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REI Personal Cooler

$19.50

(13)

Item # 828510

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Spacious enough to keep food for 2 cool, the REI Personal Cooler is great for adventures around town or in the mountains.

Closed-cell foam provides efficient insulation to keep food and beverages cool for hours; foam also protects fruit from bruising
Heavy-duty PEVA liner is waterproof and PVC-free; liner wipes clean quickly and easily
Zippered exterior pocket holds utensils and napkins (sold separately); side pockets hold water bottles and other essentials
Haul handle and adjustable shoulder strap let you easily transport the REI Personal cooler

Imported.

Item 828510

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REI Personal Cooler Customer Reviews

REVIEW SNAPSHOT®

by PowerReviews

REI Personal Cooler

4.3

(based on 13 reviews)

92%

of respondents would recommend this to a friend.

Pros

Durable (12)
Good capacity (12)
Retains temperature well (10)
Good grip (5)
Easy to drain (4)

Cons

Best Uses

Day trip (9)
Camping (6)

- Reviewer Profile:
- Casual/ recreational (8), Avid adventurer (4)
- Was this a gift?:
- No (12)

Reviewed by 13 customers

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Displaying reviews 1-10

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May

2013

4.0

Great Little Cooler, Zipper Sticks

By Barb the biker

from Renton, WA

About Me Casual/ Recreational

See all my reviews

Pros

Durable
Retains Temperature Well

Cons

Zipper Sticks

Best Uses

Campgrounds
Day Trips

Comments about REI Personal Cooler:

We love this cooler. We take it on picnics, day trips, and on the boat. It is light weight and just the right the size. The only drawback is the top zipper has a tendency to jam. I went back to the store to look at others and the top zipper was sticking on those as well.

Comment on this review

Apr

2013

5.0

Food for 1

By lawebchick

from Los Angeles

About Me Casual/ Recreational

See all my reviews

Pros

Durable
Good Capacity
Good Grip
Retains Temperature Well
Sturdy

Cons

Best Uses

Comments about REI Personal Cooler:

I use this for lunch everyday at work, packing in all sorts of things. It comfortably holds my entire meal and an afternoon snack. It's durable, stable, and can take some stuffing. Handy pockets on the outside for bottles. Despite the "Food for 2" in the description, I'd say it has ample room for 1.

Comment on this review

Mar

2013

5.0

Great Lunch Box

By gonehiking43

from Maryland

About Me Avid Adventurer

See all my reviews

Pros

Durable
Easy to clean
Good Capacity
Retains Temperature Well

Cons

Best Uses

Day Trips
Work

Comments about REI Personal Cooler:

I use this as my lunch box for work outdoors. Very happy with the insulation. Has kept my food fresh and drinks cold with an ice pack even on 100 plus degree and high humidity days. Has enough space to load up with a full lunch and canned drink, plus 4 20oz. extra drink bottles(sports drink/water). I like to use the front pocket for storage of small gear and first-aid. I am really happy with this cooler. After spending some time comparing coolers, I decided on this one. It has held up better than other soft side coolers that I have had in the past. I really like the selection of soft sides that REI has to offer. The only difficulty I had was deciding wich size was good for me.

Comment on this review

Sep

2012

5.0

I love this thing

By Indynicolas

from Broad Ripple, Indiana

About Me Avid Adventurer

See all my reviews

Pros

Good Capacity
Retains Temperature Well

Cons

Best Uses

Campgrounds
Day Trips

Comments about REI Personal Cooler:

I bought this cooler on a whim to use for my lunch at work, and really love it. It holds all I would want to eat and drink at lunchtime, plus a little more. I have stuffed this thing to capacity more than once with no zipper failure.

The reason I wanted to write this review though is how well this little guy keeps its cool. Most days I put a cold Gatorade or two in with my food and they are always still cold 6 or 7 hrs later--no need for ice packs. I really love this thing it's easily the best knee jerk purchase I have made in quite some time.

Comment on this review

Aug

2012

(0 of 2 customers found this review helpful)

2.0

Disappointed in newer model

By Ojo

from Santa Fe, NM

About Me Casual/ Recreational

See all my reviews

Pros

Durable
Good Capacity

Cons

No additional side pocket
No padded handle
No padded shoulder strap

Best Uses

Day Trips
Lunch

Comments about REI Personal Cooler:

I loved my REI personal cooler until it wore out and I went to REI to purchase a new one. Ugh! Why o' why REI did you downgrade the perfect cooler?!? No padded handle and shoulder strap makes it harder to carry glass/stainless steel containers not to mention one or two water bottles. The additional side pocket provided much needed extra storage. All these wonderful features are gone, gone, gone!

Comment on this review

Jul

2012

(8 of 8 customers found this review helpful)

5.0

Love it

By Ames226

from Soquel, CA

About Me Casual/ Recreational

See all my reviews

Pros

Durable
Good Capacity
Good Grip

Cons

Best Uses

Comments about REI Personal Cooler:

I bring my breakfast, lunch and snacks to my 9 hour workday everyday. This cooler is perfect for my tupperware with my salads, yogurt snack, fruit, cottage cheese, and any dressings or sauces I need. I can also fit a drink and my utensils. It works great to keep things cool. The smaller cooler would not be big enough if you like to bring more than just a sandwich to work. I got the plum colored one and it is so cute. True to the color on the screen.

