After a long day of cheering on the home team under the sun, few things are more satisfying than popping open an icy-cold one from the cooler and taking the first few swigs of that ultra-refreshing, bubbly goodness as you and your buddies celebrate the nail-biter overtime victory.
Whether you’re barbecuing at a tailgate party or venturing into the open water on a boat, the best coolers will act like mini fridges to keep your drinks cold and food fresh for hours on end, allowing you and your loved ones to safely and enjoyably fuel up at a later time.
The WeatherTop Cooler is designed to do just that. This roomy, thickly insulated soft cooler features ultrasonic welded seams and a heavy-duty zipper that’s airtight and watertight to seal in the cold and any leaks. Its FDA-compliant, BPA-free liner is safe for food contact, so you can go ahead and bite into fresh fruit directly out of the cooler. With an extra-durable construction and waterproof coating inside and out, the WeatherTop Cooler is made to help you enjoy the great outdoors year-round.
And because we believe having the right setup to suit your specific needs will inspire you to do just about anything by bike, the WeatherTop Cooler comes with built-in straps and quick-release buckles to sit securely on our other cargo-carrying accessories like the Transporteur Rack and Hauler Rack for easy configurations when you need it.
Now, to make sure the WeatherTop Cooler delivers what it’s designed to do (and save you from the ultimate embarrassment of serving warm beer), we decided to put it through a few tests to see if it can really keep its cool. Read on to see how it fared!
Laboratory Test
First, we wanted to see how well the WeatherTop Cooler performed under controlled conditions. So the folks at the lab used a method that is commonly employed by cooler brands to test ice retention.
Here’s what they did:
- Packed 15 kg of ice into the cooler, which was kept at room temperature prior to the test.
- Measured the starting temperature of the cooler plus ice, before placing the fully-sealed cooler into a climate chamber, with ambient temperature set at 32 °C (89.6 °F) to mimic hot weather conditions.
- Briefly opened the cooler after 24 hours and 48 hours inside the climate chamber, respectively, to measure the internal temperature of the cooler.
Results:
| Start | After 24 Hours | After 48 Hours | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Temperature | -19.1 °C (-2.4 °F) | -11.0 °C (12.2 °F) | -1.2 °C (29.8 °F) |
| Ice cubes | 100% | 50% | 30% |
To start, the internal temperature of the cooler with all those ice cubes measured to be a frigid -19.1 °C (-2.4 °F). After 24 hours in the heated chamber, the internal temperature of the cooler reached -11 °C (12.2 °F), with roughly around half the ice remaining. And after 48 long hours, the internal temperature of the cooler stayed at a freezing level, coming in at -1.2 °C (29.8 °F) with around ⅓ of the ice remaining. Our conclusion? Two icy thumbs up—the thick insulation and reinforced construction of the cooler effectively kept the cold in as intended.
While this concludes the standard ice retention test, there were still a few questions unanswered—like how would loading drinks and food into the cooler affect the chill factor? To find out, we decided to take a step further in our tests to see how the WeatherTop Cooler performed when we filled in the blanks.
Laboratory test, take two
We returned to the lab and asked the folks there to do a second run of the test, this time with pre-chilled drinks packed into the cooler—similar to what an average person would do if they were looking to have cold drinks for their outing. And, because we already know the WeatherTop Cooler can hold ice for 48 hours from the previous test, we purposely extended the test duration to 60 hours just to give it a push. In particular, we wanted to find out what happens after the 48 hour-mark.
Here’s a rundown of the test:
- Loaded 12.56 kg of ice and 10 bottles (3.78 kg in total) of drinks straight out of the fridge into the WeatherTop Cooler, sandwiching the drinks between two layers of ice. Like the first lab test, the cooler was stored at room temperature prior to the test.
- Measured the starting temperature of the cooler plus ice, before placing the fully-sealed cooler into a climate chamber, with ambient temperature set at 32 °C (89.6 °F) to mimic hot weather conditions.
- Briefly opened the cooler after 12, 24, and 36 hours to visually check the contents, and measured the internal temperature of the cooler at 48, 52, and 60-hour mark.
Results:
| Start | After 48 Hours | After 52 Hours | After 60 Hours | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Temperature | -19.0°C (-2.2 °F) | -8.9 °C (16.0 °F) | -8.4 °C (16.9 °F) | -5.7 °C (21.7 °F) |
| Ice cubes | 100% | 30% | 20% | 10% |
As you can see, the interior of the WeatherTop Cooler remained extra cold throughout the test, well below the ideal fridge temperature of 4.4 °C (40 °F) recommended by the FDA for keeping food fresh. Even after being exposed to warm air several times to satisfy our curiosity and sitting in the heated chamber for two and a half days, the drinks were chilled to perfection in an ice bath, protected by the trusty WeatherTop Cooler. This is definitely one cooler you can count on to serve up some icy cold beverages!
Now...who wants some ice cream?
Tern HQ, Taiwan. With sweltering temperatures of around 33 °C (91.4 °F) lately, what better way to put the WeatherTop Cooler to good use and get some product testing done along the way than to treat our hardworking team members to some ice cream?
With that in mind, we rode to the supermarket (see here for tips on riding in hot weather) and picked up two tubs of ice cream, filled ¼ of the WeatherTop Cooler with ice, nestled the ice cream amongst the ice, and headed back to HQ with the cooler strapped securely to the bike’s front rack.
On the way back, we took a 50-minute detour to ride along the picturesque riverside bikeway—only to be greeted by a sudden downpour. But no worries. The waterproof and leakproof cooler bag protected our ice cream from the drencher and any rain that attempted to seep through. Plus, a quick shake easily dealt with any rainwater that had managed to pool in crevices at the top of the cooler.
Back at HQ and after a quick change into dry clothes, we were ready to unveil the results to our eager team members armed with spoons and mugs. Upon opening the WeatherTop Cooler, we noted that none of the ice inside had even begun to melt, and the interior of the cooler remained dry throughout the ride. But more importantly, how did the ice cream turn out?
The proof is in the pudding. In our case, the proof is in the vanilla ice cream.
Voila—the ice cream arrived delightfully frozen, still requiring a bit of elbow grease to scoop out. Pretty impressive, considering it had been sitting in the cooler for one hour, with no pre-chilling or special packaging normally reserved for transporting this very delicate concoction.
It’s said that ice cream boosts workplace morale—and seeing the smiles on everyone’s faces, we most certainly agree! With the frozen treat helping our team members happily get through hump day, our little experiment came to a successful conclusion: the WeatherTop Cooler indeed keeps things chilled for your favorite people to enjoy, rain or shine.
If you’re wondering how to get your hands on the WeatherTop Cooler this summer, see your local Tern dealer. We hope you enjoyed reading about our experiments as much as we enjoyed conducting them!
