dry ice question

[krackeer]

I know most people cool their fridge at home before leaving, but since my travel is stored at the campground I am can not do that. In the heat of the summer it is usually a day or 2 before the fridge is nice and cool. Yes I will freeze some bottled water to jump start it, but was wondering about dry ice. Has anyone ever put it in their fridge and/or freezer. I know it's super cold and I don't want to damage the interior or mess anything else up. I have a yeti cooler and it states it is dry ice safe, which leads me to believe that somethings are not! So, anyone ever tried this?

[Swardy]

Originally Posted by krackeer

I know most people cool their fridge at home before leaving, but since my travel is stored at the campground I am can not do that. In the heat of the summer it is usually a day or 2 before the fridge is nice and cool. Yes I will freeze some bottled water to jump start it, but was wondering about dry ice. Has anyone ever put it in their fridge and/or freezer. I know it's super cold and I don't want to damage the interior or mess anything else up. I have a yeti cooler and it states it is dry ice safe, which leads me to believe that somethings are not! So, anyone ever tried this?

I do it all the time. Especially when we are camping without access to shore power.

I wrap some dry ice slabs in a thick layer of old newspapers and put one in the fridge and one in the freezer. It usually lasts a few days and reduces the amount of propane used to keep the fridge cold.

I bring a large cooler of dry ice and as it evaporates in the fridge, I replace it from the cooler. the large amount in the cooler helps keep it solid for longer.

If you want something to stay frozen, put right on top of the newspaper wrap. If you want to just be cold, leave some space between the wrap and the item - Dry ice will freeze it it short order!

It helps that I have a pretty endless free supply of the stuff from my work...

[TexasRT]

I've never tried it but don't see why it would be a problem. Maybe put it on a plastic bag or paper plate on a shelf and keep it off any plastic. Just my.02

[RoscoW]

We used to use it in a cooler for tent camping. It was nice as there was no wet mess of mystery juice in the bottom of the cooler. we found that some items absorbed the CO2 and became fizzy sort of like carrots…..a bit strange.

Ross..

[KiltDog]

As an aside, we always freeze our meat at home prior to leaving for camp. A habit left over from our "cooler only" days, no doubt. That should help with or without the dry ice.

[LAKnox]

FWIW, I have a bunch (like 30) of freezer packs and stack them in my fridge and freezer to cool things off when coming out of storage. I also never (if I can help it) put anything warm when loading; everything's already frozen or cold before going in. I also have one of those small battery fans to help circulate air, though one of the larger 80mm fan kits would be a lot better and make the fridge more efficient. All that being said, I don't see why some dry ice won't work, though having =some= sort of small fan in the fridge side will help it cool faster.

Lyle

[Gma-n-Gpa]

Wear heavy gloves when handling dry ice and don't throw it in a puddle of water.

[us71na]

Dry ice of course is super cold (-109 F) and can make plastics very brittle. I would not place it directly on the plastic in the fridge. Place it on a couple of those foam plates, several layers of foam packing material or on top of your steaks.....

[Bassdogs]

Originally Posted by Gma-n-Gpa

Wear heavy gloves when handling dry ice and don't throw it in a puddle of water.

Ah com on, its impossible to have a bunch of dry ice around and not chuck one or two chunks in the lake. Not a wise idea to drop it in a pan of water on your kitchen counter, but lake, pond, or creek just makes the water seem to boil and put off a mist of fog.

Around here dry ice is not very common and when you find it, its pretty pricey. A few frozen ice packs and pre freeze your meat and you should be fine.

[Camper_bob]

I wonder, could the CO2 produced by the dry ice be a cause for concern? There's no one living in a cooler, and typically when you open a cooler, you're outside so the gasses can dissipate quite rapidly. I wonder if when you open your fridge in a small enclosed space like your trailer if there is any risk of trapping those gasses in the living space? Or any harm if they did get trapped?

It's been since I was a teenager that I messed with the stuff, and back then I certainly didn't care about exposure to harmful gasses in an enclosed space! LOL!

