Anothe camping question - dry ice or block ice?

[mikeys_mom]

When I used to go camping with my parents, we always had a big 96L cooler with a block of dry ice in it and then a smaller cooler with regular block ice. Well, I have now inherited that big 96L cooler from him and need to figure out the best way to keep the food cool.

It seems that it is a bit difficult to find dry ice in my area. I found a place but they are a good 35 min drive from me. Plus, I'd need to pick it up on Friday but we are only leaving for our 5 day camping trip on Sunday.

Lots of places sell big bags of the ice cubes but I hate how those melt so quickly and you need to buy a new bag almost daily. A couple of places sell big blocks of ice but they are not so close by.

I read somewhere that you can just take a large foil container and freeze water in it to make your own block ice. Seems like that might work and possibly last at least a couple of days.

What do you use to keep food cool in the cooler for several days? Which option do you think is best? Is it worth trekking out to get the dry ice on Friday and finding a way to store it until we leave on Sunday?

[rlu]

We make our own ice blocks by using empty juice cartons and bottles. We rinse but don't wash, so the ice within is not for consumption. If you use cartons you can break them up with a hammer to make ice chunks for easier distribution while the plastic bottles are good for reuse. The cartons will soften if kept in water and may split open.

There's a store near where we usually camp that sells block ice, so we don't need to keep things cool that many days.

[endlessheather]

We make our own ice blocks by using empty juice cartons and bottles. We rinse but don't wash, so the ice within is not for consumption. If you use cartons you can break them up with a hammer to make ice chunks for easier distribution while the plastic bottles are good for reuse. The cartons will soften if kept in water and may split open.

There's a store near where we usually camp that sells block ice, so we don't need to keep things cool that many days.

We do similar to this. I have old juice containers that I fill with water and keep frozen in a freezer in our garage. I just reuse those over and over. I put 2 of these in each of the coolers and then fill the rest of the cooler with loose ice from say a local gas station. I put the meats and such closer to the juice containers because they'll stay frozen nearly a full 4 day weekend easily. We pick up ice from the little bait shop near our camping spot when we need it though to add to the coolers.

[mikeys_mom]

We do similar to this. I have old juice containers that I fill with water and keep frozen in a freezer in our garage. I just reuse those over and over.

So, you mean the big plastic jug-type ones?

[urquie]

I use plastic, 1/2 gallon, milk containers or smaller square-ish containers, that Costco sells nuts or chocolate in.

[sunshine873]

Like others, we freeze water in cleaned out juice containers (like cranberry juice size) or even plastic water bottles. There is no way I'd want to mess with dry ice like that around kids who may be in & out of the cooler. Way too much to be concerned about, way too expensive, and sounds like it's out of your way too. Just stick with ice...you'll be fine.

& remember when the ice does melt, leave the cold water in there. It'll help keep the rest of the ice colder for longer.

[elephantmeg]

we use empty potato salad etc containers and freeze ice and then buy regular ice.

[endlessheather]

So, you mean the big plastic jug-type ones?

Like the cranberry juice ones that aren't so much round but flatter rectangle shaped. They don't take up as much room as say the milk jugs and you can pack more next to them in the cooler.

[mikeys_mom]

Thanks everyone!!

I went digging in my recycling bin and we now have 2 apple juice containers and an orange juice jug filled with water in the freezer. Hopefully that will get us at least partway through the trip and then we can resort to whatever they have in the camp store. I'm bringing all my meats frozen, so hoping that helps to keep everything cold.

I am amazed that this seems to be such a common method yet over the 15 years that I camped with my parents, I had never heard of it. My father was big on the dry ice. He would buy a big block and they would wrap it up in brown packing paper. I think it would last a bit over a week. As kids, we were told never to touch it or we would get burned. Also, we were not allowed to open the big cooler for no reason.

You learn something new everyday! :)

[Jen841]

I wash out milk gallon containers and fill them with drinking water then freeze. I keep them in the deep freezer we have in case of a power outage etc. We have some juice containers too. I use those for beach days, and by the end of the day we have ice cold refreshing water : )