The 5 Best Coolers With Speakers Built-In

If you’re into on-the-go parties or picnics and enjoy some background music but would rather not have to worry about the extra weight, size, charging, and logistics of bringing a Bluetooth speaker with you, a cooler with speakers built-in is a one-stop solution to satisfy your music-loving and beverage-related needs at once. 

Our Top Picks

Overall Top Pick

The Super Real is a 12-can capacity cooler boasting up to 20W of power and an impressive 8-hour battery life. In addition, it has a built-in phone charge. For more storage capacity, you can consider the Super Real 30-can that’s listed below.

Largest Carrying Capacity

For the most carrying capacity, consider the Super Real 30-can. This cooler has built-in wheels and an extendable handle, making it easy to move around even when it’s filled with drinks.

Most Durable

The Buds Light Soft Can Cooler is a durable speaker and cooler system that is waterproofed, protecting your speakers during cases of light rainfall. The larger driver design also provides more bass than alternative coolers.

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When choosing a cooler with Bluetooth speakers, there are a few important aspects to consider and several bits of information to always keep in the back of your mind:

Firstly, there aren’t many quality coolers with Bluetooth speakers on the market, and we’d like to think we’ve covered those worth mentioning. Bluetooth speaker coolers generally do a good job of keeping your refreshments cold and your music pumping. However, when it comes to the audio aspect of these coolers, you’ll need to remember these key points:

• A cooler with Bluetooth speakers will never be loud enough to power an on-the-go party. The speakers on these coolers are typically small and don’t have massive batteries to push loads of power through them. 
• They won’t sound as good as a dedicated Bluetooth speaker. Aside from these speakers typically being ‘softer’ than most portable Bluetooth speakers, they usually won’t sound as good due to the driver and amplifier quality and acoustics issues presented by a fabric-based enclosure rather than one designed to resonate audio waves. 

That said, most of the coolers on this list are below $50.00, and considering their build quality (as far as coolers are concerned), the fact that they have speakers at all is quite impressive for the price. The reality is that you can end up paying a similar price for a regular cooler.
If you’re looking for something that can get a little louder while still being suitable for on-the-go uses, take a look at our Best Tailgate Speakers article since these are all portable, heavy-duty, and weather-resistant speakers with tons of additional, handy features to bring any outdoor gathering some extra vibe.

Dance While You Drink By Using Coolers With Speakers

These coolers all incorporate speakers as a part of their design. While some appear similar, there are differences in the storage capacity, battery, and audio quality. The highlighted features will give you a quick overview of each cooler.

What we look for in coolers with Bluetooth speakers

Although there isn’t a huge selection of these on the market, we were able to narrow down the best options based on the following:

Storage Capacity

Since coolers with speakers are, first and foremost, to function as effective coolers for drinks or food, they need to have a storage capacity that aligns with what you’re looking for. The options on this list range in sizes and shapes, and this is entirely up to you and what you plan on storing in your cooler with speakers. Some come with different pockets and compartments, which can be especially useful for picnic supplies to separate delicate ingredients or keep the dry stuff away from the wet stuff. 

Build Quality

When these coolers are packed with ice and canned beverages, they can quickly become heavy. The fabrics used, bindings, zippers, pockets, and carry handles or straps must be made to a high standard for you to get more than a few uses. Even though they’re pretty cheap, you don’t want it to break after using it once. 

Speakers and Features

As we know, the Bluetooth speakers on these coolers are generally cheaply made and don’t sound as good as many dedicated Bluetooth speakers, but this doesn’t mean we should disregard the quality of the music playback system. The size of the drivers, number of speakers, Bluetooth codec, and connectivity methods all play a vital part in deciding which cooler with Bluetooth speakers is best for you. 

Battery Life

While this spec isn’t examined as aggressively as it is when we look at standalone Bluetooth speakers, when it comes to coolers with Bluetooth speakers, it’s still important as you’ll want something that can play your music for as long as possible. The coolers with speakers on this list generally have cheaper, weaker batteries that only provide around 5 hours of playtime, with some options making it to 8. It’s important to remember that a product with an 8-hour playtime will realistically only be able to pump for around 3 or 4 hours when you’re on full volume since this figure is measured while operating at moderate listening levels. 

Price Point

While they are mainly on the more affordable side of the tech world, coolers with Bluetooth speakers still should be able to survive multiple uses. Still, they shouldn’t be too expensive either since, at that point. You may as well buy a portable Bluetooth speaker that fits inside the cooler. Most of these are below the $40.00 mark, while others creep slightly above the $100.00 point. It’s entirely up to you and how much you’re willing to spend on a cooler with speakers but go into the purchase with an understanding of what Bluetooth speakers cost.

Small Bluetooth speakers typically range from $20 to $70, while traditional portable options usually range between $50 and $200. That’s the neat thing about these coolers: you’re paying the same price as you would for a budget, small Bluetooth speaker.

Frequently Asked Questions