This summer we had the opportunity to use the Yeti Hopper 30. For over 3 weeks, the Yeti was our savior as we traveled from Nebraska to California and all across the desert. It kept our drinks cold and our ice fresh for days at a time in some seriously hot weather. Once we returned how we acquired the Yeti Flip 12 and a 2-lb. Yeti Ice for day trips. I was looking for something small and easy to carry into the blind. On these short trips, I just need something to keep my water and soda cold and a place to keep some food at safe temperatures.
The Yeti Hopper Flip 12 has become my daily cooler. I have used it as a seat in the blind when I forgot my chair. It keeps my food cold and takes up very little room in the truck, often riding in the empty seat beside me while cruising from one hunting location to the next. It holds just enough food and soda for a full day of adventure. Often, I only pack the cooler with the Yeti Ice, throw in 6 cans of Coca Cola, a few bottles of water and my lunch on top. If I place cold drinks in the Flip and fill it with ice, the Yeti will keep the ice for a few days! When placing room temperature drinks in the ice-filled cooler, the Flip keeps the ice all day long.
For the past 2 months, I have taken the Yeti on almost every adventure I’ve gone on, from dove hunting on the prairie to sitting in the blind waiting to ambush deer with the bow. Last week I took this cooler out west on an archery hunt. Each morning I packed my lunch and headed out. While the zipper is stiff and requires two hands to open, it is worth the effort because it keeps the cooler tightly shut. Yeti provides zipper wax with this cooler to make the zipper easier to pull open and closed. The DyrHide outer shell is tough as nails. The Yeti Hopper Flip 12 currently comes in gray and blue. I’m hoping they bring out the green, orange, and tan look that I have on the Hopper 30.
The Yeti Hopper Flip 12 is not a cheap investment at $279.99. If you spend quite a bit of time outdoors like I do and cold drinks and cold food is important to you, this cooler is the ticket. It should last for years and has a full 3-year warranty. Predicting I might take this cooler into the outdoors an average of 100 days each year, that’s less than one dollar a day to have my drinks cold and my food safe. That’s a pretty worthy investment in my book.
The Yeti Ice is also worth the investment. I own one and I will purchase a second one. On days where I am running and gunning, that one Yeti Ice keeps the Flip 12 and my drinks cold. I will use the second one to swap out every other day. I have frozen it overnight, but I feel it would be better to swap out a Yeti Ice each day so that I know it is completely frozen over 24 hours and ready. I love that the Yeti Ice does not condensate very much. This keeps the cooler and my food out of the water and my drinks are as cold as they would be surrounded by ice. It also cuts out on the cost of ice.
Take a serious look at the Yeti Flip and the entire line of Yeti products. They really are built for those that spend serious time out in the wild.
http://yeti.com/hopper-flip-12-cooler/
It had better last for DECADES for that outrageous price.
Looking at cheap coolers that are $40.00 and the amount of ice that you would use over a year versus this cooler, I would say that it would pay for itself in 3 years. For me personally, I use this cooler every single day in the field so it is paying big dividends for me. Sitting in the blind with drinks, lunch and it is easy to carry in and out of the blind makes me happy to have it. It is expensive, no question but it is very very well built and I am happy that I own it.