dry ice for ice chest
- Thread starter Gene Morris
- Start date
What I was saying was that the ice box that came with the boat is worthless.... after you put a 25 pound block of ice in it....there is just enough
room to put one six pack....that's it... I made that space into drawers...
The ice box that I bought from West Marine I keep outside....and if the temperature is not too hot it really will keep ice all week.... normally at Catalina ice makes it 3 or 4 days... good enough.....by that time I am out of gin anyhow.
What I did find out about dry ice is ....... don't keep eggs in it.... on a trip up the Colorado River I was thinking I was so cool using dry ice... and everything was cold...and did great.... until I tried to pick up the eggs... the shells were paper thin and cracked open when I touched them.... dry ice must disolve egg shells... what a mess... I ate em anyhow...
Joel
SEA3PO
room to put one six pack....that's it... I made that space into drawers...
The ice box that I bought from West Marine I keep outside....and if the temperature is not too hot it really will keep ice all week.... normally at Catalina ice makes it 3 or 4 days... good enough.....by that time I am out of gin anyhow.
What I did find out about dry ice is ....... don't keep eggs in it.... on a trip up the Colorado River I was thinking I was so cool using dry ice... and everything was cold...and did great.... until I tried to pick up the eggs... the shells were paper thin and cracked open when I touched them.... dry ice must disolve egg shells... what a mess... I ate em anyhow...
Joel
SEA3PO
:beerSomething a lot of people overlook is tempering their cooler, that is, place cold packs or containers of frozen water in the cooler a day ahead of time. Then on the day you leave on a trip fill the cooler with your food and place new cold packs into the cooler.
You’ll be surprised at how much longer your food will stay cold, regardless of whether you use dry ice, wet ice, or cold packs.
Also, freeze as many things as you can such as meats, water, juice, etc, etc. This works great, you’ll just have to manage things differently.
The only problem I have with dry ice (I use it as work all the time) is, it has a tendency to freeze things you don’t wont frozen. Also, you can never place dry ice in a sealed container, it must vent or BOOOOM!
:shock:
You’ll be surprised at how much longer your food will stay cold, regardless of whether you use dry ice, wet ice, or cold packs.
Also, freeze as many things as you can such as meats, water, juice, etc, etc. This works great, you’ll just have to manage things differently.
The only problem I have with dry ice (I use it as work all the time) is, it has a tendency to freeze things you don’t wont frozen. Also, you can never place dry ice in a sealed container, it must vent or BOOOOM!
:shock:
I don't believe that the ice box in the CD 22 is vented overboard. Ours just went into the bilge--plus the seals on the ice box are not particularly good. Carbon doxide is heavier than air, and would stay in the bilge--even if the vent was overboard, it would probably leak into the bilge and be slowly defused.
Remember that carbon dioxide (dry ice is solid carbon dioxide) is gas which is formed as part of human respiration, and in the low amounts is not toxic. Not to be confused with carbon monoxide, which binds with hemoglobin in the red blood cells and is toxic. Yes, large amounts of carbon dioxide, will displace the oxygen and basically sufficate a human or cause metabolic imbalance in the human body if it is inhaled in high concentrations over a peroid of time.
Normally air contains 0.035% CO2--exposed to 3% will develope some symptoms in 15 to 20 minutes. Eye symptoms will appear after chonic high exposure--and if exposed to higher concentrations of 30% can develope cardiac abnormalities in seconds and often death. But it would take a lot of dry ice thawing to even raise the concentration 10 fold (or 0.3%)--and very unlikely it would reach 100 fold or the 3% level from dry ice in an ice chest.
So be safe, But we had 10 lbs in a well insulated freezer and 15 days later there was still several lbs of the dry ice left.
Remember that carbon dioxide (dry ice is solid carbon dioxide) is gas which is formed as part of human respiration, and in the low amounts is not toxic. Not to be confused with carbon monoxide, which binds with hemoglobin in the red blood cells and is toxic. Yes, large amounts of carbon dioxide, will displace the oxygen and basically sufficate a human or cause metabolic imbalance in the human body if it is inhaled in high concentrations over a peroid of time.
Normally air contains 0.035% CO2--exposed to 3% will develope some symptoms in 15 to 20 minutes. Eye symptoms will appear after chonic high exposure--and if exposed to higher concentrations of 30% can develope cardiac abnormalities in seconds and often death. But it would take a lot of dry ice thawing to even raise the concentration 10 fold (or 0.3%)--and very unlikely it would reach 100 fold or the 3% level from dry ice in an ice chest.
