Dry ice

Dry ice (~ -100 F at atmospheric pressure) is cold enough to make some plastics brittle, maybe even crack them by thermal contraction. That being said, when we use it theatrically it is delivered in a bin lined with some kind of plastic, and we transfer the stuff to plastic beverage coolers to carry it to the fog machines. Have not cracked one yet, 20 years playing with the stuff.

But I wouldn't use it as an ice substitute or supplement for a cooler. It turns a cooler into a freezer, kind of cold for ice cream (will be rock hard) and can freeze-burn meats and more fragile veggies.

Years ago, we went to Lake Powell, 3 days on a houseboat and then 3 days dry camping out of a van that had a 4" foam mattress bed built in the back. I took some steaks for day 5, put them in a small igloo cooler on top of dry ice (wrapped in newspaper) and left the cooler in the back of the van closed up. This was in late July...hot! Van was parked in the sun, closed up and locked.

After the 3 days on the house boat, we returned to the marina and drove the van to our campsite. I tried to take the cooler out and it had frozen to the foam mattress, and frozen the mattress solid all the way through (4"!!). Lifting the cooler actually ripped about 2" of the foam out! Not only that, the steaks were still rock hard, so hard that I took them out and put them on the roof of the van in the summer sun/heat, and it still took more than 24 hours before they were thawed enough to cook!!

Dry ice is some serious s**t!!

Just remember it is - 100 degrees. It will burn you .I t removes the oxygen from the air.use extreme car in confined spaces
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rockhillmanor wrote:

nineoaks2004 wrote:
I have used it on several long canoe trips, it needs to be wrapped (I used newspaper) If I am camping with the RV I usually just go get ice as needed. Dry Ice will freeze anything near it and is dangerous around children as it can cause a bad burn.

We dumped some unused dry ice in our house sink. sink was stainless steel, the pipes for the drain where pvc. It broke the drain pipes. :(

Ouch.

nineoaks2004 wrote:
I have used it on several long canoe trips, it needs to be wrapped (I used newspaper) If I am camping with the RV I usually just go get ice as needed. Dry Ice will freeze anything near it and is dangerous around children as it can cause a bad burn.

We dumped some unused dry ice in our house sink. sink was stainless steel, the pipes for the drain where pvc. It broke the drain pipes. :(

Dry Ice is solidified Carbon Dioxide, You do not want to use it in an enclosed non vented space.. The surface of a block of Dry Ice is in the neighborhood of -109F So yes it will freeze most everything save for a few chyrogenic poeducts.

pira114 wrote:
Putting regular ice with dry ice is unnecessary. The dry ice is colder than the regular ice. You're not helping any by adding it.

Dry ice "melts" by air flow. If you compartmentalize it to reduce air flow over it, it will last quite a long time

The water ice insulated the dry ice and kept it away from things it might damage. In addition, when the dry ice all sublimed the regular ice was still there and lasted for several days.

Putting regular ice with dry ice is unnecessary. The dry ice is colder than the regular ice. You're not helping any by adding it.

Dry ice "melts" by air flow. If you compartmentalize it to reduce air flow over it, it will last quite a long time

We used to surround the dry ice with water ice to insulate it and protect the cooler. The only problem we had was carbonated apples.

With a 7 day cooler commonly available now, you only need a block of regular ice. I've camped for a week in high 80's with the cooler left in the sun part of the day and there was still a fist sized block left. And that was just a coleman, not an igloo.