I'm comparing this to the very expensive brands as I purchased this item for 50%-75% less than those brands for comparable capacity items. This is small. Holds a 6 pack of regular cans and ice. Or 3-4 packs of hot dogs and ice. You get the idea. It's not big. So the number one question everybody has is how long will it keep things cool. And that is impossible to answer because this depends on several criteria... Ambient temperature, temperature of items being cooled when inserted into the cooler, amount of ice used to begin with, how often you open the cooler and for how long you keep the cooler unzipped when opening. All of these factors will affect performance greatly. And you need to be diligent to maximize performance. But i can tell you it performs as well or better than most of the higher price brands. Definitely better than the yeti. Better than the cheap Coleman's, igloo and polar.When kept in a car in 50-75 degree ambient temps, opened 3 times a day with 25% ice and 75% meat and cheese, the cooler retains cold 3-4+ days. With the 4th+ day all the ice melted but very cold water and still cooking all the items.The other thing that will effect cooling time is whether you use ice or gel packs. Some of the gel packs retain cold longer than ice.If you put in warm items to start, and frequently open the cooler and don't quickly zip it COMPLETELY, and are keeping it under the sun on the beach in 80+ degree weather, you will be looking at greatly reduced performance. Most likely 12 hours or so. But i haven't tested that use case yet. I will update on further tests.PS- the zipper is high quality leak proof and hence very difficult to open. Also at the end it locks. Make sure your zip till the end.
