how to get the best efficient use out of dry ice?

[bass-pirate]

Hey everyone,

I am heading up to maroon dam in two weeks time and will be staying at the pointro campsite for 7 nights. I just bought a 60litre ice box and ordered an 8 day block of dry ice from charltons tackle and bait. I thought the dry ice was quite expensive as it cost me $55 so I am wondering how to make the dry ice last and keep my meet and drinks cool for the 7 day period? Will an 8 day block last that long without letting my meet and sausages go off? will filling the esky with frozen meet and the block of dry ice, and then covering it with bags of normal ice help??? any help or tips would be greatly appreciated, as i have never used dry ice before and want my meet to last the 7 days as im intending on taking a fair bit up cause there are three of us going.

Cheers, Dave

[oldboot]

One thing you need to make sure of with dry ice is........ that is stays dry.
So i wouldnt be putting any regular ice in there... or anything wet.

remember dry ice is very cold..... you can freeze stuff if you arent carefull.
They pack icecreams in dry ice when refrigeration isn't available

so dont put stuff you can't have freeze right next to the dry ice.



now if your esky is air tight........ i mean air tight you can have a couple of problems.... if they are problems...... the CO2 comming off the dry ice will preasurise the esky and some things can get carbonated.

two things i have seen corbonated... oranges....... very very cool thing a fizzy orange...... good party trick and only take a few hours.
carbonated milk on the other hand isn't so fancy...... fizzy milk drunk cold can be quite strange...... put it in your coffee & it all geos away.

I can keep a esky cold with 1 load of normal ice for 3 days so if you mind what you are doing I dont see any problem.

remember when you put stuff in there that is as cold as it can be.

remamber that dry ice is very cold and that that block of solid CO2 contains a lot of "cold energy"
Aprox 580KJ per Kg

also make sure wherever the esky is kept or traveled is well ventilated.
each kilo of dry ice contains 55 cubic metres of CO2 gas at room temperature and preasure.
Under certain circumstances there is a real risk of asphixiation

cheers

[bondy99]

Another thing to remember, make sure that no part of your body , that is your hands or fingers touch dry ice or you will lose them. Similar to Liquid Nitrogen, your fingers will be lost, It never happened to me but it did happen to someone I know of and seen it happen. It's not nice.

Hope this safety warning is of use to you.

Cheers

[Brett1907]

Do a search for 'dry ice' and you will get some good advice. What I would do is put a block of wet ice on the bottom and stack your frozen goods around and on top. Then place the dry ice (wrapped in about 5 - 10 layers of newspaper) on top of them, the cold will drop and keep it all frozen (including the wet ice). Then put a layer of foam over all this (those EVA foam mats you get from camping shops are perfect) to separate it from what you don't want frozen. Put the stuff that has to stay the coldest on the foam and the rest closer to the top.

I kept an ice cream cake frozen for 3 days with a 5kg block of wet ice and a 3kg block of dry ice.

Do the search as I think there was some pretty good ideas, also google dry ice cause there are some informative sites.

Brett

[bungie]

The trick with dry ice is to place it in the centre of the esky, wet ice either side of it to the same height as the dry ice, one layer of cardboard over it. Spend a few minutes and cut the cardboard to the shape of the esky. Then pack everything you want to keep frozen on this layer, now place another few layers of cardboard over the frozen goods and then everything you want just cold in the next layer. Once you have it all in fill every gap up with tea towels, ordinary towels, socks, pants, undies, anything you can find, so there is no space in the esky. This will keep the area needed to be chilled to a minimum, less heat transfer then, ice last longer. Next thing, NO beer or soft drinks in this esky, the lid needs to be kept closed as much as possible, so only open it to take out food, place towels back in adding more as the food level drops. I have kept a two bags of ice frozen for 5 days like this, by the end of that time the dry ice is almost just an empty bag, but its all dry. Other things help too, keep the esky out of the sun, either in the shade or even bury it to the lid in the shade.
All else fails, ask for an instruction sheet from the supplier.

[Reel Nauti]

My wife and I go camping on an island as often as we can for sometimes 3 weeks straight. We have 1 x 85 ltr Tropical and have never ever used dry ice. I buy a mould of ice from the ice works (about $20.00) which I have to trim the end off to fit in the esky. I heavily salt the mould and we get 7 days out of that without fail, summer or winter. And that's with me in and out of that esky quite regularly after about 4pm!

Cheers

Dave

[bungie]

clever idea, I'm going to have to try that