Yeti Ice Brick Review: Is It Better Than Other Ice Packs?

Yeti Ice is a well built and reusable ice brick that will last you years and will extend the ice retention of your cooler by as much as 12-24 hours.

In this Yeti Ice review we’ll look at the features of the Yeti Ice, how it works, if it’s better than regular ice and other ice bricks and whether or not it’s worth spending your money on.

For some people Yeti Ice bricks are going to be a great solution. Their reusability makes them super practical especially for people refilling their cooler often. For people who use their Yeti more infrequently you may not get enough use out of it to warrant buying them and frozen bottles of water can do a similar job for much cheaper.

See the latest price of Yeti Ice packs at Yeti.com
(or compare to the price of Yeti Ice packs at Amazon)

How Do Yeti Ice Bricks Work?

The science behind Yeti Ice bricks is pretty simple. They are designed to melt before water ice does and believe it or not but this can actually help to keep your water ice frozen for longer.

When ice melts the molecules in the ice require energy in order to break apart, so they pull this energy (in the form of heat) from their surroundings making the surrounding items slightly colder.

What this means is that as the Yeti Ice Bricks melt they draw heat out of the water ice, making the water ice colder and thus allowing it to stay frozen longer.

This is why it is recommended to use Yeti Ice in conjunction with regular ice and not just by themselves.

Customers who expect Yeti Ice to last longer than regular ice by itself will be unhappy with this product.

It does however work well enough for a daily ice brick in your lunch box or smaller cooler.

What Are The Benefits and Uses Of Yeti Ice?

Yeti Ice has three major benefits and a few different ways to use them.

Keeps Ice Longer

You can use Yeti Ice as a supplement to a cooler that already has loose ice in it. This will help the ice last approximately 12-24 hours longer depending on the size of the cooler and how many ice bricks you use.

When using Yeti Ice you should also follow my steps for how to keep ice longer in your cooler.

Reusable

Having Yeti ice stored in your freezer means you don’t need to worry about buying ice in order to keep your items cold. You can simply grab your Yeti Ice bricks and you’re good to go.

They are reusable so at the end of the day or the end of a trip they can simply be placed back in your freezer at home ready for the next adventure.

They Don’t Make Things Soggy

A major benefit of using any ice bricks when compared with loose ice is that when they melt the liquid in the ice brick will be contained so your items won’t end up swimming in water.

They don’t stay 100% dry as condensation on the cold ice bricks adds some water into your cooler as they melt, but overall there is a lot less water than regular ice which means your sandwiches are less likely to get soggy.

What Are Yeti Ice Bricks Made From?

Yeti doesn’t state on their website what the liquid inside the Yeti ice is made from but the external is a high-density polyethelyene which is the same type of plastic used to make Yeti LoadOut Buckets.

This means that Yeti Ice bricks are made tough and won’t break easily. You can throw them around, bump them and drop them without worrying about them breaking on you.

The best description for the liquid inside the Yeti Ice is “food-grade phase-change liquid” that is designed to freeze at a lower temperature than water at -2 degrees Celsius (28.4 Fahrenheit).

It could be anything from salt water with blue coloring in it (salt water has a lower freezing point than regular water) to a scientific concoction made from 100 finely tuned ingredients…I don’t actually know and there is no way to find out.

I personally wouldn’t go ahead and try and drink it just in case. But it should be food safe in case it does break and spill on you.

Are Yeti Ice Bricks Worth The Cost?

Yeti Ice bricks aren’t super expensive, but they aren’t cheap either so you need to decide where or not they are worth the cost for you.

How often will you use them and is it worth it to you to have reusable ice bricks that are ready to go at a moments notice?

Below are the prices for the different sizes of Yeti Ice as well as affiliate links to buy them on Amazon if you’re interested

YETI ICE 1 LBS

PRICE:

YETI ICE 2 LBS

PRICE:

YETI ICE 4 LBS

PRICE:

How Many Times Do You Need To Use a Yeti Ice Brick To Save Money?

One of the major benefits of Yeti Ice is that it is reusable and thus you are paying for less ice. This can be very practical for reasons we have already mentioned but it can also help to save you money.

Buying ice isn’t expensive, about $2 for 10lbs of ice, or $0.20 per lb of ice. So it’s going to take you a while to offset the cost of the Yeti Ice Brick. The bigger sizes save you money faster with the 4 lbs size only requiring 38 uses to cover its cost while the 1 lbs size requires 75 uses to cover it’s cost.

Below are how many times you need to use your Yeti Ice for it to actually start saving you money:

Yeti Ice 1lb = 75 uses
Yeti Ice 2 lbs = 50 uses
Yeti Ice 4 lbs = 38 uses

If you use your Yeti Ice 5 times per week, maybe for lunch at work, then you’ll pay it off within a couple of months. Or if you use it just once a week you’ll pay it off within the year.

