The other thing this bag didn’t do is carry the picks from our water bottle review. Even in a small insulated bag, though, most hot food will cool quickly: unless you’re carrying soup in a vacuum-sealed container, keeping a hot lunch hot for more than an hour is unrealistic. With only one large compartment, you need to decide if you want everything warm or ice-cold.

The best reason we could find to use a different bag is if you really need to keep warm and cold food separate. The leak-proof tub liner also makes this much less hassle to clean than other bags.

There’s a zippered mesh pocket in the lid that will hold a small ice pack, and of course lots of room for more ice packs inside the tub.Ĭoleman’s bag is a good size and its shoulder strap makes it easy to carry. This makes an ideal lunch bag for large or bulky lunches. Trying to get the last few drops of water out of a vinyl bag is a pain, but the Coleman will air-dry without problems and is easy to wipe down with a towel. The best thing about the hard tub liner is that it’s easier to clean and dry than the soft zip-in liners used in many of the other coolers. Could there be a better way to design a lunch box for men? This is perfect for keeping a six-pack well buried on a scorching hot day, or carrying a 12-pack (without any ice) on a less-intense outing. The removable hard liner is an ideal ice bucket. While the Coleman wasn’t the very best at keeping a lunch cold without ice, the real trick to keeping perishable food safe is to use lots of ice, and that’s what this cooler is built for. This is an ideal lunch box for adults or even a picnic bag for two. With a hard plastic “tub” style liner, good pockets and all the other features we looked for in a basic bag, the Coleman – 9-Can Soft Cooler represents an amazing value at around 14 dollars. GreEco - Large Capacity Cooler Bag (Discontinued)īest overall: Coleman – 9-Can Soft Cooler EvoVox - Insulated Cooler Bag (Discontinued)Ĩ. Stanley - 7QT Heritage Cooler (Discontinued)ģ. The 22 lunch boxes we tested Small insulated lunch bagsĦ. Best cooler bag: eBags – Crew Cooler II.Best overall: Coleman – 9-Can Soft Cooler.For those who only want to carry the basics, we like the High Sierra. The Coleman offers plenty of room and utility, and it’s the perfect modern version of a lunch box for adults. Our top pick for best lunch box is the Coleman – 9-Can Insulated Lunch Bag with removable hard liner. As the 2023 summer approaches, we tested three additional lunch boxes, bags, and coolers to compare them to the 19 products we previously tested.

Insulated lunch bag