normal ice vs dry ice (for esky)

[MickEddy]

g'day

at the end of the year i am going on an extended fishing/camping trip for two months. which is better, which is cheaper to use? which ice do you guys suggest for esky set ups. does anyone have a special esky set up they would like to share? eg, 1 food, 1 beer and 1 fish? any other tips?

thanks for any tips or info in advance.
mick.

[whynott]

Hi Mick,
I have 2 Evacools. 1 x 50 ltr and 1 x 65 ltr. The big one I put a block of dry ice with 2 ice cream containers with lids on frozen with home made ice. I have the dry ice on the bottom with the containers on each side. I fill the evercool with all frozen meat, vegies, bread, ect and leave some room for fish fillets. The fish will freeze quickly. I only open this esky when i have to. A 5 day block of dry ice will last about 10 days then i have a couple of days with the ice cream containers as they are still frozen. The other evercool i have a couple of ice cream containers of home made ice on the bottom and fill will drinks ect and put some block ice on top.
If the evercools are full, the ice will last longer.
This works for me.
Cheers,
Graham.

[glenpandrews]

Hi guys,

Generally speaking, where can one get dry ice? Any particularly good places in Sydney?

Thanks

Glen

[MickEddy]

thanks Graham, do you think that it's more cost effective to use dry ice.
mick

[CHRIS_aka_GWH]

drink rum with green lime cordial / pineapple juice (called a straddie sunset)

is fairly decent warm & at $3.50 /bag of ice,
every 10bags of ice saved = 1 bottle of rum & mixers

[MickEddy]

lol, don't worry chris we'll be drinking enough rum.
mick

[whynott]

Hi Mick,
Dry ice is the best value for food if you have an esky that is full and not opened much. Can not put glass in this esky though, as it will shatter.
An other good part about using dry ice is it does not make a mess as it evaporates.
Cheers,
Graham.

[MEGA'bite]

Try this freeze wine bladders / liquid egg bladders ,but fill them with hot water and add rock salt to the water. Hot water has less air therefore lasts longer than freezing cold water, and the salt helps slow down the process.If the freezer is not big enough take the wine bladders to the local they are usually happy to freeze them for you. You will get egg bladders from lge bakerys or cake manafactures, they usually chuck them out. approx 10ltrs

[johnlikes2fish]

I usually take three eskys. two for using and one as a freezer. I fill milk containers with water freeze these and put in with my food, beer etc. I then fill more milk containers and freeze them then store those with the dry ice, everyday or so I put the melted containers with the dry ice and the frozen ones back in the other eskies. Works a treat and I easily get a week out of a 5 or 10 day block. I dont think its any cheaper its just convenient if you cant get too ice easily, but it will also freeze things which normal ice doesn't. I think if you combine this with the hot water and salt that someone else suggested you will have a winner.

[SURF_SNIPER]

mate, youd be better off buying a fridge freezer if ya going on a two month fishing trip, it would save ya self a lot of money in the long run.

salt water being denser then fresh will defrost slower so use a slaty water brine when making ice blocks. dont use to much salt as it wont freeze at all. another good method is to sprinkle coarse salt like pool salt over the ice in the esky. this will bind the ice together and it will last heaps longer.

still id recomend a fridge freezer hands down.

[reefraider_II]

i get all my dry ice from CIG gases