Dry Ice in the esky

rengatt
dont know much about dry ice but if u take meat along on your trips then can buy it kryovacked(not right spelling) and it will last for weeks in fridge temp ie by last of your 3 days fridge may still be cold but not able to cool down warm stubbies.
added bonus is that blood doesnt mix with rest of contents and there is minimal packaging so can fit more stuff in to start with.
all it is is vaccummed(prob not right spelling again) sealed
instead of dry ice have u tried block ice ?

If you are going down this path , the Eskies made by EvaKool or Waeco , or the Tropical Eskies , would be a better option. I think the Tropical 65l costs about $170. My 65l Waeco Icebox cost me $250 , reduced from $300. Expensive , but IMO worth it.

As for Dry ice , I haven't used it for ages. I find for 3 or 4 days , self made block ice (frozen icecream container frozen for several days prior) lasts long enough. Also , we use frozen milk bottle or cordial bottles. Have a water supply when they thaw out.

no worries -my reply was bit off subject but thought worth putting my 2 bob in
good luck-someone will have the answer

Gday, Try this for a tip,
Haunt your local garage sales you may come up with an old weaco or engal for a couple of hundred bucks. After all the compressor type fridg is the best bet for storage of the liquid of life.

Rengatt,

Are you keeping the dry ice wrapped in plenty of paper while its in the esky?? If you are then you might also need to put a bit of foam from a brocolli box under it and beside it to insulate it from the walls of the esky. I used to use dry ice all the time before I sold the missus and bought a fridge (great deal) and didn't have any dramas with it in cheap eskies. Good luck

Cheers,
Hughesy

dry ice is too cold....and this could be the cause of the trouble.

I make my own ice as the ice bought at pubs or ice works is usually only down to -10 or 12 degrees

making your own it should get down to -20 or more and will easily last a week.

Depending on the temperature that you want to keep in your esky, you can select the ice that you want to carry. Dry ice is frozen carbon dioxide, and its temp is -71 deg C. This is cold enough to cause constriction of polymer chains in eskys made from thermoplastics, and as such, the dry ice needs to be well insulated so that the outside surface of the insulation is much warmer.
Otherwise, you can get fiberglass eskys, like waeco, evakool, engel that can take the dry ice on its own, but the problem is that you will freeze any liquids that you want to keep in the esky. Things like juice or milk.
What I use is a salt water mixture, that I can set at the right concentration to give me anywhere between -21 down to 0 deg C (pure water no salt). So if you want to keep your esky at -10 deg C you will need approx 12% w/w NaCl in H20.

Hi Rengatt
As stated earlier, wrapping the dry ice in paper will stop your esky warping and will also help the dry ice last longer.
On another point... We had a guy nearly kill himself by leaving an esky full of dry ice in his station wagon overnight. As the dry ice melted it forced the oxygen out of the car. He jumped in to go to work the next morning, thought he was having an asthma attack and started to drive to the hospital 25 minutes away. Luckily he realised what was happening and got out of the car before he passed out.

See Ya
PatC