Given these ice bricks should last you years it’s highly likely you’ll use it enough that at some point it will begin to save you money.

See the latest price of Yeti Ice packs at Yeti.com
(or compare to the price of Yeti Ice packs at Amazon)

Designed To Freeze Quickly And Be Easy To Hold

Yeti Ice is designed with a hole in the middle that serves two purposes. It exposes more of the Yeti Ice to the air in your freezer allowing it to freeze faster so you can use it quicker.

It also doubles as a handle so you can quickly grab the center and place it in your cooler or grab it out.

Because they are designed to fit snuggly inside multiple different sizes of Yeti coolers this makes inserting and removing the Yeti Ice easier.

Fits Perfectly In Yeti Coolers

One of the best things about Yeti Ice is that it is designed to fit perfectly in most sizes of Yeti coolers.

Most Yeti products, including their hard sized and soft sided coolers, are designed with the Yeti Ice in mind so you can easily fit one brick or a few in your cooler and have it take up the absolute minimal space.

Below you can see a diagram of some different Yeti coolers and the recommended layout for Yeti Ice. Or you can use Yeti's ice configuration tool.

5 Year Warranty

Yeti 5 Year Warranty

Now this is something you won’t find with many other ice packs on the market.

Yeti Ice comes with a 5-year warranty. So if anything happens to your Yeti Ice in that time and if it doesn’t work as intended you can get in contact with Yeti and get it fixed or get a free replacement.

It’s great that you can invest in these knowing at the very least you will get 5 years out of them, but likely a lot more.

Is Yeti Ice Really Better?

It depends how you define better.

Yeti ice packs are more durable than most other ice packs on the market, meaning they will last you longer. You can drop them, bump them and throw them around without fear of them cracking and spilling blue liquid everywhere.

For a lot of people this durability and peace of mind makes them worthwhile. It’s also backed by a 5-year warranty so you can invest in them knowing they will last you at least that long.

When it comes to staying hold and keeping ice longer the general consensus is Yeti Ice is best used in conjunction with water ice and will help water ice stay frozen longer.

They still work well to keep items cold by themselves but due to their lower melting temperature they are unlikely to perform as well as regular ice when used on their own and just a single ice pack or two isn’t enough ice for a big cooler, you’d need a lot more.

So in terms of solo ice retention, they probably aren’t better than just plain old ice or frozen water bottles.

But they are better than ice in that they are reusable and they won’t wet your food as they melt because the liquid is self contained. They also fit perfectly into many Yeti coolers making them a super practical option.

When tested against other ice bricks they didn’t perform the absolute best, but they did outperform many other cheaper options.

Alternatives To Yeti Ice

If Yeti Ice isn’t exactly for you there are some alternatives out there that may suit your needs better in terms of performance or price.

Better Performance: Engel Ice

In one of the only documented ice brick tests the Engel Ice 20’s performed better than the Yeti Ice.

The Engel Ice 20’s are designed to melt at 20 degree Fahrenheit vs 28.4 degree for the Yeti Ice so I’m not sure if the temperature of the phase change actually makes a difference or not.

There are also Engel Ice 32’s which are designed to melt at 32 degrees just like water does.

These are a similar price to Yeti Ice but seem to work a bit better.

Engel Cooler Pak 2 lbs:

Customers Love: Cooler Shock Hard Packs

These wide and thin Cooler Shock hard packs are designed to get cold fast.

They are rugged and built with the same plastic that the Yeti Ice is made with. They get delivered to you with the powdered formula inside and you simply fill them with water and they are good to know.

The positive customer reviews on this product are insane. So many people are raving about these ice packs calling them the best ice packs on the market. I’m talking raving!

I’ve never seen people so excited about a cooler pack, so these are definitely worth a try as they are also more affordable than the Yeti Ice.

They come with a 1-year warranty in case you have any issues.

Cooler Shock Hard Packs x2:

Budget Option: TOURIT Ice Packs

If you’re looking for a budget option then the TOURIT Ice Packs are much cheaper than the Yeti Ice and you can basically get 4 for the price of 1.

They have pretty positive reviews and people seem to like them.

At the end of the day ice packs aren’t anything fancy so any budget option you choose is likely going to do the job as long as it doesn’t leak or break.

TOURIT 1 lbs Ice Pack x4:

Where To Buy Yeti Ice

You can purchase Yeti Ice bricks from anywhere that sells Yeti. That includes the thousands of local specialty stores that stock Yeti products as well as Yeti’s own website.

You may need your local store to order in some stock if they don’t have the exact sizes and quantities you want.

You can also purchase Yeti Ice from Amazon, which in most cases offers free shipping and there will almost always be enough stock of the sizes you want.

To see the latest prices as well as more info on Yeti Ice click the image or my Amazon affiliate links below:

See the latest price of Yeti Ice packs at Yeti.com
(or compare to the price of Yeti Ice packs at Amazon)