Salt ice for cooler

[COLINFLTENG]

Has any used salt ice for thier cooler ?

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[COLINFLTENG]

Going try salt ice on trip will give up date

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[MVNoPlans]

We don't use salt ice per se, but we fill one gallon milk jugs with tap water and pour in salt, and then we freeze them. We place them in the cooler and use regular ice. It makes a world of difference. The salt water jugs stay frozen for many days and some times create a giant iceberg with the regular ice that takes a hammer to break, We now place the jugs in the middle of the cooler and isolate them by placing flexible cutting boards around them. Try it. Salt ice will rust bottle caps and makes a poor cocktail

[sartorst]

Once I had a case of beer that was hot and was in a hurry to get it cold so we put salt in with the ice ! bad idea pretty soon we had beer pop-cycles which the n required that we take a beer out 10 minutes before you wanted to drink it

[COLINFLTENG]

how much salt do u use

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[jaybird1111]

Google-** gave me this:
Camping tip – Fill a gallon milk jug almost full with water and 1/4 cup regular table salt (leave space for the ice to expand). Freeze. Pack into your cooler and it acts as an ice block that won’t melt all over your food! The salt slows the melting of the ice.

[jeepbluetj]

Gatorade does the same thing. Plus you can drink it when it thaws

[COLINFLTENG]

I like the idea milk jug I check it out

[ErikFinn]

Originally Posted by jeepbluetj

Gatorade does the same thing. Plus you can drink it when it thaws

Surely Gatorade melts at a higher temperature then the described salt/water solution making it much less effective in keeping the ambient temperature down?

[COLINFLTENG]

I agree Gatorade has suger not salt

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[MYTraveler]

Salt lowers the freezing point of water, so when tuna fishing we keep a saltwater slush to quickly cool the tuna. The slush is typically about 17 degrees, even though the ice itself is just a few degrees under freezing. Lots of people are surprised by that result, especially since no chemical reaction is involved and neither is any expansion of compressed gas (the more common ways to provide cooling below ambient temperatures). But the basic reason is because it takes lots of energy (and taking energy means cooling) to change the state of water from frozen to liquid. But that quantum of energy is the same for freshwater ice as for saltwater ice. Nothing is gained by starting with saltwater ice as compared to freshwater ice of the same temp.

[four winds]

Recently used rock salt in factory ice box of a cal39. A delivery sail from Marathon to St. Pete with good wind the whole two days and two nights.

Worked great. On day three the ice was still about 75% original volume.

[hellsop]

Originally Posted by MYTraveler

Salt lowers the freezing point of water, so when tuna fishing we keep a saltwater slush to quickly cool the tuna. The slush is typically about 17 degrees, even though the ice itself is just a few degrees under freezing. Lots of people are surprised by that result, especially since no chemical reaction is involved and neither is any expansion of compressed gas (the more common ways to provide cooling below ambient temperatures). But the basic reason is because it takes lots of energy (and taking energy means cooling) to change the state of water from frozen to liquid. But that quantum of energy is the same for freshwater ice as for saltwater ice. Nothing is gained by starting with saltwater ice as compared to freshwater ice of the same temp.

If you isolate the salt ice from fresh ice (a la milk jug method), the phase change in the salt ice will happen first and help keep the fresh ice from melting. The TOTAL amount of time that your cooler stays cool doesn't change, though.

[jeanathon]

The reason that the Fahrenheit scale has water's freezing point at 32 is because old Fahrenheit used brine to create the scale so with enough salt you could get your block of ice down to 0 degrees. Starting with a 32 degree energy difference would absorb some extra heat in the long run.

[MYTraveler]

Originally Posted by jeanathon

Starting with a 32 degree energy difference would absorb some extra heat in the long run.

That is true, but if the ice is coming out of the same freezer, it is going to be the same starting temp, regardless of whether salt or fresh.