Pelican Elite 70 Quart Cooler

This Made in the USA Heavy Duty cooler is GREAT. About $100 less expensive than the competition, and not made overseas, as well as having a lifetime warranty as compared to 5 years. This 70 (actual size) QT cooler is quite bulky and large. We used it to store frozen hamburger, about 30# of it, and other stuff, while we were on vacation for 20 days, camping up and down the California coast, temperatures ranging from the mid 70's to the century mark the whole trip, and the hamburger on the bottom of the cooler was still good when we got home, although it had defrosted almost completely by that time. We did add ice to this 3-4 times during the trip, that is 3-4 total bags of 8# ice, and stored other items in it as well, it was opened several times every day, and by the middle of the trip (7-10 days in) it was not full of food to the top any more and that's when we started adding ice. Up until then it was just the frozen hamburger keeping it cold. The bottle opener was pretty much useless, there are 100's of ways to open bottles, and everyone has one, so this feature was unused. I like the latches, they are secure, hold the lid tightly and firmly, and are easy to use, especially if you have only one hand free. The large roomy handles made it really easy to lift in and out of my box trailer with 2 people. The garden hose thread drain was useful for draining out ice and not getting nasty water where you don't really want it. I locked this with a padlock a few times, and found this feature useful as it was being stored most of the time in by open box trailer. I did not use the tie downs as they are kinda small and you have to thread your tie downs through under the lid, it would be nice if you could just put a hook through them. The can holes in the top of the cooler are deep and work great to keep your can or bottle very stable, it is nice that they can be rinsed out cleanly because of the deep drains in them too. We camped in Yosemite, and had this in the back of our Suburban. This was a mistake, as a bear could easily have gotten into the vehicle and tried to get to the food in the chest. One of the Site Hosts, told us that we were lucky. Being Bear resistant doesn't matter much to the park service, this cooler is NOT bear certified, and even if it was, as it is the same design as the ones that are, the parks require it to be locked in a Bear Box. Do not think that this is good enough to not use the park provided bear protection in Yosemite, or Yellowstone. You still have to put it in a Steel Bear Box, which would have been nearly impossible because of it's large size. If you are looking for a one size fits all solution to your traveling food and beverage storage needs, I would strongly recommend looking at the smaller boxes. This 70QT box is too big for daily use in the back of your truck, unless you intend to throw a party every day.