Say goodbye to warm sandwiches and drinks — this baby keeps ice frozen for up to five days. (QVC)
I spent several years living in a tropical town where the heat and humidity were off the charts every single day. During my beach era, I became a cooling product aficionado out of sheer necessity. My stainless steel, double wall-insulated water bottle was a fixture, of course. But something else became essential to my day-to-day life, too: a powerful cooler for keeping my hard seltzers cold and my various sandwiches and snacks fresh all day under the beating sun.
It's hard to find a cooler that hits all the right notes: generous capacity, formidable cooling capabilities and an under-$200 price point. But there's one, the Ninja FrostVault 30-Quart Hard Cooler with Dry Zone, that rises to the challenge. And right now, QVC has it on sale for $140 (that's 30% off) — which happens to be the lowest price on the web. It even comes in three colors: white, blue and gray.
This powerful, portable marvel of refrigeration takes picnics, road trips, camping and more of summer's sweetest activities to the next level.
You also have your choice of colors! Scoop up this warm-weather must-have in blue, gray or white.
The Ninja FrostVault 30-Quart Hard Cooler is a heavy-hitter, but you'd never know from its $140 sale price: its main competitors cost between $200 and $300. And you'll use this thing for everything, not just beach days. Pop it in the trunk for your next picnic, take it camping or set it up in the yard for an epic cookout. It pays for itself in no time.
With QVC's Easy Pay system, you can purchase your cooler in five installments of $28 instead of paying all at once. Another plus: If you're a first-time QVC shopper, you can grab an extra $20 off your order of $40 or more when you use the code WELCOME20 at checkout.
Whether you're replacing an existing cooler or just jumping aboard the portable cooling bandwagon, this Ninja Hard Cooler is about to become your indispensable summer sidekick. It's the perfect size: small enough to pop in the trunk of your car but big enough to hold about 48 cans. It'll keep ice frozen in that stuffy trunk, too — for up to five days, no less, thanks to three inches of insulation! Suffice to say it can survive a full day in the open sun and still serve up ice-cold drinks and frozen treats.
You might be wondering what Dry Zone means. It's actually Ninja's answer to cooler organization, which I didn't even know existed until this baby came along. It refers to a drawer that slides out to isolate food and any other items you want to keep dry and at refrigerator temperature all day long — or, more precisely, for two and a half days. And when you're ready to wrap things up, the Dry Zone drawer slides out for easy cleaning. A screw-in drain plug lets you easily drain leftover ice water, plus it's tethered to the cooler so you won't accidentally leave it behind.
As for portability, the cooler has side handles and a lockable lid to keep everything airtight and easy to tote from place to place. Once I started using my cooler for beach days, I realized it would also be a game-changer for my frequent road trips. It's even great to keep in the car for supermarket hauls, so you won't have to race home on hot summer days before the ice cream melts.
This Ninja cooler has a 4.7 overall star rating and plenty of stellar reviews that back up its solid reputation.
Customers rave about the endurance of the cooler. "I just did a four-day road trip — I only changed the ice once. The cooler was in my car three of the four days in 90-degree temperatures and when I arrived home, the drawer was still cold and the main cooler was still cold, with melted ice and ice chips," one recalled.
"We had the hottest weekend out on the boat and the cooler kept everything cold," another chimed in.
Shoppers also love how easy the cooler is to handle. One wrote, "I am a senior citizen who goes camping alone. I was having trouble draining my old cooler, but the location of the drain plug on this one is perfect. I just lean it out the back of my van and drain."
Another reviewer said the Ninja cooler is "easy to carry even if full."
And, of course, the Dry Zone drawer scores major points. "The drawer keeps food colder than some fridges," one pleased purchaser wrote. "It is by far the best cooler I've come across."
"The drawer is perfect for medicine or items you don’t want in the main cooler," said another reviewer, while a third called the drawer "very convenient for sandwiches and fruit."
Several reviewers agree on one major drawback. "The big downside to this cooler is that it doesn't have wheels to move it," said one.
"It's the only reason I did not give five stars — it needs wheels," admitted another.
The reviews quoted above reflect the most recent versions at the time of publication.