Best chilly bins NZ: sizes, ice life and prices compared

For fishing, buy on inside length first, so your fish lie flat, then on how long you need ice to last. A long 55–70 L hard bin suits most boat day trips. Kingfish need 77 cm or more inside, or a soft fish bag, which also suits the rocks or a kayak. Expect 3 to 5 days of ice in real use.

Two blue chilly bins among anglers on Devonport Wharf, Auckland — Image: russellstreet, Wikimedia Commons, cropped · CC BY-SA 2.0

What to look for in a chilly bin for fishing

In order of what matters most when the bin is for fish:

Inside length. Fish keep best laid flat in ice, not bent to fit. Measure the longest fish you expect to keep and check the bin’s inside floor length, not the outside size. Few makers publish it, so take a tape measure to the shop.
How long the ice needs to last. A morning off the wharf needs a few hours; a weekend at the bach needs days. Makers’ ice claims assume a bin packed with ice and left shut, so treat them as a ranking between bins of the same brand, not a promise.
A drain you can reach. Meltwater warms the catch if you’re not using a slurry, and a full bin is too heavy to tip. Look for a drain plug at the base you can open with the bin on the deck.
Seals, hinges and latches. A rubber gasket and latches that pull the lid down tight matter more than wall thickness. Hinges and latches are where cheaper bins tend to fail first, so work them in the shop.
Weight and handles. A 90 L bin full of ice and fish is a two-person lift. Rope handles are kinder on hands than moulded slots. Wheels help on a long walk to the beach, but they add weight and don’t like sand.
Somewhere to sit. On a small boat the bin is often a seat too. A flat, stiff lid takes a cushion; some makers sell one to fit.

Pick the bin you’ll sit on. On a small boat it’s a seat as much as a fridge, so get a lid that takes your weight and put a cushion on it.

Sean Lewis, fishspecies.nz

Will your fish lie flat?

Litres don’t tell you whether a fish will fit. A long, low bin holds a kingfish that a taller bin of the same capacity can’t.

Will your fish lie flat?

Pick a fish

Legal snapper (30 cm) Good snapper (50 cm) Legal kingfish (75 cm)

Legal snapper: 30 cm, largest minimum size of any area

Esky 95L Advanced Chest CoolerLies flat · 81.3 cm inside
Icey-Tek Long Chilly Bin 90LLies flat · 77 cm inside
Icey-Tek Long Chilly Bin 70LLies flat · 69 cm inside
Traverse Chilly Bin 71LLies flat · 68.6 cm inside
Icey-Tek Long Chilly Bin 56LLies flat · 64.5 cm inside
Dometic Cool-Ice CI 42Lies flat · 54.3 cm inside
YETI Tundra 45 Hard CoolerLies flat · 49 cm inside
Icey-Tek Cube Chilly Bin 40LLies flat · 40.5 cm inside

Inside floor length as published by the maker or retailer. Only 8 of the 29 bins in our list publish it, so measure in store if it matters. Fish are measured nose to tail fork, so the tail tip needs a little more room. The dashed line is the fish.

If you mostly fish for snapper, kahawai and gurnard, around 50–55 cm inside covers most fish you’ll keep. Kingfish are another matter: the legal minimum is the length shown above, and most kept fish are longer. Rather than buy a huge bin, many boaties carry an insulated fish bag for the odd big one, and keep a mid-sized bin for everything else.

Picks by how you fish

We haven’t tested these bins ourselves. The picks come from what New Zealand owners report in more than 30 fishing forum and Reddit threads, checked against each bin’s published specs. Prices are in the comparison above.

Trailer boat day trips: Icey-Tek Long 70 L. Icey-Tek is the brand NZ boaties recommend most, by a wide margin. Owners say the bins are tough enough to sit or stand on, and spare latches and bungs are easy to buy. At 69 cm inside, any snapper you’d keep lies flat. The common complaints: latches on older bins, a base that slides on a wet deck, and the price.

If you keep kingfish: Icey-Tek Long 90 L. At 77 cm inside, a legal kingfish only just fits, so carry a soft fish bag as well for anything bigger. Icey-Tek’s 160 L Long box takes a fish of over a metre, but it was out of stock in New Zealand when we checked. Big rotomoulded boxes such as the Dometic Cool-Ice CI-110 are another option; its maker doesn’t publish an inside length, so measure before you buy.

