Ice vs dry ice.

[AxeAngel]

i think dry ice loses 1 pound per 24 hour period from what i was told by the retailer. so 2 pounds lasts 2 days

Thats a big assumption.

use pV = nRT and the equillibrium principle to work out the actual time. Lots of factors go into how long the dry ice will last. How often the cooler is opened, ambient temperature, insulation capabilities of the cooler, amount of space to be cooled(why someone said crumpled newspaper is so important), pressure of the cooler, etc.

-Sam

 

[cruiseroutfit]

Where do you guys buy your dry ice from?


Ash

The grocery store? Quite a few of them sell it by the pound around these parts. Most often you have to be 18, hence we always kept an 18 year old friend around in high school. Wonder what the supermarket thought when the same kid came in and bought a pound of dry ice every weekend

 

[slus]

Dont sleep in the same area as your cooler. CO2 is the silent odorless killer.

Also dont forget, when CO2 sublimates(solid to gas) it expands and your cooler will vent and some CO2 will come out. So be careful and make sure you aren't in a sealed environment.

Oh and naturally, keep the kids and your fingers away. Instant frostbite.
-Sam

Carbon Monoxide is the silent killer, not carbon dioxide. Not saying CO2 can't kill you, but it takes a VERY significantly higher level of CO2 to cause problems than CO.

 

[Deleted member 9101]

For the sake of argument no fridge and camping for say 4-5 days with a good boating marine cooler or ice chest. The pros and cons of using regular ice or Dry Ice. With normal use opening and closing a few times a day,in 90 degree weather which would do better and last longer. Say a 15lb block of each same test,which would last the longest,and any draw backs. Just throwing this one out there for comments. answers do not have to be high tec and do not read anything else it to this. Someone ask me this a few days ago which would be better.

My buddy uses dry ice all the time, he has a wooden cover wih holes drilled in it he puts over the ice to help keep it from freezing everything solid.

 

[rezdiver]

Thats a big assumption.

use pV = nRT and the equillibrium principle to work out the actual time. Lots of factors go into how long the dry ice will last. How often the cooler is opened, ambient temperature, insulation capabilities of the cooler, amount of space to be cooled(why someone said crumpled newspaper is so important), pressure of the cooler, etc.

-Sam

Sam,
Here is my equilibrium principal calculation.
dry ice+ cooler+hot day= about 2 pounds a day or maybe 3 pounds or maybe 1 pound.
I did not assume anything. this is what the dry ice retailer told me when i purchased my dry ice and he was pretty close, its an average, if you want to take in all the physical accounts and do the math and equilibrium principal why dont you give use the right answer instead of just an equation .have fun.

 

[Robert Bills]

CO2 is the silent odorless killer.

I thought carbon monoxide was the silent odorless killer and carbon dioxide just a greenhouse gas and Al Gore's worst nightmare.

 

[jim65wagon]

CO2 is not breathable and it is heavier than air. It is comprises a percentage of the air you exhale. If you are in your car, or on the tent floor as the dry ice sublimates to it's gaseous state, it will slowly fill the area displacing the oxygen (or breathable air) and you will suffocate. No odor, no sound = silent killer too.

 

[bobcat charlie]

I worked in a 'hot house' tomato green house when I was in high school, 1960-1964. This was in Rhode Island and a cool climate. We 'enriched' the environment by adding CO2...up to 4%! Normal Air concentration of CO2 is < .4% CO2! We worked in an environment 100 times richer in CO2 than normal! NO ILL EFFECTS! There was a monitor set to go off at 6% CO2 with a warning that 6% 'could lead to headachs and nausa'.

BTW, the tomatos were great!

 

[sargeek]

When using dry ice to keep things cold, put it in the bottom of the cooler with ice on top of it. The ice will act as insulation keeping the food from freezing while the dry ice keeps the ice from melting.

To keep foods frozen, but the dry ice on top of the food.

Well worth doing.

 

[LandCruiserPhil]

Never used dry ice...how long can/will dry ice last? I can get 5 days out of my frozen water bottle system.

 

[RR1]

We use dry ice and marine grade coolers, yes they are expensive, however there is no electronic nonsense to break, no dual batteries, no solar panels, no battery tenders...

My coolers will probably out live me.

The trick to keeping dry ice longer is to prevent it coming in contact with the air, the rubber seals on a marine cooler helps with this. I can go 14+ days.

http://www.yeticoolers.com/categories/Tundra-Series/

 

[4xdog]

CO2 and CO (carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide are VASTLY different where toxicity is concerned. Carbon dioxide causes discomfort at levels many times higher than carbon monoxide causes death.

Carbon monoxide at extremely low levels binds to hemoglobin in the blood to stop it from transferring oxygen to cells, a mechanism that causes victims to "suffocate" in the presence of plenty of oxygen.

 

[evldave]

After just getting back from 10 days in the woods w/no electricity, and having a fridge + lots of coolers (11 people), dry ice is the way to go for keeping things frozen, but watch out for 'unfreezables' like beer.

Some thoughts:

If you are just by yourself, you can control who/when coolers are opened. Throw in a few 6-10YO kids, and that goes out the door. A 7.99# block of dry ice was gone in 3 days in 80+ day heat (high 30s at night). That said, we went into town and replentished and our hamburger meat was still frozen after 10 days.

I had a 5# block of dry ice in a stainless coleman cooler w/regular ice (10# bag), just to keep my beer/beverages cold. The dry ice was at the bottom, under the ice, w/the beer at the top. For the first couple days, the beer was cold, but by day 3, the dry ice had frozen the regular ice solid and one of the beers was a frosty. Yeah, I could have been more diligent at keeping everything separated, but realistically, I was on vacation and didn't care.

All that said, I'd go one dry ice cooler (freezer) and one regular ice cooler (fridge)...trying to do both in one cooler was a PIA and I really didn't like it and would go w/regular ice if I didn't have stuff that had to be frozen.

 

[CanuckMariner/Nomad]

Dry Ice or Cardice or Card Ice, will last much longer than regular water ice. :costumed-smiley-007

FYI...from Wiki:

Some facts: At temperatures above −56.4 °C (−69.5 °F) and pressures below 5.2 bar (the triple point), CO2 changes from a solid to a gas with no intervening liquid form, through a process called sublimation. The opposite process is called deposition, where CO2 changes from the gas to solid phase (dry ice). At atmospheric pressure, sublimation/deposition occurs at −78.5 °C (−109.3 °F). The low temperature and direct sublimation to a gas makes dry ice a more effective coolant, since it is colder than water ice and leaves no residue as it changes state.

Prolonged exposure to dry ice can cause severe skin damage through frostbites, and the fog produced may also hinder attempts to withdraw from contact in a safe manner. Because it sublimates into large quantities of carbon dioxide gas, which could displace oxygen-containing air and pose a danger of asphyxiation, dry ice should only be exposed to open air in a well-ventilated environment. Industrial dry ice may contain contaminants that make it unsafe for applications where it comes into direct contact with foodstuffs.

 

[dzzz]

We use dry ice and marine grade coolers, yes they are expensive, however there is no electronic nonsense to break, no dual batteries, no solar panels, no battery tenders...

........

Yes, better to use a natural, simple product like dry ice. Can be found growing along side the road in most places.