Best Lunchbox Coolers

The Pelican 14QT can keep ice for 36 hours in ideal conditions. To get the best performance from your cooler, consider pre-chilling your cooler on warm days, and using high-performance Pelican Ice packs. Also be mindful to keep your cooler in the shade when you can.

Generally your cooler will keep cold for a 12 hour shift, but you can increase the retention by prechilling your cooler and using ice-packs and packing with pre-refrigerated drinks.

Yes. In one of our customer reviews, a worker in Texas mentions his cooler keeping ice throughout the full day in 103° heat.

The Pelican 14QT is designed to hold lunch with ice packs and a drink for one person, or a 6 pack of cans.

There are mixed reviews on whether the size upgrade is worth it, but it comes down to the amount of space that you want to have for your lunch and the size you're willing to commit to traveling with in your truck.

Some users love the organization, others find it limits capacity, but at the end of the day the Pelican 14QT was built to be modular and have the tray removed to accommodate more space for other lunch items or taller drinks.

The latch system is built Pelican Tough to hold up to daily use and abuse and is covered by a limited warranty.

Here's my honest take: if you buy lunch out daily, this pays for itself in about 6 weeks. But beyond the math, it's about reliability. I've gone through three "cheaper" coolers in the past that either broke, lost their seal, or just stopped keeping things cold. This one has been consistent for over a year now. The 3-year warranty alone makes it worth it - no more soggy sandwiches or warm drinks.

The dry box lid does require a firm press to close properly, and it can feel stiff initially. Some users complain it's hard to open, but I prefer that - it means it's actually sealing. After break-in, it becomes easier while maintaining that weatherproof seal. I store my phone, keys, and a paper towel in there, and they've stayed bone dry even when the main compartment had melting ice.

These features are genuinely useful, not just gimmicks. The bottle opener is perfectly positioned and feels solid. The magnetic cap catcher is genius - caps stick right to the cooler face so they don't get lost or create litter. I've used it countless times at job sites and camping trips. Small touches like this show Pelican really thought about real-world use.