Value: Dometic Cool-Ice CI 55, or the Icey-Tek Long 56 L. Owners rank Dometic alongside Icey-Tek, and the CI 55 is good value for a mid-sized bin while it’s on special. It’s a squarer box, so check the inside length against your fish. For longer fish, the Icey-Tek Long 56 L is 64.5 cm inside.

Rocks and kayaks: a soft fish bag. A rigid bin small enough to carry over rocks or fit a kayak’s tank well is too short for most keeper fish. An insulated fish bag, such as the Icey-Tek Snapper Bag, lies flat and folds away. Owners say a bag holds salt ice for about a day. Measure your tank well before you buy.

What you don’t need: a premium rotomoulded bin. YETI’s Tundra 65 did well in the only independent ice test we found. But YETI model numbers aren’t litres (the Tundra 45 holds 36 L), the bins aren’t long enough for big fish, and they cost more than twice as much per litre as an Icey-Tek.

How long will the ice really last?

Expect about 3 to 5 days from a good hard bin in real use, and a day or less from a cheap bin or soft bag. NZ owners report 3 to 7 days from Icey-Tek-type bins with salt ice. In an Australian test by The Captain (2019), the best 65–70 L bins kept a drink below 5°C for 5 to 7 days, packed with 10 kg of ice, out of direct sun and opened once a day. Makers’ claims of 10 or 12 days assume a bin full of ice that stays shut.

Types: rotomoulded, hard, soft, polystyrene and electric

Rotomoulded bins are moulded in one piece, with thick foam walls and heavy-duty latches. They keep ice longest and survive being stood on, but they’re heavy and cost the most. YETI, Dometic Cool-Ice and Traverse in our list are rotomoulded.

Standard hard bins have an injection-moulded shell around foam insulation. This is most chilly bins, from budget models to the Icey-Tek range that many NZ boaties use. Ice life varies with wall thickness and the seal.

Soft coolers are insulated bags. They’re light, fold away, and are easy to carry over rocks or strap on a kayak. Ice doesn’t last as long, they can leak meltwater, and fish spines can puncture them.

Polystyrene boxes are cheap and insulate well for their weight, but they crack and don’t last many trips. Supermarket seafood counters sometimes give them away.

Electric coolers are portable fridges or fridge-freezers that run off a 12 V socket or a battery, so there’s no ice to buy. They suit multi-day trips with power on board. They cost the most, and fish in them won’t chill as fast as in a slurry.

How to keep your catch cold

Keeping fish cold is what keeps them good to eat. NZ food safety guidance puts the limit for chilled food at 5°C or below, and fish do best much colder than that.

Kill and bleed the fish first. Our bleed-and-ice guide shows how. Consumer NZ says to get fish on ice as soon as possible, especially kahawai, mackerel, tuna and kingfish, which form histamine as they spoil and can make people ill.
Use an ice slurry. Ice mixed with seawater surrounds the whole fish and chills it much faster than ice cubes alone. An Australian fisheries guide recommends at least 1 part ice to 1 part water. The FAO suggests 4 parts freshwater ice to 1 part seawater, kept just above 0°C.
Go easy on salt ice. It’s colder than freshwater ice, which is why it’s popular, but the FAO advises against holding fish in saltwater ice because it can partly freeze the flesh and spoil the texture.
Pre-chill the bin. Put a bag of ice in the night before, or fill it with cold water, so your ice isn’t spent cooling the plastic.
Keep it shut and shaded. Every opening lets cold out. Keep drinks in a separate bin, so the fish bin stays closed, and throw a wet towel over it in the sun.
Top it up. Add ice as it melts. Drain extra meltwater if it’s diluting the slurry too much.

Brand notes

These notes cover only what each maker or retailer page says. We haven’t tested the bins.

YETI: rotomoulded, at the top of the price range. The model number isn’t the capacity: the Tundra 45 holds about 36 L.
Icey-Tek: hard bins with a polyethylene shell and injected polyurethane foam, sold in square “Cube” and “Long” shapes. The Long models are among the few bins with enough inside length for a kingfish.
Dometic: makes both the Cool-Ice rotomoulded bins and the CFX5 range of electric fridge-freezers.
Esky: a wide range of hard bins and soft coolers sold at Bunnings, from a 26 L bin to a 95 L model with a long floor.
Igloo, Coleman and Rubbermaid: hard bins in the budget to mid price range, several of them on wheels. Coleman also makes a wheeled soft cooler.
Napoleon: Napoleon Goods says its chilly bins are designed in New Zealand. They’re aimed at picnics and the beach more than fish.

