Any experience with dry ice in ice boxes?

Des, thanks for that I reckon the newspaper is a good start as it would absorb any moisture too. I am not sure of the life of modern plastics with it either but am wondering the life too of the ice.

I have seen freeze branding too Des if you want any hairs white in the future. Gloves are in our kit in both doors for the Nissan. Fur lined for the passenger side pair - good for cooking pots too.

We would buy it by weight and sorry but can't remember quantities. It would last 4-6 days in warm weather, longer in cooler times.

err
It doesnt burn, it freezes the skin there-by killing the tissue...and
that is if it doesnt stick to your skin and you pull your own skin off when you attempt to remove the CO2 pellet or block.

either way it will be dead tissue

My experience is... co2 does not last very long

Nudenut it depends how long the contact is. If the contact is brief the burn does not kill tissue. The timings can be critical though. It can change the colour of hair so the output of the follicle is white - once again Nudenut dependent if there is a follicle;-) With cattle it does not always change colour. One guy I know has quickly put a hand in liquid N to retreive a watch. :-( Liquid N is m u c h colder

With the softness of alien skin or scales others may have more experience than I...........................................

Rosco,

Thanks for the thinking response. Am interested in the thought of putting the ice around the packed dry ice and making it last longer.

Surely a larger lump of dry ice would do that bearing in mind I will be trying to keep frozen food in that state?
Brine ice better for that too if i was to keep wet ice around it.
Yes, planning to open no more than once a day for a short time.

I have talked to a guy who used to catch yabbies years ago and freeze them with dry ice, to get some clues. Cover the top and all. He used a freezer chest though with old style insulation.

Have talked to the freeze branding guy too - he just knows he will use it over a week and metho to transfer the cold to metal. Preserve as much as he can, but never expects any to last too long.

Might buy some this week to try.

John,

Your dead right about covering the dry ice with wet ice - an old trick I've been using for years on fishing trips. The only way dry ice melts (boils/evaporates) is contact with air etc thus the saying to wrap the dry ice in paper. However by covering it with wet ice this will partly melt before being refrozen by the dry ice thus fairly well sealing it from the air. The wet ice also acts as a buffer to help prevent freezing things solid. This method will usually give you an extra day or two depending on the block size and how often you put warm stuff in (beer).

Cheers, Hughesy

Rohan, thanks for that. It is useful to know the length of time to evaporate it totally. If it can meant a 8-10 day span to keep frozen stuff frozen then top up with water ice later it should make life a little easier for some things.

I am aware for the burn factor with dry ice and also liquid N too. It is probably easier to get that than dry ice round here too.

Opening a planned issue looks good too only to open once a day....... Reckoned to keep some meat in it already frozen and parhaps the dry ice at each end.

Thanks again

Rohan comes as CO2 snow at $1.98 a Kg and I can get it next Monday 7 am. Would mean frozen stuff there for over a week which would be pretty good. Is not a standard esky is 40 and 45 mm wall thickness. Will see I guess.........

John, I forgot to mention, while I can't remember the weight of the block we got, it was about the size of 2 house bricks - a bit smaller, maybe.

When we added water ice, on the evening of day 8, the bit left was the size of can of drink and there was still stuff frozen in the bottom of the esky.

A better esky would obviously keep it lasting longer. Our EvaKool keep block water-ice for between 5 and 10 days, depending on the usual factors. I reckon I'd easily get 2 weeks from dry ice.