Comment on this review

Jul

2012

(3 of 3 customers found this review helpful)

5.0

Excellent cooler for taking lunch

By Dukes44

from Philadelphia, PA

About Me Casual/ Recreational

See all my reviews

Pros

Durable
Easy To Drain
Good Capacity
Good Grip
No Plastic Taste
Retains Temperature Well

Cons

Best Uses

Day Trips
River Trips

Comments about REI Personal Cooler:

I was looking for a cooloer to take my lunch in to work every day. The "lunch" coolers were to small. This was the next option. It is the best cooloer I have taken to lunch. I use two rubbermaid blue ice packs, one on the bottom and one on the top. I can fit 3 square rubbermaid "takeables" and a few condiments in a small snack back inside, between the two ice packs. I put a 32 oz water bottle in one of the side expandable pockets and a 32oz Powerade in the other side. In the front zipper I store chips , popcorn packs, utenziles and napkins (not all at the same time).

It also retains the tempature extremely well. When I get home from my second job, usually the ice packs have been in there for about 16 hours and it still has a small piecce of solid ice in the middle of the largest pack and the smallest pack is still ice cold. It is also easy to wipe clean. The shoulder strap is also removable, if you choose not to use it and the bottle opener is a nice touch if you need one. Overall a great day/lunch pack for lunch or food for the day.

Comment on this review

Jul

2012

5.0

My Daily Lunch Buddy!

By rekaks

from Washington State

About Me Avid Adventurer

See all my reviews

Pros

Bottle Opener
Construction
Durable
Fits Locker
Good Capacity
Inside Liquid Proof
Pockets

Cons

Best Uses

Campgrounds
Daily Lunch
Day Trips

Comments about REI Personal Cooler:

The color made me buy this :) for my daily lunch at work! The heavy construction and good material makes it durable for daily use. Fits my locker at work. Keep my food warm/cold and with enough space for soda fruit biscuit. This will serve me for years to come!

Comment on this review

Jun

2012

3.0

Good little cooler. one drawback.

By BananaJammer

from boston, ma

About Me Casual/ Recreational

See all my reviews

Pros

Durable
Easy To Drain
Good Capacity
Good Grip
No Plastic Taste
Retains Temperature Well

Cons

Needs fruit compartment

Best Uses

Campgrounds

Comments about REI Personal Cooler:

I like the material and construction of this cooler. Seems to be well made and durable. It's a little more sturdy than many of the soft coolers I've seen. The structure holds it's box shape well, but thay will be a Con is you're looking to collapse it down for stowing when empty.
Biggest complaint is no suspended compartment for fruit. Many lunch coolers this size will have a small mesh pouch to hang your fruit up out of harms way, but this one does not. I don't know how my banana gets so beat up in the 15 mile motorcycle ride to work everyday, but it does.

Comment on this review

Jun

2012

5.0

Good Beer Cooler

By Scott Free

from St. Charles, IL

About Me Casual/ Recreational

See all my reviews

Pros

Durable
Easy To Drain
Good Capacity
Retains Temperature Well

Cons

Best Uses

Campgrounds
Motorcycle Camping
River Trips

Comments about REI Personal Cooler:

This is pretty much a generic soft cooler that will easily hold 8 half-quart beer cans (or 8 upright long-necks) plus ice, but built like an REI product, which is to say, just about indestructible. I do a lot of motorcycle camping, and when the cooler's sharing a small trunk with the laptop computer, it's important that the cooler not leak or sweat. This one doesn't--I can pack it full of adult beverages and ice, ride all day and it'll still be dry on the outside when I reach my campsite. This alone is worth the price, as I've had way too many cheap soft coolers leak all over the place.

Materials and construction are first-rate, and despite being fairly abusive I've not been able to scuff or injure either the outside or inside of this cooler. Nice. The front zipper pocket, by the way, is perfectly sized for a medium dinner plate, which strikes me as a nice touch (even if dinner's just canned spaghetti over the camp stove, it always seems to taste a little better off real china).

The metal doo-dad on the shoulder strap is a bottle opener, but not a particularly good one. At least not the one that came on my cooler--it typically takes three or four tries to remove the cap on a non-twist-off micro-brew. I haven't given up my trusty church key! Speaking of the shoulder strap, one of the (few) ways in which this cooler could be improved would be to make the strap removable. I rarely (if ever) use it, and it's kind of annoying the way it flops around in the bike's trunk. I'll probably eventually sew in a nylon buckle here.

The cooler does (contrary to one other review; perhaps the design has changed?) have a pair of straps that allow it to be smashed down to about 1/3 of its "in use" size.

So, overall, a good product. Does its job well and (after two years of use) looks like it'll last a good long time.