Cooler Report: My good friend / co-worker ordered the Rtic 65 and it showed up a few weeks ago. Like many posts I have read on here it did take forever for it to actually show up, and shipping dates were changed on him several times. He was shopping around for a high end cooler and decided to give Rtic a shot. The cooler now lives on the back of a black flatbed work truck and it works great. We do landscaping on the surface of the sun, also known as the Dallas / Ft Worth area, and this cooler keeps everything beyond cold. When he mentioned he was buying it I did my homework, read and watched online reviews and tests. Now that we have had it for a few weeks I can say that I an setting aside a few $$$ to buy one. I have a fridge that lives in the back of the Land Cruiser but a this cooler will be a great edition to the camp gear.
Anyways, enough blabbing heres our real world results. Temperatures these last few weeks have been hideous, daily above 95° and its common to hit the +100° mark. As mentioned the cooler lives on a black metal flatbed in direct sun light all day which absorbs all that invisible evil and multiplies its temperature before spitting it back out. We fill the cooler daily with +20 water bottles, several gatorades, and other goodies to keep us going. The trend the past few weeks has been loading it up with 3-4 20lb bags of ice on a monday and having to fill it again thursday morning. Now before anyone complains about not appearing to hold ice as advertised let me explain. We drain the water daily and by the end of day 3 theres about the equivalent of 1.5 bags of ice left in the cooler, still very chili. We dump it, rinse the cooler out so its ready for more water and ice thursday morning. During the average work day (7 am - 5 pm) we open the cooler about twice an hour or more. I never once read a review or watched a video test that simulated those conditions. I love the fact that we open this thing 20-30 times a day in +95° weather and it keeps things incredibly cold over several days all while living on a stove top. The only shade the cooler gets is when the sun goes down and temps drop a few degrees.
I have to agree with my buddy when he says "this is one of the best purchases I have ever made." I'll be buying one. After having used it on a daily basis I am impressed. Im sure there are others out there as good or maybe even better, but for the money you can't go wrong. If you're a weekend warrior looking for something to keep food and drinks cold on a campout or the beach I have no doubts this will meet your expectations. If you're going on an overland trip and not getting into it a few times every hour I have no doubt it will keep anything from spoiling for 5-7 days. I hope this helps someone in making a decision!
