AO Coolers Expedition Canvas Soft-Sided Cooler Bag

I've had it for 3 years, and it's fantastic. It's not a cheap, disposable cooler or a huge, ultra expensive one that's built like a truck. This one hits the sweet spot. It's high quality, keeps things cold for a long time, is easy to use, and not too heavy or bulky. The insulation is thick enough so that with a couple of Yeti ice blocks, it'll say cold all day. The size and storage capacity is perfect for a big picnic, some camping or a day with a huge haul of frozen food sitting in the car while you run other errands. Since the insulation is effective, but not ridiculously thick, like some others on the market, you don't have a giant cooler without a lot of capacity. AO strikes a good balanced between insulation depth and capacity. I also like that it's soft sided, so you can cram a few extra things into it. The zipper is tough, lasts and is effortless to zip. When you snap it down on the sides, it sits much like a suitcase so it's easy to carry by the handles or padded shoulder strap and fits well into any vehicle. The water tight interior is easy to clean just by wiping it out and resists odors. It's quick to dry, so it doesn't get nasty and moldy. After 3 years, the canvas exterior has stayed nice and clean. You can wipe off any spills with a damp cloth. The blue color is bright, but not too bright. I looked at a lot of coolers before I bought this one and even returned one. I'm really happy with my purchase. It's not one of those that you can collapse into nothing to store, but that's OK. It's worth taking up some room to store such a high quality cooler that has worked perfectly and has lasted. It's by far the best cooler I've had.

This is our second AO cooler. Our first is 10 years old and still works great but has flattened out a bit over the years. We fly to camping destinations and this cooler (36 can capacity) fits nicely in our large suitcase or as a carry on. It holds ice well for over a day in hot conditions and doesn’t leak when the ice does melt. We learned the hard way that bottle caps can tear the lining but the included patch kit worked great. I really like that if the sides aren’t clipped down, it almost doubles the capacity. Definitely a high quality product that will last for years. Everything about it is sturdy. Zipper is top notch. The design hasn’t changed in 10 years; why mess with a good thing?!

I purchased the 12 can size in order to transport breast milk during a 6 day trip out of town for work. Every day I brought this cooler to the convention with me along with a gallon sized ziplock bag full of ice. After pumping I’d store the milk in the cooler. I was away from a fridge about 8 hours each day but the cooler kept everything very cold. In fact, at the end of the day the ice would still be mostly unmelted in the ziplock bag, and the milk would be cold. At the end of the trip I packed all of the milk into my AO Cooler along with another ziplock bag full of ice. I was able to freeze some of the milk before flying and when I got home about 8 hours later only two 6oz bags of milk had slightly started to thaw. The rest was still frozen solid. Most of the milk I transported was not frozen and the sturdiness of this cooler prevented any bags from opening, even when jostled by other carry-on luggage in the overhead storage bin on the airplane. All of the milk was extremely cold when I made it home. If you are going to be expressing breast milk away from home more than 6 days, I might recommend getting the 24 can size instead. I could only fit a very little bit of ice in the cooler on my way home with the 12 can size that I purchased. This bag made the very stressful process of transporting and storing breast milk while away from home as painless as possible. The 12 can size is large – don’t expect it to easily fit underneath the seat in front of you on an airplane. But it is sturdy, well-made, and can protect your precious cold items during long periods of time away from refrigeration. As a side note – when I got home I accidentally left a ziplock bag full of ice in my AO Cooler for over a day before I realized it was there. The cooler was unzipped that entire time, and when I pulled the bag out of the cooler, the ice had melted but it was still extremely cold. The insulation in these coolers is pretty amazing.

The inside liner is thicker than the old waterbed liners. It would be hard to puncture this with normal use. As far as it keeping ice in the form of ice in 100 degree temperature I'll do an update in July when I do a camping trip. I can say in 50 degree weather it kept icepacks cold for 3 days. I would recommend this cooler just on it's beefiness alone though. Incredibly well made! The outside is a heavy duty canvas with a tough zipper. You can buckle down the sides to save space in the car or leave them flipped up to pack more stuff inside. You can fit a lot of stuff in this thing. When we camp, we pre-make breakfast, lunch and dinners. We put them in food saver bags and then freeze them. We had 3 days of meals ( 9 or 10 food saver bags filled with food), a six pack of soda, 6 bottles of water and 3 6x9 ice packs. Being that it is soft side, you can really pack stuff in there (I did have the sides buckled down). The bags of food at the bottom were still frozen. Now kept in mind, this was in 50 degree weather. I'll do an update after my July camping trip. UPDATE -July 2015 Wow...even more impressed with this cooler. I also bought the 24 pack cooler to use along with my 36 pack. I had 12 pre-chilled bottles of water and ONE Artic - Tundra series ice pack (these ice packs are fantastic) in the cooler in the car for 6 hours. The range of temperature inside the car was 83-110 degrees. In 2 hours I checked -the bottles directly under the Tundra ice pack were now half frozen -Amazing! Car temp was 98 degrees. 4 hours later the ice pack had unthawed a bit and the bottles of water were still ice cold. I like using ice packs when ever I can. Clean up after use is a breeze. Empty the cooler, put the pack back in the freezer with very little wipe down -I'm done. I have bought a lot of coolers both hard & soft sided looking for the best option without spending a couple of hundred on a Yeti. I have always preferred a soft side because they take up so much less room in the car. I have to say, I can stop looking now.

