I needed to find a soft cooler that I could keep food frozen on a 15 hour airplane trip to the Bahamas. I did an ice retention test with this bag, vs Polar Bear, AO and Egear. The Egear and the Engel preformed the best (I did vacuum out excess air). In the end, I kept the Egear cooler because it was less expensive, and the shape made it easier to carry on my shoulder (although the Engel has nice side handles to carry like an ice chest). Unforunately the Egear bag's interior seams broke after 2 uses. So next time I would buy the Engel. It would have kept everything frozen for my 15 hour journey and would be awesome for our future boating activities; the materials are sturdy and waterproof and its a cool looking bag (unlike the Polar Bear and AO boring single color nylon exterior). The only negative is that it was difficult for me to pry open the top and reach into the bag because the insulation is so thick, there isn't alot of give. But I never unbuckled the sides either and that could make it easier to access the interior of the bag. This is a well constructed bag, with thick insulation that held ice for the 24 hour period and kept it at an internal temp of 48 degrees after 24 hours sitting on my kitchen at 69 degrees. My refrigerator is set to 42 degrees so 48 degrees is an amazing result for a soft cooler bag. The AO and Polar Bear bags were in the mid to high 50s after 24 hours. PS, I looked at the Yeti soft cooler tote and it was sooo heavy, 7 lbs empty, that I didn't bother testing it.