Besides quitting time, lunchtime can be one of the best times of the day. We can kick back, have a little food and a little laughter. When I was working downtown on a new construction job, I always brought my lunch because eating out every day added up to a lot of money each week. Back then we really only had the Igloo coolers. Now we have a bigger variety of coolers. In fact, a couple of power tool manufacturers have been releasing versions of their coolers such as Klein and Dewalt. Now we have the Milwaukee so let’s jump into the Milwaukee Cooler Review.
Milwaukee Cooler Review Overview
For our lunch coolers, we have two choices to pick from. We can either get a soft cooler or hard cooler. Both have their pros and cons. The new Milwaukee cooler is a soft cooler.
The cooler can keep ice for 24 hours and is made from a 1680D ballistic base. The cooler is double insulated and features a no sweat exterior.
Milwaukee Cooler Review Features
On the front of the cooler, there is a tech pocket for your tablet. On the left side, there are a couple of pockets for some tools and even a tape measure holder that also acts as a bottle opener.
While I think this is cool, for me it’s a little too much. I love having the front pocket. While I wouldn’t use it for a tablet because I don’t carry my cooler around everywhere means there could be a good chance it could get ripped off. For me, I would rather use this front pocket for dry goods or silverware (sporks).
While the side pockets are also a nice feature, I really don’t want to carry a tape measure in my cooler. Sure some guys will. I would rather have a cooler function such as a place to put a thermos or water bottle. I can fit a water bottle in the back pocket, but it’s pretty tight. There isn’t a way to carry my water bottle around. I would much rather lose the screwdriver or tool pockets and have a bigger pocket for my liquids.
On the right side, there is a nice expandable pocket for anything you want to carry around.
The bottom of the cooler has some nice rubber feet to help stop the cooler from sliding around, plus it keeps it off the ground so the bottom doesn’t get wet or dirty.
On the top of the cooler, there is a very nice handle to carry around the cooler.
If you would rather not carry your cooler around, there is a nice padded shoulder strap.
Milwaukee did it right and built this with all metal hardware which means it won’t break.
Even the zippers are nice and big. Plus, they are extremely easy to open and close.
Once you open the top of the cooler, there is a separate compartment that has a zipper to keep dry items away from the ice below.
Looking into the food grade leak proof cooler, you can see there is a ton of room. More than most we have seen.
The cooler has plenty of room for at least 12 cans of pop. Plus there is enough room for your other stuff such as a sandwich. As we know, we all tend to use things for more than there are designed for. Which means this is perfect for those tailgate parties, the beach or anywhere you want to bring food and drinks and keep them cold.
Milwaukee Cooler Review Value
The cooler retails for about $50 on The Home Depot website. For me, I think this is a little pricey. While it’s a quality cooler and offers plenty of room, I have a hard time swallowing a $50 price tag. Especially when I can get the Dewalt cooler for $20 and the Carhartt for $25. Granite, they are smaller, but still large enough for lunch. However, if you need a larger cooler, this is a great cooler to own.
Milwaukee Cooler Review Final Thoughts
Milwaukee designed a quality cooler that anyone would be proud to own. While the cooler is on the pricey side, it does exactly what they advertise. The cooler is large enough to fit both lunch and dinner in there for the 3 whole days, plus a little room left over.
Man, I wonder what product area Milwaukee HASN’T gotten into get? I had no idea that Dewalt, Carhart, and Milwaukee we’re getting into lunchboxes.
I actually bought my lunchbox from Duluth Trading Company about a year ago. They have two kinds. The smaller one is called the Louie and the larger one I purchased is called the Karl. I love it! I’m pretty sure this is the biggest lunchbox you could ever find online or in stores. I like the Karl because of not only all the space in the bottom, it also has another separate zipper container on top that can house your dry foods, utensils, etc.
I was working on removing all the galvanized pipe from a customer’s house this week. I brought my lunchbox with me every day. I was able to keep 2 Pyrex containers of chicken breast and sauteed vegetables along with two big freezer packs to keep them cold, a small tupperware sauce container for my chipotle avocado mayonnaise, 2 apples, an 8 oz sparkling water, and 3 Ozarka waters. And that’s just the bottom of the lunchbox! I kept my A/C power adapter for my phone, 4 bottled waters, and some plastic utensils in the top zipper.
It was expensive to buy at around $80, but it’s worth it to me for the quality, huge size, and durability. My only gripe is that when you want to unzip the top, you have to manually pull up on the top because the zippers sag and get stuck occasionally. Other than that, it’s a dream.
Do you guys have any thoughts about them, or even heard of them? I wouldn’t mind seeing some reviews of their work wear. They have a ton of stuff that seem geared for Tradesmen like their Firehose pants and jade Crystal underwear. I’ve never ordered anything like that from them because I like to try my clothes on in person, and their brick and mortar stores are hundreds of miles away from me in Houston.
I would love to try one of their lunch boxes. Sounds like it is awesome. We have reviewed some of their clothing and have liked it,but it seems like they have a ton to offer.
This does look like a great picnic, going to the lake type cooler. I have the smaller Husky 9in lunch cooler and have been using it for 5 years. It barely shows any wear or tear, so I expect this Milwaukee to last for a long time with the feet and heavy deneer. It might be a little big for a lunch cooler and it’s 2.5 times the price of the Husky.
The HUsky cooler looks great. Will have to pick one up.