Prime perks you didn't know you had

Summer is expensive enough already. Between the gas, the sunscreen, the overpriced boardwalk food—your gear shouldn't be draining you too. This week: cold drinks, good shade, and how much you've been overpaying for both.

Let’s get into it.

Everything your Prime membership actually does

You're paying $139 a year and probably using 40% of it. Turns out Prime has a lot of perks most people scroll right past, and some are genuinely worth knowing about.

Get your money's worth

YETI coolers, ranked for people who camp seriously One kept meat at a safe temperature for eight full days. Another is the first YETI ever built on wheels. If you're going to spend $250–$800 on a cooler, you should at least know which one is worth the splurge. Read the cold, hard facts

… And in case you’re not ready for an $800 cooler…

Your drinks don't know what brand the cooler is. One of these 12 alternatives beat YETI on ice retention in our own testing (surprise: it's a backpack). Another costs $45 with 51,000 five-star reviews.

Same chill, smaller bill

A CES award-winning pool robot that looks like a tiny supercar

Cordless pool robots sound like a dream until you own one. A few hours of cleaning, then back on the deck to charge. Repeat all summer. Turns out "cordless" and "hands-free" are two very different things. The iGarden Pool Cleaner M1-AI Series (a CES 2026 Innovation Award winner, for what it's worth) promises to change that: up to 16 hours of runtime, AI dual cameras that clean your pool floor debris in 20 minutes, and 30 days of autonomous operation.

See the difference

These beach umbrellas ain’t going anywhere

Flying umbrellas have killed people. That's not a joke. The beachBUB fills a sand-loaded base to anchor itself, and it's the only pick on this list that meets the new ASTM safety spec. Sun protection shouldn't double as a hazard.

Shade, safely