“The most feature packed cooler ever” was Kickstarted to some fanfare late last year, earning over $185,000 (against a $50,000 ask) from backers anxious to get their hands on the ice chest to end all ice chests. Now the finished product is here, available in three capacities (60, 80, or 85 quarts), each in three to five colors.
The promises of the ROVR—we reviewed the smallest, the RollR 60—are substantial. Up to 10 days of ice retention. A dry bin to store goodies you don’t want to get wet (or to hold clean ice for drinks). A container deep enough to store a bottle of wine upright. Bearproof.
Photos don’t do the ROVR justice. Next to a rugged hipster’s ankles or a happy dog, it looks almost demure and petite. But in person, it’s a monster, so huge that it drew an immediate what’s-that-thing-in-the-garage line of inquiry when my wife got home from work. The chartreuse color scheme (ROVR calls it “moss”) probably didn’t help its case.
The RollR 60 was in the garage because, frankly, getting it up the stairs and into the house was unrealistic. At 26 x 18 x 20 inches and 45 pounds—empty—hauling the cooler up narrow stairs is a two-man job. (Compare to the Yeti Tundra 65, which weighs 29 pounds.) Even getting it into the trunk of my SUV, a reasonably spacious Mazda CX-5, was an awkward proposition, and once it was there, it nearly filled the trunk space, with room only for a couple of bags to one side. And this is the small version of the cooler. With nothing in it.
Of course, the RollR is meant to be used full, not empty, and while that makes the cooler even more unmanageable, once you put actual stuff in it, it doesn’t take long to see how impressively constructed the thing is. I knew the claim of 10 days of ice retention was a stretch, but it took a still-impressive four days for a 10-pound bag of ice to melt in my testing, losing about a quarter of its volume each day. The deep interior is a nice feature, so you don’t have to wedge bottles through the ice in order for them to fit upright in the bin. As well, the removable dry bin is handy—though it’s more appropriate for things like tomatoes and lettuce than bottles of beer.
Getting around with the RollR is made much simpler thanks to a pair of 9-inch all-terrain tires and a handle that swings up to let you drag it around. The handle design isn’t ideal—it only pivots up 90 degrees, requiring some hunching over to pull it along—but it does at least make moving a filled cooler more than a few feet possible.
Like a luxury car, the real fun with the RollR comes when you add options. These are bonus items, all of which attach in some way to the exterior of the cooler. An expandable bin can sit atop the cooler, letting you haul your blankets and bags of Ruffles, collapsing flat when you want to put it away. There are also drink holders and a stash bag, and even a small cutting board which hooks onto the side of the RollR. Lastly, the cooler can be attached to your bicycle and hauled behind you, much like a baby trailer, though whether you’re comfortable having such precious cargo out of sight will require some soul-searching.
Except for the bin, which is included, all of this stuff costs extra; the best deal is a flat $60 for a bundle of all the extras except for the bike kit, which is another $50. Considering the cooler itself costs $399, you can easily top $500 by adding on accessories, and that’s without even upgrading to the snazzy Phil Lewis Artist Series bin (another $60). That’s even more than a four-day pass to Bonnaroo will run you this summer—though at least with the cooler in tow, your beers will stay cold throughout the duration of the show, giving you ample opportunity to question the practicality of your decision.