This is a well made product. I've owned the older red version for about 9 years with the bag usually staying in my car trunk. It still looks almost brand new. I don't really use it as a cooler but instead to keep all my camp cooking supplies. The few times I've used it to transport hot/cold food it works really well. The inside is easy to wipe down if you have some spillage. I have the older version so the shape is a triangle shape, not a rectangle shape as the new version is. Because of the shape my version doesn't pack as much, so I'm tempted to get the new version or a different bag entirely. The bag is not that flexible so if you're trying to cram this into a tight space you might have an issue. If you want to use the bag to protect sensitive materials like camera lens or electronic gear it will give some fairly good cushioning.

Bought 2 for off shore fishing. Also used as a check in on a plane from a fishing trip to Panama. Great value.

I bought this soft cooler as I needed something that I would be able to keep in the hot car all day while keeping fruit throughout the day. I bought this along with a couple of Arctic Ice Chillin Brew series that I use in conjunction with some other frozen bags I have. I had a 96 degree day recently which this bag had to stay in the car all day. I packed up the pre-cooled bag around 4am with the ice packs and fruit. With it being opened several times throughout the day, I went to eat some cubed watermelon that I had in the bag, at around 6pm and the watermelon was still so cold that I had to give it some time because it was difficult to eat. A bottle of OJ put in there around 11am was icy cold when I got home at 7pm. A couple of things with this bag. Research how to get the most out of the bag and heed that advice. Steps like refrigerating the bag overnight before you want to use it might seem trivial but really do make a real world impact. Figure out the best ways to configure the ice. Hot air rises, even inside of a cooler; so pack the ice accordingly so that items near the top aren't warm with other items frozen on the bottom. This has unexpectedly become one of those products that I didn't know that I would love until it repeatedly has blown me away with keeping items cold. I don't know but I can't imagine a Yeti product providing more than double the value of this brand of cooler bag. If I wanted to and throw a con out there I would say that the logo could use some work and definitely has a long way to go to inspire the kind of lifestyle that I think a product like this is geared toward. When I see it it seems like a logo of a company that sells industrial shelving or metal. All of this is completely extraneous to the fact that this product is fantastic; both in performance and in value when compared to market competition. If you need a cooler like this you should be quite happy with this product; you might even find yourself blown away.

This cooler is unbelievable! I got the 12 can cooler to be able to take a few days of lunches when I travel. You can throw a freezer pack or two in there in the morning and they’re mostly still frozen in the afternoon. The insulation is unreal. It is very thick and very good. I cannot even believe the quality construction and materials of this cooler. This thing is no joke. I am so happy I bought it. I travel about five times per month for about 15 days and this thing is extremely durable and will last for ages. I have zero concerns about how cold it will keep my food and how durable this thing is going to be.

2リットルの水ペットボトルが横にして入れられます。 ただ、容量的に2リットルの水を入れてしまうと少し厳しいです。 諸々を入れていきたい方や、缶ビールなどを沢山持っていきたい方はもう一つ上のサイズが良いかと思います。 見た目もカッコいいですし。 氷が溶けるのも緩やかな性能なので個人的には文句なしです。

保冷状態での物品の移動に使うバックを探していました。以前使っていたものはバック自体は軽かったのですが華奢で一年足らずで穴が開いて取っ手が取れました。この商品はとにかく頑丈で軽いです。また角が折れる仕様なので箱型になり、車のトランクにきっちりと収まります。もちろん保冷機能も申し分ありません。いい商品だと思います。

保冷効果は最高です。その引き換えに内容量に比較して全体が思いのほか大きい印象を受けました。ソフトクーラーですがコンパクトに畳む事は出来ません。しかし軽量なので車に常時搭載して買い物時等に大変重宝しています。

This is great for travelling- it’s large super efficient at keeping things cold- well insulated, good strong build. If it’s only partially filled it folds in making packing so much easier. The old hard esky bit the dust…it wasn’t even a comfortable seat.😁

短時間であれば保冷性能は全く問題ないです。軽くて持ち運びも容易。