Following on the success of their Venture Cooler launch last summer, Otterbox gets set to expand their offering with two new soft-sided coolers. The Trooper 30 and smaller Trooper 20 are lightweight, portable, yet durable coolers for everything from picnics and camping to days spent at the beach. I have been playing around with these coolers the past few months so I am excited they are finally coming to market.
The Trooper 30 uses a latch-shut, largemouth opening for easy access to the 30-quart capacity cooler space. A line on the inside indicates how full you can fill the cooler with ice and beer and still be able to close it properly. You can choose to carry it either backpack or over the shoulder style.
The Trooper 20 comes in a bit smaller with a 20-quart capacity, and uses a flip top lid instead of the mouth-style opening. Otterbox claims 72 hours of ice retention — from experience I know the ice will stick around for at least the weekend.
Both soft-sided coolers come with built-in bottle openers as well as an external, water-resistant pocket for safely carrying your phone and other essentials to the beach, on the kayak, or wherever you might be porting the cooler — the Trooper 30 has two of these pockets. The coolers themselves are highly-water resistant though you don’t want to be throwing them overboard. Similar to the Venture Cooler, the Troopers both feature accessory mounting systems so you can add on extras like the cup holder and dry box.
The one thing I would love to see Otterbox add (although not sure how easy it is technically) is a purge valve. While the ice does last for at least a couple of days, it melts, leaving the contents a bit soggy. It would be nice to purge the water once in awhile without having to take all your stuff out before topping up with ice.
The Otterbox Trooper 20 and Trooper 30 soft-sided coolers start at $249.99 and $299.99 respectively and are available as of today.