YETI Rambler® "Bowl" Stainless Steel Bowl 1 piece

Packed cold at six, still cold on the folding table at eleven

What is the YETI Rambler bowl? A stainless steel serving bowl with a clear lid that you fill at home and put on the table next to the car hours later. The lid isn't leak-proof, and it won't make anything cold that arrives warm.

The YETI Rambler bowl is YETI's serving bowl for anyone who brings something to a meet and wants to put it on the table right where the car is parked. Six o'clock, everyone at home is still asleep, lid on, wait for the short click. At eight the bonnet is up, the folding table comes out of the boot, and the salad is still cold.

• A whole morning, measured. In an independent real-world test, the contents of the medium bowl stayed at around four degrees for almost six hours as long as the lid was on. A meet from eight to eleven is no problem at all, even if the table stands in the sun.
• Three sizes, one footprint. Empty, the three nest inside each other and together take up roughly the 26.7 centimetres of the largest in the boot. Full, you stack them on top of each other with the lids on. If you're packing for several people, you don't lose half the load space to bowls.
• No water ring on the load sill. Even after two hours in the sun the outer wall stays dry. On painted metal, on leather and on the folding table, nothing's left behind that needs wiping off afterwards.

Detailing1's tip from the shop: The mistake doesn't happen at the table, it happens in the boot. The lid sits tightly enough that you trust it with more than YETI promises — it's explicitly not leak-proof. Lay the full bowl sideways in a bag and after five minutes of country road the dressing is on the boot floor. So stand it upright, wedge it in with a blanket, and bring the dressing in a screw-top jar. The rubber ring on the 4.3-litre size only helps on the table.

If you bring something, you bring it in this bowl

The YETI Rambler bowl is the vessel for your own contribution to the meet. Potato salad, dip, fruit, a chilli. It travels covered and arrives on the table covered.

At every meet there are the people who go and get coffee, and the ones who've brought something. If you're the second kind, you know the problem: by ten, last night's plastic tub looks like last night's plastic tub, and the salad in it is lukewarm. This bowl solves both in one go.

The lid is clear, so you can see what's inside before you take it off and don't have to hunt. It opens via the side tabs, one move, no prising. Then it lies upside down next to the bowl, and you pop it back on in between when a wasp turns up or the sun moves across the table.

The ritual is always the same. Arrive, park, tailgate up, table out. In Germany, Cars & Coffee means an early weekend morning, coffee, no programme and no judging. The coffee usually comes from the organiser, everything else you bring yourself, and that's exactly why the bowl then sits an arm's length from the bumper.

Cold is its speciality, warm only up to a point. In the same test, contents filled in warm dropped from 43 to 28 degrees over five hours, and the tester opened it every hour. If you want to keep goulash hot for half a day, you're better off with the insulated food jar with screw lid.

The same ritual works in the paddock. Between two sessions there are rarely more than forty minutes, and those go on tyre pressures, fuel and helmet. With a covered bowl standing ready, you eat in peace instead of queuing and then rushing. On a road trip in the weekend car, it turns a car park into a breakfast spot.

1.9 litres for two, 4.3 litres for the whole table

The medium bowl at 1.9 litres is the one that comes along most often. It holds two decent portions of salad and, at 20.5 centimetres across, sits on any folding table without taking it over.

The small one at 0.95 litres is the side-dish size. Olives, a dip, sliced fruit, last night's leftovers. It's only 8.7 centimetres tall and weighs half a kilo empty, so it still goes in the crate when that's already full. For a salad that three people are meant to share, it's too tight.

The large one at 4.3 litres is for when you're the one doing the cooking. 26.7 centimetres across, 1.7 kilograms empty, and it's the only one of the three with a non-slip rubber ring on the base. On a table with people walking past all morning, that's not a spec-sheet number, it's the reason it stays put at the first elbow.

If you mostly pack for yourself and one other, go medium. If you regularly cook for the crowd, go large, for the base alone. Two medium ones, by the way, are handier than one large as soon as you bring two things: the lid stays on one while the other is open.

