BS: Dry ice advice

Subject: BS: Dry ice advice
From: michaelr
Date: 27 Aug 12 - 07:11 PM

I'm planning a three-day camping trip for Labor Day weekend. Rather than icing up my coolers and having averything melt by the end of Day 1, I'm thinking about using dry ice instead. Does anyone here have experience with that?

Specifically, I wonder if it might be too cold. Will it freezerburn my food and pop my beer bottles?

Subject: RE: BS: Dry ice advice
From: bobad
Date: 27 Aug 12 - 07:20 PM

The temperature of dry ice is -109.3°F or -78.5°C - what do you think it will do?

Subject: RE: BS: Dry ice advice
From: Bill D
Date: 27 Aug 12 - 07:21 PM

If used, it should have a layer of something ... like cardboard maybe.. between it & the food & bottles.

Subject: RE: BS: Dry ice advice
From: Bill D
Date: 27 Aug 12 - 07:28 PM

specific advice

Subject: RE: BS: Dry ice advice
From: michaelr
Date: 27 Aug 12 - 07:34 PM

Thank you, Bill. That's exactly the info I needed.

Subject: RE: BS: Dry ice advice
From: bobad
Date: 27 Aug 12 - 07:37 PM

One piece of advice I can offer from experience is DO NOT ever put it into an airtight container.

Subject: RE: BS: Dry ice advice
From: pdq
Date: 27 Aug 12 - 08:05 PM

I you plan to sleep in a van, put the dry ice/stuff outside.

The carbon dioxide can fill up the bottom of the van and can suffocate people/pets.

Subject: RE: BS: Dry ice advice
From: Bill D
Date: 27 Aug 12 - 08:11 PM

It might be an interesting trick to use dry ice to keep some regular ice frozen... then use the regular ice a bit at a time. It would take extra coolers...but might be worth it.

Subject: RE: BS: Dry ice advice
From: Jeri
Date: 27 Aug 12 - 08:18 PM

What everybody else said...
It's better for keeping things frozen. It's solid and sublimates (goes from solid to gas without going through a liquid stage) and it expands when it does so. It is CO₂, so try not to inhale it or you'll get dizzy, and wear gloves or you'll flash-freeze your hands.

You won't get wet with dry ice, but I'd think those closed, re-usable blue pack things would be easier on the food.

Also, we used to make our own dry ice for use in mosquito traps as bait when it sublimates. Some mossies are attracted to light, some aren't, but every last one of 'em is attracted to CO₂.

Of course, you can do some pretty cool tricks with dry ice...

Subject: RE: BS: Dry ice advice
From: gnu
Date: 27 Aug 12 - 08:24 PM

Warm beer and drink less. Trust me.

Freeze your meats and juices and water and keep them in one cooler, well sealed and separated.

Yer gone for three days? Three? 3? JUST 3 DAYS??? Eat fresh fruit and veggies and drink warm beer. It's a camping trip... ROUGH IT!

Subject: RE: BS: Dry ice advice
From: michaelr
Date: 27 Aug 12 - 09:25 PM

Sorry gnu, warm beer is not an option. This is California, dog days... It's a three-day music party in the Sacramento River delta. But the dry ice might be overkill. Maybe I'll make do with block ice.

Thanks all for your input.

Subject: RE: BS: Dry ice advice
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 27 Aug 12 - 10:32 PM

Unless you have stuff that you must keep frozen dry ice is probably overkill, and has the additional disadvantage that it's generally hard to find (in camping areas) so you can't replenish it if you need to.

Ordinary ice in a good cooler probably will last for three days if the stuff you put in with it is prechilled and if you don't leak air in/out of the cooler between gettin' a new beer out; and if necessary every grocery/quickshop/baitshop in the world has plain ol' ice if you need to top up.

Unless you're adding more fresh ice than will fit, it's a good idea not to drain the water from the melted ice, since it's probably as cold as you really need and what's really important is having enough "thermal mass" to keep the cooler cooled to "refrigerator temp" or close enough to it. The cool water left over after the ice melts has to absorb a whole bunch of heat to raise it's temp more than a little.

Do keep the cooler out of the sun.

As noted, dry ice can be dangerous since CO₂ is really sneaky and can cause all kinds of problems (like dead campers).

John

Subject: RE: BS: Dry ice advice
From: Rapparee
Date: 27 Aug 12 - 11:10 PM

Just use a good cooler and block ice. I just finished a week-long trip; we bought a block of ice once and used some leftovers from the last couple trips. We used a Coleman steel-side cooler.

Subject: RE: BS: Dry ice advice
From: Nancy King
Date: 27 Aug 12 - 11:15 PM

Very important -- DO NOT EVER touch dry ice! Always use gloves when handling it, and even then, better to keep it in a paper bag or something.

I frequently use dry ice when taking frozen food to my cottage in Maine. 10 lbs. of dry ice, in a nice cooler, will keep things frozen pretty well for 2 days, especially if it's packed pretty tightly. I usually find that the dry ice is mostly sublimated when I get there, but the food is still frozen.

I wouldn't use dry ice for a camping trip -- too many potential problems. John's advice above is right on.

Nancy