How we chose the bins in the comparison

We listed chilly bins on sale from New Zealand retailers and brand sites on 24 October 2026. We covered every main type and size, and the brands New Zealanders search for most. Specs and prices come from each product page; where a page didn’t publish a figure, we’ve left it out rather than guess. The comparison isn’t ranked. The picks above come from owner reports in NZ fishing forum and Reddit threads from 2007 to 2025, weighed against the specs, plus the independent tests we could find. We don’t earn anything from the links. Read how we make money.

We haven’t found an independent New Zealand test of current chilly bins. CHOICE in Australia rates coolers from their construction and materials, and its model results are for members.

Questions

How long does ice last in a chilly bin?

In real use, expect about 3 to 5 days from a good hard bin and a day or less from a cheap bin or soft bag. Makers quote up to 10 or 12 days, measured with a bin packed with ice and left shut. Pre-chilling the bin, keeping it shaded and adding plenty of ice make the biggest difference.

Are expensive chilly bins worth it?

Dearer bins usually have thicker walls and better seals, so ice lasts longer, and they tend to have stronger hinges and latches. CHOICE in Australia notes the price range runs from about $55 to $1,800. Whether it's worth it depends on trip length: for a morning off the wharf a cheap bin and a bag of ice does the job; for multi-day trips or a boat used every weekend, ice life and toughness pay off.

What size chilly bin do I need for fishing?

Go by inside length rather than litres. A good-sized snapper or kahawai needs about 50–55 cm, and a legal kingfish needs at least 75 cm to lie flat. Most day trips suit 40–60 L; boats chasing bigger fish usually carry a long 70–90 L bin, or a soft fish bag for the odd big one.

Can you put fish straight on ice?

Yes, but an ice slurry (ice mixed with seawater) chills fish much faster than dry ice cubes, because the water surrounds the whole fish. Kill and bleed the fish first, then put it in the slurry. See our bleed-and-ice guide for how.

Is salt ice better than normal ice for fish?

Salt ice is colder than freshwater ice and many NZ anglers buy it for that reason. But the FAO advises against saltwater ice for holding fish, because it can partly freeze the flesh, which spoils texture. Its preferred mix is freshwater ice with a little seawater, kept just above 0°C.

How cold should a chilly bin be for fish?

At 5°C or colder, which is the chilled-food limit in NZ food safety guidance. Colder is better: an ice slurry sits around 0°C. Fish that spoil quickly, such as kahawai, kingfish and tuna, need chilling as soon as they're caught.

Sources (8)

Chilly bins compared

Esky 30 Can Hybrid Soft Cooler

Icey-Tek Snapper Bag

Polarbox Pop Chilly Bin 12L

Coleman 15L Daintree Cooler

Dometic Cool-Ice CI 15

Napoleon Chilly Bin (Original)

RYOBI 18V ONE+ 23L Fridge Freezer

Esky 26L Chilla Hard Cooler

Coleman 42-Can Wheeled Travel Cooler Bag 30L

Dometic CFX5 35

YETI Tundra 45 Hard Cooler

Icey-Tek Cube Chilly Bin 40L

Dometic Cool-Ice CI 42

Marquee 45L Insulated Hard Cooler

Dometic CFX5 45

Coleman Xtreme Wheeled Hard Chilly Bin 47L

YETI Tundra Haul Hard Cooler With Wheels

Navigator South Wheeled Cooler 50L

Esky 52L Wheeled Cooler

Igloo Chilly Bin Cooler Box 55L

Dometic Cool-Ice CI 55 Ice Box 56L

Icey-Tek Long Chilly Bin 56L

Rubbermaid Chilly Bin with Wheels 56.7L

Icey-Tek Long Chilly Bin 70L

Traverse Chilly Bin 71L

Dometic Cool-Ice CI 85

Icey-Tek Long Chilly Bin 90L

Esky 95L Advanced Chest Cooler

Dometic Cool-Ice CI-110 Heavy Duty Chilly Bin 111L

What to look for in a chilly bin for fishing

Will your fish lie flat?

Will your fish lie flat?

Picks by how you fish

How long will the ice really last?

Types: rotomoulded, hard, soft, polystyrene and electric

How to keep your catch cold

Brand notes

How we chose the bins in the comparison

Related guides

Questions

How long does ice last in a chilly bin?

Are expensive chilly bins worth it?

What size chilly bin do I need for fishing?

Can you put fish straight on ice?

Is salt ice better than normal ice for fish?

How cold should a chilly bin be for fish?