# Looking for Dry Ice Suppliers In the Mankato, MN Area.



## lieperjp (Mar 16, 2009)

Question about this machine - we've got a show coming up and I'm thinking about trying to build one of these for a creepy laboratory scene. I was wondering how much dry ice would cost to run the machine for about 10 minutes/show for twelve-fifteen shows. I've worked with dry ice before but I have never purchased it myself. Really a rough estimate would do fine. 

Also, anyone know of any good suppliers in the Mankato, MN area?


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## BillESC (Mar 17, 2009)

*Re: Dry Ice Question #4.2 Million*

Dry ice is normally sold by the block. The block will be a cubic foot and weigh 50 pounds. It's been several years since I've bought any but I suspect the price will be around $ 30.00 or so. Keep in mind, dry ice sublimates meaning it will slowly go away.


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## Footer (Mar 17, 2009)

*Re: Dry Ice Question #4.2 Million*

It is possible to buy dry ice at some Wal-Mart locations, especially in hotter climates. If you are near an industrial area, odds are there is a dry ice supplier in the area. The town I went to college in also had a large prairie farms plant, we had a massive dry ice plant that we could get any type of dry ice we wanted. I remember it running around 25-30 bucks for a cooler of pellets. You might also want to contact your local grocery stores, even if they don't sell it, a lot of companies ship with it and it usually just get tossed in the freezer until it disapears. 

Another avenue to getting it is through your science department. At some universitys, they usually have a machine in the lab that can produce dry ice.


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## icewolf08 (Mar 17, 2009)

*Re: Dry Ice Question #4.2 Million*

You also can often get dry ice at companies that supply compressed gasses like Airgas and Praxair. There are many such companies around, and if you head down to your local welding supply store, they can probably tell you where one is (they may even carry dry ice themselves).


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## len (Mar 17, 2009)

In a pinch, ice cream shops sometimes have it. I remember buying some back in the 80's at a Baskin-Robins.


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## cdub260 (Mar 17, 2009)

I found a couple of possibilities on yellowbook.com.


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## MNBallet (Mar 17, 2009)

Praxair Inc

(507) 387-7995

Address: 1223 Range St, Mankato, MN 56001 

Please be aware that these types of places might not be open on Sat and Sunday! That can cause some major headaches if you don't plan ahead. A 3 pound block can be just a couple of ounces even left in a freezer over night. The stuff is cheap so get way more than you need for weekend shows. Also, in a pinch you can try the hospitals, they have it in pellet form for organ storage and such.


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## rcopley (Mar 22, 2009)

I did a show a couple of weeks ago and used a box filled with ice and a rubber pipe connecting a fog machine to the box. I'm not sure of your situation but it worked well for getting fog to crawl along the ground like dry ice and getting it to happen on cue. I have seen fog cooler guides that over complicate the construction of it. It worked fine for me to just run a rubber pipe to the bottom of an ice filled bucket.


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## themuzicman (Mar 23, 2009)

whenever I have used dry ice, and we needed blocks, we went to the grocery store, and had them special order blocks for us from their supplier (Penguin Brand I believe). Giant and Harris Teeter have both done this for us, but I am right outside of DC, not in MN =/


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## jamesarnold140 (Mar 23, 2009)

lieperjp said:


> Question about this machine - we've got a show coming up and I'm thinking about trying to build one of these for a creepy laboratory scene. I was wondering how much dry ice would cost to run the machine for about 10 minutes/show for twelve-fifteen shows. I've worked with dry ice before but I have never purchased it myself. Really a rough estimate would do fine.
> 
> Also, anyone know of any good suppliers in the Mankato, MN area?


You could call Jason's Dry Ice in St. Paul, they deliver over quite a large area and have always treated us very well. Telephone # 651-645-6433 .


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## gafftaper (Mar 24, 2009)

Generally most large grocery stores that have meat markets and anywhere that sells welding supplies can also get you dry ice. But How's this for service? [FONT=Arial, Times, serif]*
R E Dry Ice*[/FONT][FONT=Arial, Times, serif]
105 East 1/2 Hickory Street
[/FONT][FONT=Arial, Times, serif]Mankato, MN[/FONT][FONT=Arial, Times, serif]
(507) 386-1556 [/FONT]

It's been a while but someone posted a link a couple years back to the world Dry Ice Directory there are 5 other dealers "in your area" but only one in town. Dry Ice Directory - Where to buy Dry Ice

Unfortunately, you can't search for "Dry Ice" in the CB search engine or you could have found that link. 

As for the rest of the question. Remember that the whole cloud of smoke depends on the water being very warm. However in a short amount of time the ice is going to cool the water down. Having the device keep putting out smoke over 10 minutes is going to take some clever work on your part. If the container is too small the dry ice will freeze the water. If the container's too large it will blow through all the dry ice too fast. Good luck. I would look into renting a tiny fogger if possible and do it with chemical fog instead.


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## lieperjp (Mar 24, 2009)

gafftaper said:


> As for the rest of the question. Remember that the whole cloud of smoke depends on the water being very warm. However in a short amount of time the ice is going to cool the water down. Having the device keep putting out smoke over 10 minutes is going to take some clever work on your part. If the container is too small the dry ice will freeze the water. If the container's too large it will blow through all the dry ice too fast. Good luck. I would look into renting a tiny fogger if possible and do it with chemical fog instead.



Well, the effect doesn't need to last for that long (maybe 5-10 minutes???). I'm not even sure if we're going to go for it, I'm meeting with the director and producers tonight to discuss the show and this is one of the topics.


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