Pelican 20 Quart Elite Cooler

I own a larger older version of this cooler. Picked it up many years ago and have been impressed by the multi-day capacity of ice retention (10 days).

This cooler didn’t disappoint at all. I only took it for a 4 day adventure but it stood up extremely well. I normally create my own ice blocks from bread pans, customizing the size for placement around products. I used 4 ice blocks and a bag of ice cubes. After 4 days there was substantial volume to those ice blocks. I dumped the contents on the 5 day filling up my sink with ice. I am extremely satisfied with the performed. The build quality is typical for Pelican which in my opinion is durable and rugged.

The only issue I had was 2 corners of my seals were folded over on arrival. I contacted Pelican customer support and they shipped out a new seal the next day. Exceptional customer support.

I am very impressed with my new cooler. I have a large Yeti and wanted a smaller cooler for a one or two day outing. I could not bring myself to pay the Yeti price for a small cooler and decided to try this one for almost half the price and it was on sale.
Very easy to open, handle is very sturdy and good quality ,kept our food and drinks cold for two days with an ice pack and ice. I would not hesitate to buy another pelican product or recommend this brand to my friends.

I’ve owned Pelican cases for years, this is the 1st cooler I’ve ordered from Pelican. Also own a K2 rotomolded cooler and yeti soft sides. Good: The latches are top notch, keeping cooler well shut, way better than the Yeti/K2 rubber latches. Bad: Sucker is heavy and really needs wheels. We use this cooler primarily on the wakeboard boat here in central Texas (where its 100 degrees) every day this summer. The taller design of this cooler was the reason we went with it because it takes up less footprint on the boat that the K2. It is definitely a deep cooler and great for wine bottles or tall bottles. We’ve found that the ice melts quite rapidly in the cooler, turning to water much faster than yeti or K2, BUT- if its prechilled with ice for 3-4 hours, it maintains ice for the whole day. It is a leaner and less efficient option than the heavy duty 3″ thick rotomolded coolers. Handle is top quality and smart cutout for the carrying of it along your leg. But, man, hauling this cooler full for about 1/4 mile hike to the boat is an ordeal. I would guess fully loaded its nearly 40lbs. It is great as a Seat though, and is sturdy enough to sit and stand on for as long as needed. The cutouts for the drink locations on the top are mostly useless if you use a koozy, which 99% of people do. Make those bigger and they’ll be a nice feature. Overall, decent cooler, I’d probably buy again, but would be great if it had a wheel option of a strap. Its just a mofo to carry.

I was pretty upset after spending $200 dollars (same price as yeti 20qt and $50 more than the Rtic 20qt) on this cooler to realize that it does no better at keeping ice and drinks cold than the cheap $30 igloo 20qt cooler i was replacing with it. It will keep ice at most for 16 hours in 80° weather and about 12 hours in 100° weather which still leads me to buying ice every morning on my way to work. I do like how rugged and study it is and the latches are awesome (which I expected from pelican as a leading storage case manufacturer) but that’s where the pros of this cooler end. I’ve had it for 2 years and I get the same time frame of ice held, I’ve even tried prechilling the cooler and get the same 12 hours of ice I did without prechilling. I am definitely kicking myself for choosing this cooler over the yeti or the Rtic especially considering I paid the same or more than the others.

My cooler didn’t come with a lid gasket but they got me a new gasket in a few days stress free. Happy with my cooler 💪

I travel all over the country with this thing to keep my food cold. It gets beat up rattling around in the back of my work truck all day every day while working. Besides a few scratches there’s nothing wrong with it, it’s like new, it’s fallen off the tailgate, i use it as a step stool from time to time, stuff gets tossed on top of it, around it, things fall on it. It’s tough. I haven’t actually done a full test on how cold it stays and how long ice lasts. I use freezer packs so my food doesn’t get wet from ice. I’ve used ice a few times and it seems to last several days, it stays very cold. My ice packs don’t do a whole lot, as I don’t use many, but even on hot days it keeps my food chilled so it doesn’t spoil. The lid will also get warm and you can feel the warmth on the inside, if it’s in direct sunlight on a hot day. With ice this shouldn’t be an issue. It holds plenty of drinks or food, it’s a nice size especially when you have more vertical space rather than horizontal. I expect this thing will last me years to come, even with heavy use.