And then the list you should know before ordering. The lid keeps out heat and insects, but not liquid. The stainless steel isn't allowed in the microwave, nor in the freezer, and certainly not over an open flame. YETI itself doesn't give a hot or cold hold time in hours anywhere.

It also creates neither cold nor heat; it keeps the state it's given. Fill the salad in lukewarm and you'll have lukewarm salad at eleven. For the cold chain on a long drive, a small cooler is the more honest tool; the bowl is what goes on the table when you arrive.

After three seasons in the boot it looks like it's just been bought

The reason for YETI is rarely that one extra hour, but that the bowl still looks like day one after its third summer next to the toolbox.

The coloured outer skin is a powder coat that, according to the manufacturer, won't chip, peel or fade, and YETI gives a five-year warranty on the Rambler series. If you've ever judged a paint sealant after two years, you know the inspecting look. Edges first, then the rim, then the spot you always grab it by. That's exactly where nothing happens here.

The second point only stands out once you know about it. The outer wall stays dry even with something cold inside. No damp ring on the painted load sill of a dark estate, no wet patch on the leather seat, no puddle on the folding table. The same obsession with surfaces you don't have to wipe afterwards, just on the bowl instead of the paint.

It still ages, just differently. A dent from the folding table stays, because stainless steel doesn't spring back, and the first one stings. From the second one on, it's patina rather than damage, like the first stone chip on the front splitter. What doesn't happen: the colour going thin at the edges and the thing looking cheap.

Who it's not for: anyone looking for a sealed tub for their rucksack. 0.5 to 1.7 kilograms empty is just right on the camping table and an argument against it in a daypack. If you need food on the go, on foot, this is the wrong vessel.

It's for anyone who looks after their car rather than using it up, and who therefore rarely buys the cheapest or the loudest thing. Someone like that buys what'll still be around in five years. The bowl on the folding table says the same about its owner as the paint next to it, just more quietly.

That leaves the move no manufacturer prints on the packaging. Take the silicone seal out of the lid before the dishwasher run and put it separately in the cutlery basket. Then the groove really dries through, and the lid smells of nothing even after the twentieth garlic sauce.

And if something does give out, it'll be the lid. For the large bowl, YETI sells it separately as a spare part. A bowl that fails at the lid isn't a write-off here. The same thinking runs through the whole range of insulated cups and containers.

Which size should I get?

1.9 litres is the size that comes along most often: two decent portions of salad or a chilli for two. 0.95 litres is enough for dip, olives or fruit. Go for 4.3 litres if you're the one cooking for the whole crowd.

Is the lid leak-proof?

No. The lid comes with all three sizes; it keeps out heat and insects, but not liquid, and YETI says so itself. Transport the bowl upright. If you want to take something liquid sealed, use a Rambler bottle.

How long do the contents stay cold?

YETI deliberately gives no number of hours. In an independent real-world test, the medium bowl stayed at around four degrees for almost six hours as long as the lid was on. So a morning at the meet is no problem.

Does it keep food warm too?

Only up to a point. In the same test, contents filled in warm dropped from 43 to 28 degrees over five hours, with the lid opened every hour. Cold is its speciality. If you want to keep goulash hot for half a day, take the food jar with screw lid.

Is it dishwasher safe?

Yes, bowl and lid. Take the silicone seal out of the lid first and put it separately in the cutlery basket. Then let everything air-dry, and the groove smells of nothing even after the twentieth garlic sauce.

Do the three sizes nest inside each other?

Yes. Full, you stack them on top of each other with the lids on; empty, they nest inside each other. On the way home all three together need roughly the footprint of the largest, about 26.7 centimetres in diameter.

What can't it do?

No microwave, no freezer, no open flame. And it makes nothing cold and nothing warm; it keeps the state it's given. Fill the salad in lukewarm and you'll have lukewarm salad at eleven.

The evening before: prepare the food cold and fill it in cold. The bowl keeps the state it's given.

Before the drive: press the lid on until the seal grips all the way round. Upright in the boot, not lying in a bag. Bring dressing separately in a screw-top jar.

At the folding table: open via the side tabs, pop the lid back on in between.

Afterwards: take the silicone seal out of the lid, bowl and lid in the dishwasher, seal in the cutlery basket, let everything air-dry.