Dry Ice in Icebox

[ArmyDaveNY]

Originally Posted by Windy Patrick

Safety Note - Obviously Dry ice emits carbon dioxide. if the cabin becomes warm and the ice is sublimating aggressively it could fill a well sealed cabin with CO2 and harm the occupants.

I believe Paine Stewart was lost in his Learjet due to this.

Keep dry ice in a vented space.

If you are talking about Payne Stewart, the golfer, he was killed when the jet lost pressure, and he lost consciousness due to hypoxia.

[JOHNMARDALL]

We've used it often in cooler chests, under a bed of water ice, but I wouldn't put it in a built -in ice box, for fear that the CO2 would accumulate in the cabin and asphyxiate the sleeping crew. Can you stow one of more chests on deck?


Safety first, martinis second.
John Mardall
Vetus Maxwell Boat Equipment

[wesevans]

Originally Posted by Windy Patrick

Safety Note - Obviously Dry ice emits carbon dioxide. if the cabin becomes warm and the ice is sublimating aggressively it could fill a well sealed cabin with CO2 and harm the occupants.

I believe Paine Stewart was lost in his Learjet due to this.

Keep dry ice in a vented space.

Paine Stewart's plane had a catastrophic loss of cabin pressure at more than 20,000 ft. CO2 had nothing to do with it.

[sailingchiro]

Haven't used dry ice, will give it a try. But we freeze gallon water jugs for long voyages. They stay frozen for a long time. Our Yeti carries 8 gallons and the freezers carry 5. Then we use them as needed. Our engel freezer houses all our frozen meats. Then we use the gallon jugs of water for coffee after they melt. Our house freezer turns into a refirgerator on passages. We precook our meat and store in ziplocks.

[sailingchiro]

Last time I checked, crew emit carbon dioxide. Get rid of crew?

[Minnesail]

Dry ice is great. You don't have to be quite and cautious with it as some people are suggesting. Any thin glove or washcloth is fine for handling. Bare hands are fine too as long as they're dry and the contact is brief.

For a fun trick put a small piece in your mouth. As long as you bounce it around on your tongue it won't stick, and you exhale steam. Dragon!

I've only used it in situations where the whole cooler was full of frozen stuff. Too cold for stuff you want above 32ºF.

I have a hard time imagining it sublimating fast enough for the CO2 to build up and be an issue.

[StuM]

Originally Posted by Jammer

You use dry ice for frozen food. Have done it but not on a boat. A nuisance to handle and much more expensive ($2/lb) than regular ice, and you have to use twice as much by weight to achieve the same amount of cooling.

I think you are in error.



https://www.hieloseco.es/caracterist..._from_store=es


Kilo for kilo, dry ice has a refrigeration capacity equivalent to 170% of that of regular water ice. Since the density of dry ice exceeds 1.5 Kg/dm3 and that of water ice is 0.95 Kg/dm3, using equal volumes of ice, dry ice has a refrigeration capacity equivalent to 270% of that of regular ice.

[Mike Banks]

If you want to die by CO2 drowning, use dry ice inside an interior ice box.

It might be OK when used outdoors, on deck and downwind of any hatches--but why use the damned stuff at all? I will not have any CO2 on board even in fire extinguishers.

[hamburking]

I used to work for a company called Liquid Carbonic, the leading manufacturer of dry ice in Canada. So my friends and I had access to lots of dry ice.

I tried using dry ice in the icebox of my C&C27 during the hottest part of the summer. I double wrapped the block in brown paper bags, since it can burn skin or ruin food by contact. It did a great job keeping the icebox cold for an entire week, and there was still a good sized chunk left to discard after. However, whenever I opened the icebox, I got a good whiff of ammonia smell. Ammonia is used (as the coolant) in the manufacture of dry ice. The posts regarding ventilation are valid...you don't want to use it in an enclosed place.

In my part of Lake Ontario, block ice is available at almost every dock. On the US side, I had a chuckle when I found "HAPPY ICE", and later when I bought "MAD river ICE". Blocks cost $3 - $5 here. Four blocks on the bottom of the icebox would last for almost a week, especially when supplemented with a new block when available.

There used to be some enterprising teenagers near Gananoque who, with a beat up old motorboat, would sell ice, ice cream, hot dogs, bread, and newspapers to the many boats at anchor. My kids were always thrilled when the "boat store" would be near, as they knew a treat was coming.

But I got tired of having a wet icebox, and started freezing my own water jugs. As mentioned before, pour out about 1/4 of the water before freezing. I especially liked having an ice cold drink of water once the blocks had melted a bit. And on a small boat, it was good to have the extra water. I reused same the 4 litre jugs over and over.

It seems everyone has a frig now, powered by solar. But it was great fun living out of an icebox for a few days or a week. It made an ice cold drink ashore taste so much better. We drank tepid, sometimes overly warm water right from the jug. No cups to clean. Sometimes we would get TANG as a treat for the kids. Mixing the tang in a jug of cold water was almost as good as birthday cake after a few days of summer sailing in the islands.

[wguinon]

For most cruising applications water ice is a better refrigerant than dry ice.
A pound of water soaks up 144 BTUs of heat when it melts and a pound of dry ice only 79 BTUs so on the basis of weight dry ice has only 53% of the cooling power of water ice.
The density of water ice is 57 lbs/cu ft and dry ice varies between 87 and 100 lbs/cu ft so on the basis of volume dry ice has between 80% and 93% of the cooling power of water ice.
The only advantages of dry ice are lack of residue and in situations that require very low temperatures.

[zboss]

Various places make their own block ice using a small bin trash can [that has a slightly wider top than the bottom] and a plastic bag - freeze and then remove from the trash can. Then you can also chip it off to make drinks.

[StuM]

Originally Posted by wguinon

For most cruising applications water ice is a better refrigerant than dry ice.
A pound of water soaks up 144 BTUs of heat when it melts and a pound of dry ice only 79 BTUs so on the basis of weight dry ice has only 53% of the cooling power of water ice.
The density of water ice is 57 lbs/cu ft and dry ice varies between 87 and 100 lbs/cu ft so on the basis of volume dry ice has between 80% and 93% of the cooling power of water ice.
The only advantages of dry ice are lack of residue and in situations that require very low temperatures.

See post #22 above


CO2 is 149.6 BTU/lb not 79:

https://www.concoa.com/co2_properties.html

[wguinon]

Your reference gives 149 btu/lb at the triple point, -70F and 5 atmospheres.

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by Windy Patrick

Safety Note - Obviously Dry ice emits carbon dioxide. if the cabin becomes warm and the ice is sublimating aggressively it could fill a well sealed cabin with CO2 and harm the occupants.
I believe Paine Stewart was lost in his Learjet due to this.
Keep dry ice in a vented space.

Yes, "Keep dry ice in a vented space."; but dry ice had nothing to do with Payne Stewart's death.
The NTSB determined that:
“... The probable cause of this accident was incapacitation of the flight crew members as a result of their failure to receive supplemental oxygen following a loss of cabin pressurization, for undetermined reasons..."

[Peeew]

Just note that CO and CO2 are very different problems. Both can overwhelm you but different density problems and different types of poisoning. A CO sensor won’t tell you if CO2 is a problem.
Either way, be careful with venting and enjoy the cold drinks!