[RVhiker]

Camper bob, I see you beat me to asking about this concern....

I don't have any experience using dry ice. However, since dry ice is frozen CO2, I wonder about the safety of using dry ice in a closed up RV. This is from the site dryiceinfo.com:
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VENTILATION
Normal air is 78% Nitrogen, 21% Oxygen and only 0.035% Carbon Dioxide. If the concentration of carbon dioxide in the air rises above 0.5%, carbon dioxide can become dangerous. Smaller concentrations can cause quicker breathing and headaches but is otherwise not harmful. If Dry Ice has been in a closed auto, van, room, or walk-in, for more than 10 minutes, open doors and allow adequate ventilation before entering. Leave area containing Dry Ice if you start to pant and breath quickly develop a headache or your fingernails or lips start to turn blue. This is the sign that you have breathed in too much CO2 and not enough oxygen. Dry Ice CO2 is heavier than air and will accumulate in low spaces. Do not enter closed storage areas that have or have had stored Dry Ice before airing out completely.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[mike837go]

Originally Posted by Camper_bob

I wonder, could the CO2 produced by the dry ice be a cause for concern? There's no one living in a cooler, and typically when you open a cooler, you're outside so the gasses can dissipate quite rapidly. I wonder if when you open your fridge in a small enclosed space like your trailer if there is any risk of trapping those gasses in the living space? Or any harm if they did get trapped?

It's been since I was a teenager that I messed with the stuff, and back then I certainly didn't care about exposure to harmful gasses in an enclosed space! LOL!

CO2 is generally considered "inert" not "toxic". Exposure to CO2 outdoors is no cause for concern. However, a closed-up RV could be 'filled' with CO2 gas from the decaying dry ice that has leaked from the fridge.

Open the RV's door and step back for a minute to let any large quantities of CO2 to rise out (CO2 is slightly less dense than air). Then enter and open windows.

You can fire up the fridge without opening it.

I'd wait to open the fridge until the RV has aired for a few minutes.

Call me paranoid, but I'm still here with all my fingers and toes!

[VicS1950]

As a practical matter it would take a pretty large amount of dry ice to affect the atmosphere in an RV. For one thing RV's just aren't that tightly sealed. Another is that the dry ice changes to gas at a fairly slow rate so it isn't like it is suddenly flooding the interior. You probably get more CO2 from your beer than the dry ice in the fridge.

From a cannabis growing site.

Originally Posted by Farming

Dry Ice is roughly $1.00 a pound here in the States. (more or less depending on location.)
1pound of dry ice evaporates (sublimates actually) to 8.7cuft of co2.
1 cu ft of Co2 will increase the levels of a 1,000 cu ft room (10x10x10) by 1,000ppm.

As has been mentioned, you do need to be careful around dry ice. Even wrapped in newspaper the exterior can be cold enough to cause thermal burns. Be especially careful around curious children. It can burn them before they react to pull away.

We use the frozen meats, frozen water bottles, etc. method to help. Back when I worked in a research lab and had access to dry ice I tried using it camping a few times. I found we froze a few things we didn't want to freeze because it was sometimes difficult to keep things far enough away. It can be used, but research safe use a bit before jumping in. Extreme cold thermal burns are nasty.

vic

[mike837go]

"sublimates"


Can I edit my previous post? "decaying", sheesh!


According to some quick research (https://www.dhs.wisconsin.gov/chemic...bondioxide.htm) 1,000 PPM of CO2 is considered "a potential problem".


But, as has been mentioned, RV's aren't exactly Tupperware.


I still stand by giving the place a minute to air out.

[us71na]

Wouldn't the installed CO2 detector go off if the concentration of CO2 from dry ice gets to the danger level?

[SmokerBill]

Originally Posted by us71na

Wouldn't the installed CO2 detector go off if the concentration of CO2 from dry ice gets to the danger level?

The detector is for CO (carbon monoxide), not CO2. The gas from the dry ice wouldn't affect it.