Dry ice and Dometic fridge

If you can get the dry ice for free I would wrap it in layers of news paper and put it on one of your shelves. The paper will prevent it from freezing anything inside and make the dry ice cool longer. If you have to buy it I would pass and just use frozen water bottles.

A few years ago some duck hunters were using dry ice in their camper for the coolers. They never woke up.
Be careful. Make sure you remove the ice and vent the RV before you use it.

drillagent wrote:
Dry ice is actually frozen carbon dioxide. I would be more worried about carbon dioxide poisoning. Remember Apollo 13?

I'd worry about this if my RV was the Winnie from Space Balls.

I don't think I would lay chunks of dry ice down on shelves, plastic parts, etc. raise it up on something. somehow I doubt that a fairly small chunk of DI will produce too large an explosion.

bumpy

Turtle n Peeps wrote:


LOL, what in the world does CO2 have to do with Apollo 13? :h :S

The crew of 3 had to leave the command module and live in the lunar module for almost 4 days. The lunar module was meant to sustain 2 people for 2 days, so the CO2 removal system (lithium hydroxide canisters) stopped working after a few days and the lives of the astronauts were in danger from CO2 poisoning. The command module had a different size and shape lithium hydroxide canister and could not be directly placed into the vent system of the lunar module. Mission control had to come up with a Rube Goldberg design which involved having the astronauts use cardboard, duct tape and a space suit hose to connect the command module canister to the lunar module life support system. The intended lesson here from the poster was that CO2 in an enclosed area can kill you. I'm not sure how much it would take in an RV in which you could open a window and door to the outside.

Steve

opnspaces wrote:
Go ahead and use it, it's not going to explode your refrigerator. When you are exploding bottles that is because the lid is threaded on and can't come off to let the pressure out.


Your refrigerator door is not screwed shut. If you have a REALLY good door seal the CO2 will build up and then push the door open ever so slightly to vent. Then the door will seal again and you will never be the wiser. It only takes a very small opening for the gas to escape.

In reality though your door probably does not seal very well and the refrigerator will never pressurize in the first place.

This is what I was thinking. Just wanted to get others opinions. I get the dry ice for free and I figured I could cool down fridge quicker. I do have have full hook ups at my house but I figured I could save a few pennies by precooling with dry ice, I'm cheap.

Go ahead and use it, it's not going to explode your refrigerator. When you are exploding bottles that is because the lid is threaded on and can't come off to let the pressure out.


Your refrigerator door is not screwed shut. If you have a REALLY good door seal the CO2 will build up and then push the door open ever so slightly to vent. Then the door will seal again and you will never be the wiser. It only takes a very small opening for the gas to escape.

In reality though your door probably does not seal very well and the refrigerator will never pressurize in the first place.

I do it all the time when it's really hot.

My fridge is border line in very hot weather. 100+ and it can get a little warm. I used regular ice and that does not last long.

One thing I have to caution you about is fruit. Fruit will absorb CO2 and make it taste...........well........fizzy!!! It will carbonate watermelon BIG time. :E The best thing to do is wrap it in a towel so it won't flash freeze anything.


LOL, what in the world does CO2 have to do with Apollo 13? :h :S

Dry ice is actually frozen carbon dioxide. I would be more worried about carbon dioxide poisoning. Remember Apollo 13? Unless you plan on keeping all the windows open and not running the AC. I once used dry ice in a cooler for a two week trip. At the end of the first week, everything was still frozen solid.

We recently took a local four day trip. The fridge wasn't working, so I froze an entire package of water bottles at home and then put them on the top racks in the fridge. By the fourth day, I still had ice in the bottles. And there was no melting ice mess like you would have with a bag of ice cubes. Just turned it into a large vertical cooler.

Ex-Tech wrote:
And why not just turn on the fridge the day before you leave on gas or electric?

Normally I do this, but have also fired up the refer as we were leaving, (spur of the moment weekend trip. about a 90 minute trip to the coast, refer was down to 40 degrees when we arrived.

The Ice jugs are a good idea, but not really necessary.