A lot of people like to take their Yeti coolers fishing or boating and want to know that, if for some reason, their Yeti cooler was to fall in the river or the lake or the ocean would it actually float?
So I decided to test this and see whether or not Yeti coolers float as well as to whether or not Yeti tumblers will float.
It turns out that Yeti coolers are very buoyant and do indeed float quite well even when they are completely full. This is because the plastic and insulation they are made with is much less dense than water and has lots of air pockets in it. Yeti Tumblers on the other hand do not float when completely full, they sink. However, when they are some air in them they seem to naturally tip upside down and float due to the trapped air.
Will Yeti Coolers Float? The Experiment
Now to do this I've filled up my bath and put the Yeti cooler in there.
Obviously when the Yeti is completely empty it's like a big balloon full of air and is going to float. I thought that was pretty obvious.
In this experiment the water was actually higher in the Yeti than the water in the bath.
What I wanted to see is that when the cooler is completely full is it going to float or not?
Even when completely full it was actually floating on the water, and I was able to move it back and forth. It wasn't touching the bottom of the bath at all and it was completely full of water.
So do a Yeti coolers float? Yes they do!
See Yeti Coolers on Amazon (affiliate link)
How To Make A Yeti Cooler Sink
The only way I can see to really make a Yeti cooler sink would be if it was full of really heavy items like big rocks in order to weigh it down.
But if you've got ice in there, ice is less dense than water and floats anyway, and then if you've got food in there there's probably some room it's not filled to the top so there's going to be some air in there.
Chances are you're not gonna have it filled as much as I have it filled in this experiment and this proves that yes Yeti coolers do float.
Do Yeti Tumblers Float?
So we've proven that Yeti coolers can float what about Yeti tumblers?
I have a Yeti lowball, and you think that the same premise would hold for the tumbler as the cooler.
In the cooler it's full of insulation which is less dense than water therefore it's buoyant and floats. In the tumbler however, is full of nothing! It's a vacuum sealed cup so it's stainless steel and inside is not air inside as a vacuum or nothing.
So it does that mean that's going to float? No
If you fill it up with water completely you can see that it actually doesn't float.
I tried the same with an RTIC and we can see that that one sinks as well when completely full.
When I put the lid on I found that the plastic lid does not make any difference and the tumbler still sunk to the bottom of the bath. The plastic lid was not quite enough to keep it floating.
But when only half-full of water then the tumbler tipped upside down, which means that air is trapped up the bottom end and can't actually get out off the top.
When I filled it up 80-90% with water the tumbler turns upside down and continued to float.
So if you were to drop a tumbler in the water and had the lid on chances are a bit of air is going to get caught in the bottom and it will float. But if it's completely full of water then they don't actually float.
See Yeti Tumblers on Amazon (affiliate link)
See RTIC Tumblers on Amazon (affiliate link)
Summary
I hope that this answers your question. If you're going boating trying keep your cooler tied down and keep a firm grasp on your tumbler as well so you don't lose it.
Read More – Do Yeti Coolers and Tumblers Float (Article)
