I very much like our new ice chest/table. We use it primarily as a warming chest for towels next to our deck hot tub (cloth rice pads heated in a microwave above and below towels placed in the chest). The build quality is quite reasonable and for the cost, I think it's a winner. That said, the cooler itself is very, very thin and therefore doesn't insulate terribly well. There is a layer of open cell rigid foam set into the walls of the chest which helps a little. It's a hard choice for the mfr between good insulation and size, since to make a highly insulated chest the dimensions would be huge and more expensive On the whole, I think the tradeoff between size and insulative quality is a good one. And the cooler has a drain plug which is great since you're sure to have a good deal of melting on a hot day.