And for some added space to serve food or drinks that are stored in the cooler, the Igloo Trialmate Cooler comes with a modular butler tray that can be laid directly on top of the aluminum handle. And when you aren’t using it, simply store it away under the cooler’s lid. Today, Igloo revealed the brand-new, expanded Trailmate igloo water cooler Series of high-performance hardside coolers at Outdoor Retailer Summer trade show. The all-new series — featuring the Trailmate 25 Qt Cooler and Trailmate 50 Qt Cooler — is available now at igloocoolers.com/trailmate. A common complaint that people have when it comes to these large coolers is their lack of mobility.
A water-resistant, lockable storage compartment features an anti-leak gasket to keep your sunglasses, phone, or any other accessories safe and dry. The threaded drain plug is garden-hose compatible and features a non-slip, easy-grip tethered cap to eliminate the possibility of a small leak. The removable butler tray placed on the telescoping handle provides the perfect space for serving food and drinks. When not in use, the butler tray can be stored away under the lid. Two built-in stainless steel bottle openers help you quickly and easily enjoy your bottled beverages.
This added space makes the Igloo the only wheeled cooler we tested that we never hit our heels on – a pretty big deal. And while we greatly appreciate this fact, we feel that the Trailmate still can’t quite live up to the smooth ride we got from coolers with air-filled igloo trailmate tires. We should also add that the telescoping handle doesn’t have a smooth action — it definitely doesn’t feel high quality or built to last a decade. With no latches to mess with, the Trailmate is fairly easy to open when you want some of its contents.
For what it’s worth, this was one of our “fan favorites” among friends and family while we were conducting an ice retention test which included 25 different coolers. A quick look at the igloo trailmate will reveal its’ unique stance. This is not a run of the mill budget cooler yet not a roto molded cooler, it falls somewhere in between. The entire Trailmate Series can be found at igloocoolers.com/trailmate. In our testing we had it going up trails, sitting out in the 90+ degree heat and opened and closed the door to keep grabbing beers. It kept some ice up to the 4 days even with all of these conditions!
Though it has a wide channel to help empty it of meltwater, the inside of the drain also is turned into a protruding tunnel into the interior by a white plastic tube. Why this is a thing, we’re not sure, as it made the Trailmate the least conducive to emptying via drain plug of any model we tested. The Igloo managed to hold refreshing brew temperatures at or below 50º for an additional several hours, for a total of 3.4 days of cold beers. Though we aren’t totally shocked at this lackluster performance when considering the Trailmate is a relatively thin cooler, standing up to some rather thick, rotomolded competition.