Wet ICE or DRY ICE? That is the question.

Ahoy Mates!

Ahoy Mates!

Novice
I'm not sure where to post this question but here goes.
I think I've read a post somewhere about DRY ICE. But, I used the search function many times and I'm not coming up with anything. Have any of you used DRY ICE instead of REGULAR ICE in your cooler? If so what was the result? One supplier I looked at suggested using one lb. of dry ice for every four lbs. of regular ice, does this make sense to any of you? DRY ICE is -109 degrees F. We found it in nugget form for $1.06 per lb. We are planning to try it out this week and let you know how it goes.
 
don't let the dry come in contact for long, with the interior of the cooler ie the plastic. the plastic will become extremely
brittle, and could crack with even a lite impact. wrap it in a piece of cloth.
 
George,
Thanks for the insight! I had not considered this being a problem. Is this observation based on personal experience or from scientific research? If you have used CO2 how did you prevent contact? Is it only the contact that is the problem or the -109Deg temp?
I am thinking of using a separate container inside the cooler like tupperware or a more disposable Gladware. I could put a vent hole in either to relieve gas from the sublimation, and leave the cooler drain open to let the gas out, or just not latch the cooler lid.
Dave
 
I experienced it in my very 1st camper. It had an "ice box" in it and I got tired of replacing the ice. I tried the dry ice,

#1 all my food froze
2. My tray not only cracked, it actually broke.

If you use it, definately insulate it from contact with anything. Also a very small chunck.

I also have read threads on the subject at POPUP portal.com
Similar experiences.
 
Interesting too...
Often wondered about it, looked a little too tricky to mess with.
Getting tired of buying ice, so stocking up on the "Blue Ice" pack and then ice trays to make my own beverage cooler (not to drink) just to cool the bottles/cans down.

Figure just keep filing 2 trays up, putting the ice in the plastic market bags until ready to pour loosely onto the bottles and cans for a more through chilling..
 
Dry ice will work to keep food frozen. The dry ice is not pratical use in coolers that will contain berverage or perishables.

The only convient cooler is the home fridge. 12 volt need to be plugged in, are expensive.
Traditional coolers require ice, melts and everything gets wet. Great to initially pack. I keep all meat in a separate tupperware container inside the cooler, then cover with ice. Remove one item and ice redistributes it self. So the struggle to repack so cooler lid can be closed.

Someday I am going to invest in a great electric cooler. Saving pennies, dimes, quarters, dollars. Santa can you bring me a 12 volt cooler?
 
We are going to Ricketts Glen PA next Wed. for 4 days. I am going to try the 1 Lb. Dry in a separate container with waterice on top in a few zip lock bags just as an experiment. Let you all know how it works out.
Dave
 
Two years ago we put $8 worth of dry ice in a normal plastic insulated 12 pack cooler with frozen meat. It buckled the sides and cracked the interior plastic lining.

Last year we put $25 worth of dry ice in a 1 1/2" thick styrofoam only cooler to keep shrimp frozen. It worked for 3 1/2 days before the ice was gone.

This past week we lined last years styrofoam with another 1/2" of styrofoam on all 6 sides as a liner in the inside and filled with frozen shrimp and meat. We put in $10 of dry ice and it was gone in 3 1/2 days and the shrimp were melting.

To achieve the above one could not open the cooler. Screwing with dry ice in a normal cooler is useless. The trick is not to buy warm ice. Discount ice is 30 degrees. Good ice is 0 degrees or less. Again, you get what you pay for.

Buy ice before you leave and put it in your freezer to get colder. Add ice to your cooler the night before leaving to pre-cool the cooler. Then buy good replacement ice. Works for us.

Hilditch
 
Hilditch said:
The trick is not to buy warm ice. Discount ice is 30 degrees. Good ice is 0 degrees or less. Again, you get what you pay for.

Hilditch
Click to expand...

The real trick is determining what ice is good and what ice is bad. If all we had to do was just buy the more expensive ice to be sure... I know the good, cold ice locally, but on the road there's really no way to be sure. How do you do it, Hilditch?
 
Feel. Feel the air in the cooler with your arm/hand. A little practice will tell the tale. The bags should be stuck together. Then slam a bag down in the cooler on other ice. If all the cubes break loose, beware. Then go buy it. Sometimes the cashier can tell you which cooler to go to (I have had a couple tell me to go across the street.) and grocery store ice is normally cold.

Bag your own & motel ice is usually warm.

Hilditch
 
I wouldn't get your panties in a twist trying to find the perfect ice supplier and worrying which one is colder. Ice has a fairly low specific heat, only about 2 kJ/kgK (kilo joules/(kilogram * kelvin) the energy needed to raise one kilogram one degree kelvin) while water near freezing has twice that. The real energy (cooling) comes from melting ice, the latent heat of melting which is 334 kJ/kg. So while you do get some benefit from every degree below 0 Celsius it is swamped by the latent heat of melting and your better off leaving your cold water in the cooler than getting ultra cold ice. That said, I do pre-cool my cooler a little and freeze/chill everything that goes in it.
 
Greg or Luba,
Thanks for the insight. After reading all the posts on dry ice we are not going to try the D ice this time. Too much risk to the cooler etc.
Dave
 
Your welcome Dave & Rene,
I've often wanted to play with dry ice, it's different, it's cool, there's got to be something you can do with that right? I've often thought it would be great to super insulate a pound or two of dry ice and bring it along camping and then after a day or two when your cooler is full of water just submerse the dry ice to refreeze the water. Since dry ice has a latent heat of sublimation of 572 Kj/Kg you should get about 1.7 Kg of refrozen ice per Kg of dry ice that you put in (assuming the water is at 0 degrees celcius). This is more of a cool experiment than a good camping practice though. :D
 
One final geek moment and I'm done. For those unfamiliar with the Kelvin scale the difference between 30 degree F ice and 0 degree F ice is ~17 degrees Kelvin. So the difference between 0 degree F ice and 30 degree F ice is about 33.4 kj/kg. Like I said, it's swamped by the 334 kJ/kg latent heat of melting in the ice. While leaving the water in the cooler until it reached 42 degrees F provides an additional 24 kj/kg, again fairly insignificant but easy to do.
 
I have used dry ice for entomological field work - the CO2 it gives off is used to attract mosquitos, ticks and biting flies. I would advise a well sealed cooler for it, as it is a pretty darned good attractant : )
 
hmmmm, dry ice in a well sealed cooler.... where have I heard of this before? Oh yea
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wf9GWp2KRVA

I'm sorry for being sarcastic, it's very true CO2 attracts insects and is used in sophisticated insect, at least mosquito, traps. Putting a sublimating solid into a sealed container is a very bad idea. It's analogous to sealing up a boiler, unless it is designed to handle the pressure it will explode, or at least blow a seal to release the pressure. Also dangerous is sharing a small sealed living space, like a car interior, with anything generating lots of CO2 gas without proper ventilation.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Point well taken, We always used styrofoam coolers.... I just wanted you to be aware of the biting bug attractant properties of dry ice....
 
I am totally convinced normal ice is the way to go. Too many items in the con column not enough in the pro. We are pre cooling the cooler as I type. Also freezing some water bottles.

Thanks to George, fpoole, Jean W, Hilditch, Ken, Eileen, Greg & Luba for weighing in on this. This is why I joined this forum. You all have educated me which ain't easy these days...old dogs etc. ;)

I had no idea that mosquitos were attracted as this would make it real bad for Rene. They seem to find her first anyway.

Only 15 hours to departure for Ricketts Glen PA so I'll get back to packin!


Now I have an answer! :cool:
Dave
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top