AirSkirts Made an Inflatable Cooler for People Tight on Space
We went hands-on with a full-size inflatable cooler to see if it delivered on its pricey promise of keeping things cold.
Our Experts
- 10 years writing about technology for Newsweek, PCMag, Wired, and more
Coolers are the ultimate conundrum of size. The bigger they are, the more useful they can be for holding ice and drinks -- but a bigger cooler is going to be more of a headache to store at home. The AirSkirts inflatable cooler is here to address that puzzle with on-demand food and beverage storage that can also be tucked away nearly anywhere.
The pitch is simple enough: a cooler that inflates to a full-size, hard-bodied design when you need it, and then shrinks down to something that's easier to stash in a closet or garage when it isn't in use. The idea makes plenty of sense and seems tempting, but at a lofty retail price of $400, how well does it actually function?
Checking the AirSkirts Cooler's specs
The AirSkirts Cooler has an advertised volume of 58 quarts, which actually came out to 57.8 quarts when we double-checked in our product testing lab. When deflated, the cooler can shrink down to measure a mere 5 inches deep. The cooler itself weighs 9.8 pounds, which is much lighter than similar-sized hard shell coolers, which can weigh up to two or three times as much. Based on its uninflated size and weight, the AirSkirts Cooler can be moved around by a single person in its travel bag and even be stored in a car trunk if needed.
The PVC material used for the cooler is similar to what's used for an inflatable paddleboard. If you've ever used one of those, you'll be familiar with how the material can instantly come to life to form a rigid surface, and then be folded up once you're finished using it.
Rounding out the limited features of the cooler are plastic side handles and a lid that secures with a velcro strap. A pump and carrying bag are also included. The AirSkirts Cooler is on sale for an introductory $400 price, but that may go up in the future.
You deflate the AirSkirts Cooler by opening a series of three valves to release the air that makes it rigid.
Hands-on impressions
An initial concern when looking at the AirSkirts Cooler online was trying to determine whether it was strong enough to carry ice and drinks without breaking. Fortunately, going hands-on with it really confirmed to us that the cooler could handle the weight of its 50-plus can capacity. Multiple people who handled the cooler said it felt strong and rigid to them, and none of our testers had concerns about its durability.
The cooler has three areas that get pumped up: the bottom, the sides and the top lid. We confirmed that inflating the entire unit can be done quickly and should be accessible to a wide range of people of different ages. Inflating the entire cooler with the pump that comes included shouldn't take much more than a minute for most people, if that. Deflating the thing is even easier.
This brings us to the most critical feature of the AirSkirts Cooler: portability. If you have room to store a traditional cooler, you may want to stick with that. The AirSkirts Cooler features the same volume as the Orca Classic cooler but that one retails for $300, or $100 less than the initial AirSkirts pricing. The Orca Classic 58-quart cooler scored really well in CNET's hands-on review but does take up more room and is heavier than the cooler from AirSkirts.
AirSkirts cooling performance
As neat as an ultraportable cooler is when it comes to saving storage space in the garage or RV, the real question is whether it can keep food and drinks cold. The simple answer is that the AirSkirts Cooler doesn't work as well as more traditional models.
The AirSkirts cooler (red line) didn't perform nearly as well as other hard-bodied coolers we've tested. With enough ice to fill 10% of its capacity, it saw its internal temperature drop by only about 10 degrees, and it was able to hold that temperature for only a handful of hours.
We tested the AirSkirts Cooler ice retention in CNET's climate-controlled lab over 48 hours and used 10% ice per measured volume, which was 3.244kg. The coldest temperature the AirSkirts Cooler reached during the test was 67.1 degrees Fahrenheit. The average temperature the cooler held was 76.9 degrees. (As a reminder, the US Food and Drag Administration recommends milk be stored at 40 degrees.)
In the same type of ice retention test, the Orca Classic and the Yeti Tundra Haul both reached low temperatures around 45 to 48 degrees, respectively. The Tundra Haul cooler was also able to stay under 50 degrees for around 24 hours. Once the AirSkirts Cooler hit its lowest temperature, it was able to stay under 70 degrees for only about six hours.
The primary reason for the poor ice retention results is likely that there's no seal around the lid of the AirSkirts Cooler. It's secured closed only with its velcro strap. Based on these results, we'd recommend packing in more ice for colder temperatures for a longer duration, but that'll also cut into the amount of drinks or items that can be cooled.
The takeaway
The AirSkirts Cooler fulfills its promise to be a large-capacity container when you need it and compact and portable when you don't. In our first test, however, it didn't provide as much cooling power as more-traditional hard-bodied coolers. It's more expensive than most coolers like those, so the value proposition here is low unless you have a strong need for a cooler that shrinks down when not in use.
Even though the ice retention test results for the inflatable cooler weren't great, they aren't necessarily a deal-breaker for everyone. If space management is the primary concern when assessing cooler options, then this product still addresses that area better than nearly every other model we've tested. The AirSkirts Cooler was much stronger than a temporary disposable foam cooler, too. It was also similar in performance, but larger in size, to what you might expect from a soft-sided cooler. At the end of the day, that probably won't be worth the inflated price tag for most folks.