Dry Ice Strategy

[tharris]

I have seen people mention using dry ice in their coolers to save from having to keep buying expensive ice bags in the campgrounds. I have never used dry ice before, though, and would like to know how you use it. I found this site that mentions that dry ice will freeze everything and you can't use it with beer:

http://www.dryiceinfo.com/camping.htm

So do you use a second cooler of dry ice and regular ice to just keep extra ice frozen? Is there a way to use dry ice to just keep things cold rather than frozen? Are bags of ice really $10 in the campsites?

[amma_sol]

Yes bags of ice are $10 in campsites. Make sure you bring a real cooler and not a Styrofoam one. My sister used dry ice for burning man last year and said it worked great. I believe they had a separate cooler for beer. If you freeze water bottles and put them in your cooler your ice situation should last a lot longer. We only had to buy ice once.

[KORNfed]

I was looking into that myself and at a Smart & Final near my house it explained that if you have the dry ice above the items it will freeze everything. It said that in order to keep items cold, you need to place the dry ice at the very bottom and them put like an ice layer above it.

[Dustin da DnB Soulja]

Used dry ice last year and it worked great. I have an extreme cool cooler that keeps stuff really cold, used it at the kern river and kept stuff frozen and cold for 5 days. So you freeze EVERYTHING ahead of time, and you put the dry ice at the bottom, either wrapped in a soft cooler or in newspaper. Then you pull the things you want to eat/drink for the day and place it in a separate cooler. So you only open that "frozen" cooler about once or twice a day. Keeps everything cold in the freezer cooler and you'll have cold stuff in the other cooler, good solutions to not buying ice.

[tharris]

Used dry ice last year and it worked great. I have an extreme cool cooler that keeps stuff really cold, used it at the kern river and kept stuff frozen and cold for 5 days. So you freeze EVERYTHING ahead of time, and you put the dry ice at the bottom, either wrapped in a soft cooler or in newspaper. Then you pull the things you want to eat/drink for the day and place it in a separate cooler. So you only open that "frozen" cooler about once or twice a day. Keeps everything cold in the freezer cooler and you'll have cold stuff in the other cooler, good solutions to not buying ice.

But beer and soda would explode if frozen, so those should never go in the frozen cooler? Or will KORNfed's strategy work?

[Goatchella]

One yetti ice chest . Keeps ice cool for two weeks. $400.00
We pack this full of just dry ice. 50 lbs. Wrapped in news paper.

Then a normal Coleman or igloo ice chest of frozen food.
Ice chest of just bags of ice.
Ice chest with drinks.

Add a lb or two of dry ice to each cooler daily. Double up on the chest of plain ice.

[geonotgio]

One yetti ice chest . Keeps ice cool for two weeks. $400.00
We pack this full of just dry ice. 50 lbs. Wrapped in news paper.

Then a normal Coleman or igloo ice chest of frozen food.
Ice chest of just bags of ice.
Ice chest with drinks.

Add a lb or two of dry ice to each cooler daily. Double up on the chest of plain ice.

good lookin' bro!

[Dustin da DnB Soulja]

But beer and soda would explode if frozen, so those should never go in the frozen cooler? Or will KORNfed's strategy work?

You have jugs of water on day 1, like a gallon jugs, completely frozen in the secondary cooler, place cold sodas and beer in that cool, they should be cool throughout the weekend


By monday I had frozen water and frozen lemonade still...

[Goatchella]

My set up is to keep food and drinks cold for 25+ people. Not just a single site

[clleadz]

We are 3 with a mid size, single cooler. Would to work to line the bottom with 10lbs of dry ice, then bags of ice on top, then drinks and food?

Also when you guys say frozen lemonade do you mean the frozen concentrates that you add water to?

[Goatchella]

No...frozen bottles of liquid.
Freeze shit solid and it will stay frozen.

[clleadz]

Ok cool. And what about the dry-ice -> ice -> drink plan? Feasible?

[Goatchella]

Cold sinks.....use logic.


Yes

[OtisRed]

We are 3 with a mid size, single cooler. Would to work to line the bottom with 10lbs of dry ice, then bags of ice on top, then drinks and food?

Also when you guys say frozen lemonade do you mean the frozen concentrates that you add water to?

Yo I would buy a separate cooler for the dry ice and regular ice and frozen bottles (water and other non carbonated drinks). Stack it in that order, dry ice on bottom wrapped in a towel or newspaper, ice next, then frozen bottles.
In your regular cooler, put your food and carbonated drinks in and then transfer some of the frozen bottles and/or ice from the frozen cooler to this cooler every morning to keep this stuff cool. This way your ice cooler is only opened 1-2 times a day, and your ice will last.

[mattfender]

What if ya can only afford to bring one cooler? Will beers freeze if you put dry ice wrapped in newspaper at the bottom, then a cardboard layer on top and put the beers/food/water on top of that?

[koliebo]

I'm trying out dry ice this year for the first time. Here are a few earlier threads on the topic.

From what I've gathered, everything in the dry ice cooler will be frozen solid, so two coolers are a necessity. The dry ice cooler should have a drain you can open to let out the CO2 gas (so that you don't end up with a dry ice bomb...), and you probably shouldn't set the dry ice directly on the bottom of the cooler, since it might crack. I guess the dry ice can also make your food taste a little funny, also.

I'm planning on stocking my dry ice cooler with lots of frozen water bottles and ice packs, and using those to keep my "normal" cooler cold for the entire weekend.

[joobear]

even though were out in the desert for 4ish days, i dont think that all of this refilling of ice is necessary.

but if you want to be cautious have 2 coolers.
1 with stuff that you'll want lots of access to (beer, snacks, etc)
1 with stuff that MUST be cold (and wont be opened too much)- put dry ice in this one because it sublimates.

i've never tried the newspaper, but it sounds like a plan!
I was going to layer dry ice, ice, and a towel on top of that. it'll also keep the stuff from getting wet.

last time i did coachella we just dumped a bunch of ice with dry ice and then our food, we still had regular ice by sunday.
and yeah, dry ice REALLY freezes shit up. i ended up having boiled steaks on this one camping trip... wont make the same mistake twice.

[mattfender]

I found Randall quite helpful



So dont put the beers in the same cooler as the dry ice then? Guess i'll have to buy 2 coolers so!

[Goatchella]

Lessons learned.

Dry ice will turn drinks into tasting like seltzer water.

50 lbs will keep an ice chest cold for 5 days.

[mattfender]

Even closed beer cans?

[theAntipop]

Where do you buy dry ice?

[Dustin da DnB Soulja]

I had 30lbs of dry ice at 1.29 a lb, and I bought a big insulated "freezer bag" from Smart and Final.

Wrapped the dry ice in newspaper and placed it in the freezer bag, I still have a few pieces of dry ice in my cooler as of right now.

[Goatchella]

Yep^

Bought it and stored it like that and kept my frozen food frozen until I got home.
I had one extra day of food frozen still. I traded herb for bags of ice every day.

Lol. Fuck narcs. If anyone wants anything from me, you better have somethingi need.


Cause money is useless to me.

[bobsters]

Yep^

Bought it and stored it like that and kept my frozen food frozen until I got home.
I had one extra day of food frozen still. I traded herb for bags of ice every day.

Lol. Fuck narcs. If anyone wants anything from me, you better have somethingi need.


Cause money is useless to me.

you are so full of win

was reading about your camping setup a few weeks ago, pretty bummed i'm going weekend two.