I’m giving this 3 stars, but that doesn’t mean I dislike this bait cooler in any way. The 3 stars is because I feel this could / should be improved. First off, I really do like this bait cooler. It is very heavy duty and does the job. But.... for me, (because I use it for ice fishing in the Midwest),it has flaws. What I would like see changed : 1. The latches. This is the biggest issue I have. The cooler itself is very heavy duty except for the latches. To me, the latches seem like an afterthought. Its like going out buying a top of the line 100 inch TV and only having basic air channels. Yes, sorry Frabill, but they are really that bad! When ice fishing in colder weather, ice tends to build up rather quickly. The latch system is too light weight to hold a seal when any ice forms. Both of my latches even cracked when I tried to force close it. (I know this was my fault, but it should still be a little heavier duty). When it’s cold outside, trying to mess around with latches is not my idea of fun. I never had this problem with the metal latches on my Engel bait cooler, and I straight up abuse that thing! Make these latches out of metal and this would be a non issue. 2. The aerator. I bought this because of the built in aerator. To have the aerator built in (screwed on), is awesome. I do not need to worry about the the aerator falling off or the hose popping off when I’m hauling his around. However, to change the batteries out on this takes awhile. It does have easy thumb screw that mount to the inside that are easy to unscrew, but you have to turn each one like 30 times for it to come undone. To change the batteries out, you need to completely unscrew it. I know this is kind of knit picking, but it seems to frustrate me every time I need to do it. And, since I ice fish 5-6 days a week, this seems to happen a lot more often that I would like. It’s not that it’s hard to do (relatively easy actually), but very time consuming. A quick access from the top to change the batteries out would really come in handy. 3. The aerator (again). The other aspect to the aerator is the hose. I really think that they could have had a built in hose / stone. There is plenty of room on the outside walls to have a hose that is built in and not always getting in the way. 4. The mesh “basket”. Although this seems like a great idea, (especially for ice fishing so your not constantly putting your hands in the cold water) it doesn’t seem to work all that well for what I’m using it for. If your using this for summer / open water fishing, this probably isn’t much of an issue. As for ice fishing, it is a different story. With the cold temperatures, that water has a tendency to freeze up rather quickly and to constantly pick up the mesh liner, it tends to freeze up and doesn’t go back in very well. Personally I just removed my liner and will “think” about maybe putting it back in and using it during the summer. Most likely I will just toss it though. With this being said, I can think of two different fixes to this issue. 1. They could just make this out of hard plastic or something other than mesh to have a better fit. Although, that may still have an issue with freezing. 2. They could just omit it all together, and just have some kind of scoop (like the 99 cent ones I seem to buy every time I’m at the bait store). This scoop could be removable, but attached to the inside cover for quick access. —————————- With that being said, I still feel that this bait station is worth the money. The construction is very heavy duty, and was exactly what I was expecting when I bought it. I have the 13qt and the 19qt that are used almost daily. I also have the 30qt Engel which is nice, but I really do prefer the Frabill coolers. As the 30qt just seems to be too big. Spec wise, it’s really about the same size as the Frabill though. All in all, I do recommend this product, but beware of the latches.
