40°F and 140°F.

For a lunch-size cooler, Clemson's packing method works well:

1. One cold source on the bottom: a gel pack or a frozen bottle of water
2. Perishable food in the middle: sealed or wrapped
3. A second cold source on top: at least two cold sources in all
4. Close it and keep it shut until lunch

Clemson notes that gel packs keep food cold until lunchtime but generally won't last all day, so a full day's sit wants more than one pack each way, or a small cooler with real ice. A frozen water bottle pulls double duty: it's a cold pack in the morning and a drink by noon.

Keep raw meat wrapped and low, away from ready-to-eat food, which both the FDA and Mississippi State Extension recommend. And keep the cooler in the shade. In a blind, that's under the bench, not by the window.

Small cooler setups that work

The blind lunch box. Lunch-size, light, one handle, two cold packs. If you sit all day, add a frozen bottle. Pick from the bottom of the table's capacity range.

The drink cooler. Around 20 to 30 quarts, a drain plug and a lid that opens one-handed. This cooler gets opened more than anything else at camp, so the latch matters more than the claim.

The truck-cab cooler. Measure the floor of the back seat or the gap behind the console first. Exterior dimensions decide this one, not quarts.

The one-night trip. Toward the top of the range, thicker walls, real ice. This is the end of the small range where a 30-quart box earns its size.

Whichever job it gets, pack it in the order you'll eat it. Digging for the sandwich under the apple is how the cold gets out. (I dig. I've been told about the digging.)

Who should skip a small hard cooler

Skip it if you walk a long way in to your stand. A soft cooler or a backpack cooler carries better on your back and folds when it's empty. Skip it if you're feeding a camp for a weekend: food for several people and several days needs a medium or large cooler, and the cooler size guide walks through that. And if you want a week of cold with no ice at all, that's an electric cooler on truck power.

Caring for a small cooler

Small coolers get forgotten in the truck with half a sandwich inside. Don't let that be you. Mine was. In October. Found it in March.

UMaine Extension's routine:

• Wash with soap and warm water before and after each trip
• Sanitize with a bleach solution
• Store it dry, clean and out of direct sun, with the lid cracked

Pre-chill it the night before a long sit if you can. One maker notes that a warm cooler spends good ice cooling itself down, and on a small cooler that's a bigger share of the ice you brought.

That's the small cooler. Buy it for the job, pack cold on both sides of the food, and keep the lid shut until lunch. Then check the truck for sandwiches.