Dry Ice Anyone Use It?

My brother in law and I have been wanting to try using Dry Ice on our camping trips. Where we go it can get well over a hundred degrees and Ice does not last long at all in any cooler. Has anyone used it before and what is your experience with it. Good or Bad.

We have a huge white Costco Cooler that we were going to put a small amount in just one corner wrapped in cardboard so it doesn't crack the plastic cooler bottom and then put a thin layer of regular ice on the bottom of the cooler. Our food on top of the layer and then of coarse a thinner layer of ice over the top of our food.

Is there a better way? We cover our cooler with towels at the campsite and place under any shade we can find so the direct sun doesn't beet down on it . Suggestion and stories please.

I had a decent sized block of dry ice last about 6 days on a houseboat at lake mead in august. I thought it worked out great. the only ice trips we needed to make were for the beer cooler. shade is your friend.

Put it in a plastic bottle with a little water in. Then throw it, quickly.

I put a block in my cooler last 4th of July to last the whole weekend. It worked great - I put a layer of ice on the bottom of the cooler then the dry ice, then just put the rest of your ice in as usual. Only negative was that it froze the ice in the cooler solid overnight - not a big deal - just broke it up with a crescent wrench in the morning and it was all good. At the end of the long weekend we still had a full cooler of ice and ended up throwing it all in the lake - there was still a pretty good size chunk of dry ice left. I get mine at Wal-Mart and the blocks are about the size of a paperback book or so. They will last several days if you don't leave the cooler open for extended periods.

Have not used it lately, but I’ve had it crack a plastic cooler before. Styrofoam cooler didn’t have problems.

Hopefully it works out for us. Thanks guys for the info. My brother in law is getting scared, I think he doesn't want his new cooler to break. He bought it at costco they will take anything back. I will repost if we buy some.

Walmart has dry ice?? Where do they keep that at?

Ive been wanting to pick up a new cooler. I remember there was a good thread acouple years back that a bunch of guys had some high end ice chests that would hold ice much longer than the standard ones. Anyone remember the brands?

Originally Posted by mendo247

Walmart has dry ice?? Where do they keep that at?

The one by me keeps it in the same freezer where they have the bag ice. There's a sign that says "Dry Ice" - amazingly enough. It is close to the lake so that may be why they have it.

Originally Posted by mendo247

Ive been wanting to pick up a new cooler. I remember there was a good thread acouple years back that a bunch of guys had some high end ice chests that would hold ice much longer than the standard ones. Anyone remember the brands?

Think these are the ones for the thread before???

http://www.kirkhams.com/catalog/Yeti_Coolers-225-1.html

be sure to make a dry ice bomb too! they are pretty fun. just be careful.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTP4yp8y_NA

I was/am considering trying this in the boat cooler when I venture to hot climates. My concern is would it damage the fiber glass if I wrapped it a couple times in a towel?

I've only used it for making certain vaguely explosive toys, haha. Crush it up, drop it into a 3 liter bottle, pour water in, cap it, and run like hell. Do not shake it. I did that to try to speed up the detonation and it went off in my hand. Entire thing went numb. It was kinda cool, but definitely very stupid. Here's a video of me throwing one back when I was in high school...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6tbHKuXybw

Also, if you're looking at using it to keep things cool, it's definitely good for that. My neighbor used to have steaks shipped to his house that were always frozen despite it being in the middle of the summer because the steak company put dry ice into the container. I was always confused when I was little as to why the boxes were so light, but that's why.

Safeway near my house now sells it. It is $1.29 a pound and it comes in 6 lbs blocks. They said they break it up for you if you don't want the full 6 lbs and it is placed in a special box already. I am going for it. The clerk told me that you have to ask for it and it is not kept with the bag ice.