So be safe, But we had 10 lbs in a well insulated freezer and 15 days later there was still several lbs of the dry ice left.
Pat Anderson
New member
Actually on our CD22, the icebox WAS connected to clear plastic drain tube connected to a thru-hull fitting. We took the icebox out and removed the drain tube...and then wondered where all the water coming into the cabin was coming from! One day I saw it, and the light went on - I put a cap over the inside of the drain fitting (a tire valve cap fit perfectly), and hey presto, no more water in the cabin! Just a data point for those removing the icebox - yours could be like Bob's was or like mine was. If it is like mine was, don't forget to cap off the thru-hull fitting!
thataway":13l1plfb said:
I wrote this up in a previous thread a while back, but it might be worth repeating here.
For years when fishing and camping we would carefully wrap the fish, shrimp, meat or whatever in doubled freezer bags and keep them frozen by adding rock salt to ice. A layer of ice/salt, fish or meat, ice/salt and so on.
We have kept food frozen for a week or more this way and it works great, without the need of rounding up dry ice, which may be hard to come by in some areas.
Combined with a good cooler and closed cell foam to fill up any dead space in the cooler, it is a quite workable solution.
Nick
"Valkyrie"
For years when fishing and camping we would carefully wrap the fish, shrimp, meat or whatever in doubled freezer bags and keep them frozen by adding rock salt to ice. A layer of ice/salt, fish or meat, ice/salt and so on.
We have kept food frozen for a week or more this way and it works great, without the need of rounding up dry ice, which may be hard to come by in some areas.
Combined with a good cooler and closed cell foam to fill up any dead space in the cooler, it is a quite workable solution.
Nick
"Valkyrie"
pgpg5860":2qqis044 said:
pgpg5860-
The answer to this is going to depend on
1. The specific insulation properties of the cooler used.
2. How often it is opened.
3. How cold/frozen the contents were when originally placed in the cooler.
4. Whether the cooler is kept in the sun, shade, or inside the cabin.
5. Whether the cooler has layers of insulation added to the outside of it (sleeping bag, blankets, etc.
6. Etc.
I'd guess from my experience that the range of CO2 needed would be from 5 to 10 lbs, depending on all the factors above.
I'd take maybe 8 lbs or so on the first trip, and then adjust from there.
My guess, for less than $0.02 (we're in a recession, ya' know!).
Joe. :teeth :thup
Pat Anderson
New member
I don't know, I'll' bet Bob Austin has a formula, pi*r2 / sqrt of waterline length or something like that!
pgpg5860":1iw4h7gn said:
Hi Folks,
After reading all about Dry Ice, I am going to stay away from using it.
I am going to try and find one of those 12 volt coolers, add a solar panel to the cabin roof, and see if that might work.
My brother who use to sail cat boats would freeze milk cartons of water as his ice for the weekend. As the ice melted, he would drink the water.
Fred
After reading all about Dry Ice, I am going to stay away from using it.
I am going to try and find one of those 12 volt coolers, add a solar panel to the cabin roof, and see if that might work.
My brother who use to sail cat boats would freeze milk cartons of water as his ice for the weekend. As the ice melted, he would drink the water.
Fred
I keep my cooler outside, too. In warm weather I cover it with a white towel and I keep the towel soaked with water. The evaporation keeps the outside of the cooler cool.
Also, when using dry ice, put it on top and keep it dry. Water 'melts' it quickly. I think that's in the instructions you get sometimes.
Also, when using dry ice, put it on top and keep it dry. Water 'melts' it quickly. I think that's in the instructions you get sometimes.
I can't recall which brat did this but someone glued the one inch reflectorized foam insulation available at Home Depot or Lowes to the inside of the top of their cooler and reported a significant gain in ice keeping. Their reasoning, I think was that the top is where most external heat comes from. Depending on size you could do that all around the interior.
RJD Wannabe
New member
it's all about insulation and temperature gradients. I had a large ice chest I lined with 1.5' foil backed styrofoam and a tight lid of same, essentially and ice chest in an ice chest, with dry ice inside it would last many days, including 100+ degrees of Sacramento heat. I also used to use the dry ice (thankfully from work) to super cool 3/4 full bottles of gatorade (air for expansion of frozen water) and use as both super cold ice, and my drinks. Have to go slow so the plastic bottles didn't crack, and went through a fair amount of dry ice.