using dry ice on long camping trips

[greatwhite]

How long does it typically last in your cooler? Do you put it on the bottom and cover it then put your food or drinks in? The only place I ever checked for it was Praxair, what other places are likely to carry it?

I was fortunate and got it for free at the flight kitchen I worked at. Dry ice there came in 1 Lb slabs individually wrapped in plastic. As we were a small kitchen, in peak summer, went through about 4-5,000 lbs/week. Never had an issue with dry ice cracking my Coleman cooler, which was used on a weekly basis. Great stuff for camping, shame it's so expensive now.

[123chadder]

You can get dry ice at Praxair, Air lquide. they are welding suppliers.
remember that dry ice is 104 degrees f below zerro.
Anything in that cooler will freeze, and probably crack any plastic coolers also.
Best to use a cheap styrofoam cooler.

no offense my friend,but i have never had that problem in about 7 years of use......it cost me $22 to line my cooler bottom,priceless to me.....but i get that everyone has there own way of doing things...just my suggestion through personal experience.....

[123chadder]

no worries about that woody,no live bait allowed......

[mattadam]

123chadder what did you line your cooler with?

[hoggie5692]

I have used dry ice on numerous occassions. NEVER has issue of cooler cracking. It's about $20-25 to line the bottom of your cooler...I then take cardboard and put 3 layers over the dry ice, works like a charm. It amazed my dad when we went on a 5 day canoe trip near Temagami and got to come out with frozen fish to take home after 5 days. Once you try it you'll never go back.

[Plog]

How long does it typically last in your cooler? Do you put it on the bottom and cover it then put your food or drinks in? The only place I ever checked for it was Praxair, what other places are likely to carry it?

The key with dry ice is to keep it away from oxygen where the gases will dissipate. We use to put the dry ice in zip lock bags and then put in your cooler (usually get about 3 days or so with 1 lb slabs of dry ice). As others said you can line the bottom of your cooler or on the top (six of one…) cold air is heavy and will fall to the bottom of the cooler. You always want your wet ice (cubes/blocks) next to the dry ice as this will turn the wet ice to cement hard. Even if the dry ice dissipates those blocks of cement hard wet ice will last to keep all very cold in your cooler. It's not good to put your food next to the dry ice as the extreme temp will burn the food (and turn any can of beer to an ice berg real fast!!!) On a one week camping trip a few slabs is all you need. I forget where the flight kitchen got theirs but it is not Praxair or any other Co. mentioned, maybe some luck with yellow pages???

[greatrack]

How long does it typically last in your cooler? Do you put it on the bottom and cover it then put your food or drinks in? The only place I ever checked for it was Praxair, what other places are likely to carry it?

I know one year when I worked for a ice cream company, at a concert we rapped the dry ice in news paper!

[JUDGE]

You can get dry ice at Praxair, Air lquide. they are welding suppliers.
remember that dry ice is 104 degrees f below zerro.
Anything in that cooler will freeze, and probably crack any plastic coolers also.
Best to use a cheap styrofoam cooler.

no offense my friend,but i have never had that problem in about 7 years of use......it cost me $22 to line my cooler bottom,priceless to me.....but i get that everyone has there own way of doing things...just my suggestion through personal experience.....

No offence taken , But I was in the dry ice business for 45 years and the biggest complaint We had was how many coolers were cracked from the cold .
Its such a racket the dry ice actually cost about 5 cents a pound to make, and we sold it for $1.20 a pound.
In my area some customers got wise and crossed over to Detroit to purchase the dry ice where the selling price was only 20 cents a pound.
Do not tell me your opinion on dry ice, I have forgot more than you will ever know about the subject.

[MuskieBait]

I work in a research lab. We get dry ice all the time when supplies are shipped to us. People used to empty the dry ice in the sink. When the sink was used, the dry ice was washed down the drain along with the water. The water and ice would then freeze in the pipes and crack PVC pipes. If it can crack PVC, it can crack coolers.

Moral of the story, keep the dry ice dry and don't pour liquid on it. When the liquid freezes over the dry ice, the liquid expand and it will crack a lot of material. My guess is that this is the reason why some people crack their coolers when using dry ice.

Another important thing to remember is to use a vented cooler. Most consumer coolers don't close tight enough for a complete seal, which is just perfect. If you put dry ice in a sealed container, the dry ice sublime into CO2 gas and the pressure increases in the sealed container. People like to put dry ice into a pop bottle, close the cap, and watch the bottle explodse. This is actually extremely dangerous. We tried that once in the lab by putting a small piece of dry ice into a small plastic test tube, sealed it, and tossed it into the garbage can (we were crazy but not stupid). When the tube exploded, there were shards of plastic impaled on the ceiling tiles! Needless to say we never did that again LOL.

[greatwhite]

I have contacted a company in Ottawa (not Praxair as they are expensive). When I hear back I will let everyone know.