Engle coolers- Worst customer service

[Vagante]

How many out there have an Engle cooler and it lives up to standard? I purchased a "Deep Blue" 65 to be used for a long vacation trip. I had to replace the ice daily. Tried block ice .........no dice. Tried putting 30 pounds in it everyday but turned to mostly water by the next day. I called Engle- you cannot talk to anyone regarding a troubleshoot. They advised me all I could do would be to file a warranty claim. I did via email but it takes 2-3 days for them to respond to any AND EACH request. Their instructions told me I had to "prep" the cooler by filling it with ice for 24 hours and then drain, fill again and it should hold ice for days. I did that (in an air-conditioned house) and it still melted after 24 hours. Contacted Engle again (only by email....cannot talk to anyone) and they sent me a new gasket........no instructions.......not cut to fit the cooler. Did that- you guessed it.......same thing. After another 3 days of waiting they responded with an email that sounded nasty.....saying I would have to ship the cooler to them at MY expense AND IF THEY DETERMINE IT IS COOLING PROPERLY IN THEIR AIRCONDITIONED FACTORY I WOULD HAVE TO PAY THE SHIPPING BACK IF I WANTED TO KEEP IT. No way in hell I would let them make that determination based on their attitude so far.
I paid well over $300 for this pile of crap. I put my 20 year old Igloo side by side and it held ice longer than the Engle. Never again.........

[AWCHIEF]

Sounds like a lesson learned. Thank you, I certainly will not be wasting my money of that brand. Personaly I am a Coleman or Igloo fan. Never been disappointed by either brand.

[1973Argosy]

No experience with the Engle but my Icey-tek cooler rocks. My icey-tek holds ice for about 4 days longer than my 30 year old igloo and 2 days longer than my Coleman max. Those are real numbers from hot weather camping trips in the south eastern us. I do pre cool all of my coolers and all of the goods that I'm packing into my coolers. My icey-tek is generally used as our meat locker, frozen meats go in and are staged into the refrigerator every morning. My Coleman max is generally used as our drink cooler, same thing cold drinks go in from the start of trip and our daily allotment is put into the refrigerator each morning. My igloo is used as our take it for the day cooler, if we go pier fishing ect. I say all of this because it took me quiet sometime to get on top of the modern cooler and figure out how to maintain ice as long as possible. The biggest trick is only opening your cooler once or twice a day. The more you are in them the quicker you will loose ice. If I take all three of my coolers full of ice and set them out in the sun on a 90 degree day and don't open them at all, the icey-tek will hold ice for 5 to 6 days, Coleman max 3 to 4 days, and the 30 year old igloo a day to day and a half.

[AstroBruce]

Did it come with a cord to plug it in?

Bruce

[streaminwild]

Thanks for the heads up Vagante, and welcome to the forum.

[McDave]

I've noticed in recent years that coolers have been advertised at very high prices, and I've always wondered about them. How did we get by all those years with coolers that cost $30-$40? I guess we got by because we didn't know what we were missing: not very much, from your description.

Certainly I have been prone to excess in my own areas of interest too, I will have to admit, not the least of which is my Airstream itself. But there have been others. I will admit to having spent north of $100 for a gadget to remove arrows that are stuck in wood. Now my arrows cost $8-$10 each, so I guess eventually the gadget might pay for itself, except it really doesn't work any better than a hunting knife chipping away at the wood and eventually freeing the arrow. Of course, you can pay north of $300 for a hunting knife these days too, but I wouldn't dream of using my $300 hunting knife to chip out an arrow; I use my $35 Air Force survival knife to do that.

Anyone else care to comment on something they might have purchased that in retrospect might have been a little over the top?

[Hiwheel Joe]

The DW just had to have a YETI. Great cooler as after a couple of days you will get ice in the bottled water inside in +90 temps as we did last week. Dang thing just weighs a ton, even empty. Was it worth the $$???? When out for a week or longer, I think so. Especially when you are miles away from any ice suppliers.