dry ice for Canning

One of the issues with using ice is that you generally need at least 1/3rd of the carrying capacity of the ice chest filled with ice. But that aside, why not evaluate whether you actually need 22 days worth of refrigerated (and frozen) food. One of the issues here is what if you suffer a refrigeration break-down?

Why not take a balance of refrigerated (not frozen) and dry food??

Not the question you asked, but offering as ‘food for thought’…..

Cheers, The Landy

Hi Gossy,
Can be dangerous, read post 66997.
We often use it for work purposes only.
Ian

Hi Gossy, Not at all sure that dry ice is a good idea for regular food refrigeration. It produces a temperature of about minus 78c and, apart from industrial use, is generally only used for refrigerating stuff like ice cream for short times. At this low temperature it can easily "burn" foodstuffs in close proximity and will also lose energy rapidly to the environment and so not last long. It is also quite expensive.

Perhaps the worst feature is that it sublimates into copious amounts of carbon dioxide gas which is a real danger in the confines of a vehicle by displacing the oxygen. Oh, and it's true about attracting mozzies. They are attracted to CO2 as it is a component of exhaled animal breath which indicates a food source for them!

Now there will be those who say they have done it but nevertheless.........!

Gossy

I have bought it before in Kalg but purely for commercial use. Try BOC Gases or Air Liquide or any gas supplier.

The down side was we had to preorder it and it came in a 1000 lt refrigerated box.

alan

If dry ice is found not to be a viable option Gossy another way is to freeze tecni ice sheets in your freezer & rotate them through the esky each day.
Personally I just set mine as a fridge then cryovac meals & meat. This minimise's power use & means you can rotate drinks without freezing them.
Cheers Craig.............

Recently did a trip Sydney to Darwin via Oodnadatta and one vehicle used dry ice in the esky, it was amazing how quickly the dry ice evaporated. Normal ice lasted about 2 days longer. Also if you vacuum pack your meat it will keep for weeks if kept in the fridge or esky under ice, and the good thing is that the food wont become waterlogged.

why waste your time with ice when you have 3 fridges , cryovac your food ,
problem solved . we did a trip down the CSR in 05 , 3 fridges , 7 blokes for 2 weeks , no eskies .
mechpete

Another idea.

We just got a smaller 2nd hand fridge for our trip to the same place. Wont be for a wj=hile yet. But we got it now to make sure all works okay. One for freezing as needed and the other for cold (beer). stuff.

Just an idea.

Phil

Whats more important....beer or food ??

I fill most of the fridge with beer and wine ( 60 ltr Waeco ) and leave just enough room for cryovaced meat to last approx 2 weeks.......but I try to plan as much as I can to use tin or packet type food..

We did the CSR in 2009 with just a 40L Engel, we didn't stack it full of drinks, instead we kept about half a dozen cans in it & as we took one out we put one back in, worked fine for us.
We did take a second fridge, but a bad judgement call saw us buy a Waeco, which lasted precisely 7 days on the corrugations of the Gunbarrel.
We also had vacuum packed all our meat & we were quite surprised at the range of products that could be bought at Kunwarritji. (Well 33).

I don't think the dry ice will last too long. Certainly not 22 days. Even in winter the ambient temperature can get to the high thirties. You could use some of those high tech chill sheets. If you are moving most days you will not have a power issue repeatedly refreezing them. I would probably cryovac most things so there is less risk if they thaw a bit. I think you will find 22 days of food and drinks to be a big stack. CSR trips usually start by working out what to leave home. When you have the pile to pack with all the "I'll take x just in case" it will be a mountain. However, shocker, tyre and fridge trouble is reasonably common on the CSR.

Steve