Dry Ice in cooler for long trips

[madjack]

...we used to put dry ice in a plastic coke bottle and screw the cap on tightly...toss to the side and what for a very satisfactory POP...

I order specialty items from a Cajun foods supplier in Lafayette La, they pack the items in a 2" thick styrofoam cooler and tape it shut for shipping, I have left it sealed up for a week with no BOOM...

I spent a couple of years of my trucking career transporting liquid CO2 to chicken processors, breweries and various industrial plants...at one chicken plant, they would seal up large plastic boxes, into which we would blow the liquid CO2, which is under 300#s of pressure, when the pressure drops, it turns into dry ice...instantly...they would stack said boxes until needed and I never saw them go BOOM...I think the taped seam of the cooler in insufficient to hold the pressure and the excess would pressure would vent itself out to atmosphere...

SOOoooooo, as long as you don't seal it up with a whole role of 200mph duct tape, it should not go...BOOM.........
madjack

[caseydog]

...we used to put dry ice in a plastic coke bottle and screw the cap on tightly...toss to the side and what for a very satisfactory POP...

I order specialty items from a Cajun foods supplier in Lafayette La, they pack the items in a 2" thick styrofoam cooler and tape it shut for shipping, I have left it sealed up for a week with no BOOM...

I spent a couple of years of my trucking career transporting liquid CO2 to chicken processors, breweries and various industrial plants...at one chicken plant, they would seal up large plastic boxes, into which we would blow the liquid CO2, which is under 300#s of pressure, when the pressure drops, it turns into dry ice...instantly...they would stack said boxes until needed and I never saw them go BOOM...I think the taped seam of the cooler in insufficient to hold the pressure and the excess would pressure would vent itself out to atmosphere...

SOOoooooo, as long as you don't seal it up with a whole role of 200mph duct tape, it should not go...BOOM.........
madjack

I'm going to try your theory it at LCG5... at about 3AM in campsite 40.

CD

[Martini]

...we used to put dry ice in a plastic coke bottle and screw the cap on tightly...toss to the side and what for a very satisfactory POP...

I've seen videos of kids doing that on youtube. I've always wanted to give it a go.

[madjack]

I'm going to try your theory it at LCG5... at about 3AM in campsite 40.

CD

...keep in ind...the poor girl is ALWAYS armed......................................................................

[madjack]

...we used to put dry ice in a plastic coke bottle and screw the cap on tightly...toss to the side and what for a very satisfactory POP...

I've seen videos of kids doing that on youtube. I've always wanted to give it a go.

...fill said bottle with gravel/sand before the dry ice and throw in pond and go "fishin".............

[Ratkity]

ROFL!! You guys are hysterical.

I know dry ice is used in styrofoam to ship all the time, but that breathes and is a natural insulator. I think the key is the lack of any insulation in the container that you have the dry ice inside and what the outside temps are as well as how much volume there is to off-gas when the dry ice goes from solid to gas.

Now I'm gonna have to look all of this up. I just can't get the image of the blowing up condom out of my mind. GEEESH LOL

Hugs,
Ratkity

[Lesbest]

I've used dry ice on a camping trip--wrapped in newspaper at the industrial supplier, put into bottom of plastic cooler. Filled with food for trip, meat at bottom, milk, on sides, grapes on top. Left for destination. Arrived 1 hr. later, set cooler outside and use during the day. Sat. morning opened for breakfast, and everything was frozen into one solid block, grapes like rocks, eggs hard, milk solid. The ground around the cooler had a ice ring around it (cheap cooler) had to leave lid open all day for it to thaw, as it did removed items, got to meat in time for dinner sat. night, used ice for sat nite to sunday. Threw what was left of the dry ice into the river sunday afternoon before we left and the kids got a kick out of the river smoking.

Was a learning experience that I can relate now, and I won't use it again unless packing beef for a long haul.


Les

[S. Heisley]

Having just lost a refrigerator this spring, here is what I was told and what I learned from my experience:

What I was told was that, if you want to use dry ice to keep things frozen, you put it on top. If you want to use it to keep things cool, you put it in the bottom. LesBest just disproved that theory.

I used dry ice in a regular Igloo cooler, on the top, to keep things frozen. It was totally used up and had to be replaced every 2 &1/2 days but it did keep things frozen as long as I did that.

I used ice blocks and ice cubes in two 5-day Igloo coolers. There was still some of both after 5 days. I tossed out the ice cubes as they were almost gone but left the ice blocks in the coolers to see how long they would last. The ice blocks lasted a week.

[twobacas]

If you read the pamplet about using dry ice.......It's says to wrap the dry ice on the bottom of the ice chest then layer 2-3 inches of ice cubes on top of the dry ice. The food you want to keep frozen longer you put next to the bottom. This is to use the ice chest as cooler. I have been using this method for 2-3 years . naturally you do not want to keep greens in this ice chest. Just thought I make a comment

[Martini]

there's no drain on it so we had to bail out the water.
.

Get a good size sponge and keep it in the bottom of your ice chest. It will absorb the water from the melted ice then you can just wring it out.

[Cliffmeister2000]

We have a pretty good cooler (Igloo MAX Cool) that keeps things nice and cold. On a Fri-thru-Sun trip two weeks ago to South Texas, in 100 degree heat, we had to run to the store Saturday evening to get more ice. Plus, the one down-side to this cooler, there's no drain on it so we had to bail out the water.

That's why I prefer Coleman over Igloo. Coleman's have a drain.

[JuneBug]

It will take us two days to get to Colorado (stopping in Albuquerque).
My plan: A) put everything in the freezer the day before we head out. B) stop at the grocery store to get dry ice the night before we leave (~10:00pm). C) pack to cooler. D) hit the road in the morning (~6:00am). E) when we get to Durango, buy wet ice and head to the camp site.

Ironically, Durango is about 40 miles east of a big dry ice plant in McElmo Canyon (close to Cortez).

Where do you camp in the Durango area? Do you have a favorite place?

[Cliffmeister2000]

I've been wondering what effect dry ice would have on the inside of a cooler. Is the plastic able to handle the extreme cold?

Our last trip, I bought too much ice, so we filled the Coleman Xtreme with ice only, and opened it once a day to take ice out for the other two coolers. We didn't run out of ice that trip!

[StPatron]

I've been wondering what effect dry ice would have on the inside of a cooler. Is the plastic able to handle the extreme cold?

Any modern cooler should be able to handle dry ice without problems. I've used tons of it and have never seen a cooler crack or explode.

Dry ice has its uses, situations where block/cubed ice either can't be replaced (shipping) or isn't readily available,, for example. When I was working on canyon river trips, we used dry ice to keep meats and ice cream frozen for 7-10 days without problems. In addition, it will extend the life of block/cube ice.

Our last trip, I bought too much ice, so we filled the Coleman Xtreme with ice only, and opened it once a day to take ice out for the other two coolers. We didn't run out of ice that trip!

Good technique!

[doris s.]

I've never used dry ice because we can get ice at most gas stations and campgrounds. We camped for three weeks out west in July. We just got a bag of ice every other day. It was easy and worked fine.

Doris