In this Yeti Cooler Unboxing I show you the key features of the Yeti 45 and give you my initial thoughts and review.
Hey guys, Ryan here from huntingwaterfalls.com. And today, I'm very excited to be unboxing this Yeti 45, which has just arrived in the mail today. And to open anything that is this good and this strong, we always need our knife. So let's go ahead and get this open.
I had it shipped from the US to Australia in order to get this. I heard a lot about these. Obviously, these are the most popular ones on the market. So let's go ahead and get this opened and have a look at it.
Alright, let's go ahead and get this out of the box. Yeti!
Here we have it and let me just say, this thing looks really nice. I am very, very impressed with the quality of this in terms of how it feels. It's almost like when you purchase an Apple product and open it and you're like, “Oooh! This is exciting!” Let's have a look at some of the features.
The Yeti has this really nice white finish on it. I do have a Pelican and the finish is just isn't as nice on it. The Yeti definitely looks and feels more premium, more expensive. It has these really nice rubber latches that you pull down on in order to open it and to lift it up. And they feel really secure, which I really like. We've also got the bolts in points for where you can make this bear proof or where you can protect the stuff that you have inside.
So let's go ahead and get this open. So let's open this together. I want it to be an experience for us. I'll lean it over so you guys can see. Oh! Free basket! I got a free basket! A drying rack that you can put on here to keep stuff dry. I did not know I was going to get that so that is an absolutely awesome surprise to get that drying rack.
We also have something about Yeti Ice. We don't care about that. Some Yeti magazine that I'll look at later. Oooh! I got some stickers as well! Some stickers. Very happy with that.
Alright, if we have a look at the inside, we can see that it is a box. There's nothing too exciting here. There's nothing on the bottom. There's just this simple 1-inch drain hole down there. We do have a spot here for the dividers that also double as your cutting board. So you can put a divider in there, which is nice to see. But all in all, it's pretty simple.
We've got 2 tie down points here if we need to tie it down. And then obviously, as we looked at earlier, we've got these areas where you can lock it into place. I do like that these stay up when it's up. When I close it, it's just simple to go ahead and pull those down. Now, some people may have trouble with this. It's not very hard to do.
It's not hard to pull them down. But you do need to use a little bit of strength with that. I've got a 6-year-old, a 4-year-old and a 1-year-old. Except the 1-year-old, they can open the Pelican, which just has push and pull lids. But they might struggle with this just because it's a bit harder to open. So something to think about if you have small children. But not a big issue.
We'll go ahead and open it up then we can see the nice Yeti symbol on here. Now, this is a premium product, it's a premium brand. You want to show it off so it's great to have that. And then, we've got the commercial-grade gasket around here. We will notice – I'll just bring it closer – that you can see here that there is a gap. A slight gap in the gasket that they put tape over it.
I don't know if that's a bad thing that they've had to put tape over it. But maybe that's just a way to keep it in place. So there is a slight gap there that air could definitely get out. So we'll have to see if that affects ice performance. It does say – if you saw my Pelican on opening, “Don't put your baby in here because they can get trapped and die.” So I might not put my baby in the Yeti. You know me, guys, I wouldn't actually put my baby in here. But he just loves to sit in these coolers because they're so big, it's like a little cubby for him. But we always look after him.
Okay, what else can we look at? If we look at the top, there is no measuring tape that we see on lots of other coolers. We've just got a little Yeti symbol around here. Let's have a look at the pin here. So if we look at the lid, this is one single pin all the way through. And again, I can put a bit of pressure on that – not a lot. I'm not super confident in it. I don't think it's going to break. It's very strong, but I don't want to put too much pressure on that.
So let's have a look at the rope handles. We have this nylon rope with a rubber rope handle, which feels pretty nice to carry. I'll have to test it in a second. There's also a spot to fit a few of your fingers – I've quite small hands – to fit under there so you can carry it like that if you want to.
But these rope handles feel pretty nice. Yeah, feels quite nice to lift with the rope handles. But it does kind of sway a bit. And so, if this was full, maybe I would prefer to put my hands underneath if it was full. Let's just see how we go when it's completely full.
If we have a look at the bottom, we can see, again, “Yeti” printed in nice, big letters under here. Which is a really nice feature, but I don't like that it's missing out on insulation because of the “Yeti” that's in there. But it looks really nice. And then we've got these rubber non-slip feet that are of this grey colour. Other ones I have seen in white and they're not going to make any marks.
I don't think the grey would make any marks. But let's hope that it doesn't.
Looking at the insulation on this thing. Now, this lip does have an overlap of about half an inch. So we have a look at that, we can see, it's probably 2 and 3/4 inches. Take away the half an inch, so it's slightly over 2 inches, maybe, on this side. And from here, if we look at this one, we can see it's slightly 2 inches for the center.
But then it does go out on the sides. And so, for some sections of it, you do have 3 inches as well. And if we look at the lid, which is the thickest part, we can see that it's around 2.5 inches in the lid. Now, I do remember Yeti saying that it had 3 inches of insulation in the lid, that that was where the bulk of the insulation was.
“2 inches in the walls and base and up to 3 inches in the lid”
I don't know how they spin it, but I can definitely not see 3 inches in the lid. Maybe this point, you know, the center sticks out a little bit more. Maybe there, it's going to 3 inches. But if we look at that, that's really 2. And then, it might protrude another half an inch if you're lucky. But that's definitely not 3 inches in the lid – not that I can tell.
Now, this is a Yeti 45. So you can see right here it says, “45”. We can see on here that it says “45” as well. But this isn't actually 45 quarts. So Yeti are a bit misleading in the way that they name their coolers. This is a 45, but it doesn't hold 45 quarts. And the proof is here, which you can see.
I'll just move it in. It has 9.4 gallons, which is a little over 37 quarts. So if you're comparing the Yeti 45 to other coolers, you should really be comparing it to coolers around the 37-quart mark. Which is generally, most coolers come in a 35-quart size. So when you're looking at the Yeti 45, it does not hold 45 quarts. It only holds about 37 quarts. Okay? So, that is something to be aware of. And remember, don't put your babies in there. Okay? No babies in the Yeti. No babies.
So there you have my unboxing of the Yeti 45 cooler. Which, remember, isn't actually 45 quarts. All in all, this looks like a really nice cooler. The plastic looks a lot nicer than the Pelican, which I purchased. It just feels more premium. It feels more like opening that Apple product and getting the excitement about the product. Everything is done really nice.
I can imagine that this white is going to scuff over time, but, look, I'm happy with that. I really like how dominant their branding is. With Yeti, they've got “Yeti” written on the handles. When you open it, it says “Yeti”. Because if you're buying a Yeti, you're buying the brand name. And so, to be able to show off that brand name to your friends is really cool. All in all, this seems like a really great cooler.
I will be putting it to the test in our ice challenge. It will go head to head against other coolers that are similar, but cheaper than Yeti. So we'll have a look a that in the future. But, all in all, my initial first reactions, first review is that this feels like a really nice cooler and I can understand why this is a premium cooler and why people pay more for this.
So really excited to have this cooler. Go ahead and click thumbs up down below if you like this video. Subscribe for more cooler reviews. And if you want to get a Yeti yourself, then I will leave links in the description below. And if you go through those links, I absolutely appreciate it. Thanks so much for watching today, guys. And until next time, stay cool.
