Ice question

[coolchange]

So who can tell me the best way to freeze drinking water and not have the container break in the process? I want to use it in the cooler for an extended trip and be able to drink it when it thaws.....I'm thinking that a plastic milk jug would crack, as would a 2 ltr pop bottle....needs to be a recycled container of some type :?: :?: :?:

Thanks for sharing your experience.....

[Patriot]

Rubbermaid Gott coolers come with freeze bottles. They are heavy-duty polyethylene. But milk jugs should be fine. I've seen people use them for molding ice blocks. Just don't fill them all the way up--leave about 2-3 inches of expansion room.

[Randygh]

I use a Farberware aluminum roaster pan. This is a heavy duty 6 quart roaster that is oblong shape. I fill the pan about 3/4 full and freeze overnight. It makes a great block of ice. If you want to supersize, remove the ice block and store in the freezer. Refill the roaster about 1/4 with water and freeze. After freezing the second block, set the first block on top the block in the roaster and slowly add water to fill up the roaster around the top block. When frozen, the two blocks freeze as one big block. Saves some $$ and your ice blocks from home are colder than the blocks you get in stores.

[Randygh]

For freezing drinking water, just fill a one gallon plastic milk jug about 3/4 full. Makes great drinking water while thawing in the cooler. I've never had a plastic jug crack, but I've had them overflow while freezing when I filled them too full.

[Patriot]

Randy, you're absolutely right about store ice. It is rare to find real block ice in stores anymore. Mostly what stores sell is chips of ice pressed into the shape of a block. It is very porus and melts much faster than real block ice. I have some Rubbermaid storage tubs that make ice blocks that fit perfectly in the Gott coolers I use for rafting.

[SomeSailor]

... and your ice blocks from home are colder than the blocks you get in stores.

I had this conversation (turned into an argument... go figure) once with someone else. Regarding store ice versus home deep freeze ice. Home ice lasts longer (and is MUCH cheaper). Consider this... It only takes 32 degrees to get ice solid, but you can cool it much below this temp.

I had made the suggestion that taking store ice and deep freezing it to see if it would last longer. Try it with two ice cubes sometime, one fresh one from the icemaker and another that's been in the deep freeze for a few days. It works pretty well even on a small scale.

Dry ice works really well too. It holds the icechest cold enough that none of the ice melts until the last little bit of dry ice is gone... then the ice starts to go. You get twice as much time than by either method on it's own.

[SPUD]

For the fourth trip FH , I took twelve reg size water bottles (you can buy cheap at costco by the case). Drank the water and then refilled them with tap water leaving an inch gap at the top. I put them in the freezer with the lids off. When frozen I resealed the lids.

We drank them as they melted but even after 4 days a few at the bottom of the cooler still had ice in them. It worked great.

Spud

[Go Aweigh2452]

greetings from Annapolis, MD... anyway, When we travel with the boat on extended trips, we buy dry ice and place it on the "up side" of the cooler away from the drain plug. We place all/most of our frozen stuff on that side and keep the dry ice in the paper wrapped up with a plastic sheet between it and the water. The drain side has the block ice in it. We can go for upwards of a week & and half with out buying any ice. The dry Ice keeps the block ice frozen longer. (We keep the fresh veggies in a separate cooler). Safeway in Port Orchard has dry ice a couple of times per week and Albertsons also carries it but limits the amount they sell due to druggies using it to manufacture designer drugs... So we get about 8 #'s at a time from them and then go in a second or third time...

[SomeSailor]

Then again... you could always just bring a fridge on the quarterdeck :D

I would've loved to have seen Leas face when she saw it :)

I still say we should convert one down to a self contained beer cooler :)

[Randygh]

On our recent trip to the Gulf Islands, I purchased about 15# of dry ice. I needed to keep my crab bait frozen for 5 days. (Also, bought a small container of Ben and Jerry's ice cream to surprise the Admiral). I put the frozen bait, dry ice, ice cream, frozen steaks & chicken in a plastic garbage can liner inside the ice chest. I purchased the dry ice Friday at noon and put all the stuff in the boat. I didn't open the chest until Monday to surprise the Admiral with Ben & Jerry's ice cream. Everything was still frozen solid and had about 25% of the dry ice remaining. By Thursday the crab bait thawed and was perfect for bait Friday morning. I really like the 5-day ice chest. It is insulated better than my other chests.

[Pegasis]

On my two week trips to Canada I go the the grocery store and purchase the 1 gallon water in plastic jugs and throw them into the freezer. As they thaw you get drinking and cooking water. Have never had a problem with the containers breaking, even after multiple refreezings.

[3788sam]

We through a bunch of frozen water bottles in as well - keep cold and melt into drinking water. We use small 500ml bottlles so they take up less room in the cooler. (no half empty gallon jugs take up space)
The bottles hold up fine- just see how big they get with dry ice and water in them!- stand back from them! :shock:

[SomeSailor]

You'll blow your hand off if you're not careful :)

I can make dry ice here at the house (I have a large liquid CO2 syphon tank) and it's fun stuff to play with, but ya gotta be smart around it.

I also get liquid nitrogen from my neighbor and it's fun freezing stuff to see how brittle it gets. You can soak a wrench in it... drop it and it shatters. We used it to freeze some rubber a while so I could turn it on my lathe to make a bushing for his truck.

[3788sam]

liquid nitrogen is how I got these burn on my hand. We used it to shrink cylinder liners for alum. blocks. Screwing around and it splattered= burns! :evil:

[SomeSailor]

Yeppers... bad stuff if you make a mistake :)

[Randygh]

Liquid N2 works great for freezing certain types of soft tissue tumors, but I agree that it must be handled with care.

[coolchange]

OK got some great input....thanks for the advice

FYI we used to take a lot of soups and chili and stew on long car camping trips and would freeze it to use as cooler ice and eat when thawed. :glasses6: :glasses6: