# Storing dry ice.



## gafftapegreenia (Feb 22, 2013)

Looking for some advice on the topic of storing dry ice for an extended period of days. In our current production there is a small sight gag every night of a classic "misty frothy beverage mug". Every night we are only using a small amount of dry ice, but we find that we are purchasing more dry ice every second or third day because it is sublimating so fast. The cost of this is starting to add up and I know there has to be a better way than just putting the dry ice in a lunch cooler and into the freezer, which is what they are doing now. 

I know their exist purpose built dry ice containers, but those are unfortunately outside the range of our budget. What are the most successful methods employed in the storage of dry ice?


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## SteveB (Feb 22, 2013)

On the occasions we have had to use dry ice, we ask the dry ice company for a loan of that blue rolling storage cart. Keeps it overnight pretty well.

But I would think that for smaller quantities, a refrigerator freezer would keep it cold enough and would be better then any non-powered storage bin.

No great suggestions other than that, sorry.


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## Footer (Feb 22, 2013)

Biggest thing is to keep is sealed. Duct tape close the cooler every night. 

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2


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## techieman33 (Feb 22, 2013)

Put it in a ziplok bag, or vacuum seal it.


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## tyler.martin (Feb 22, 2013)

techieman33 said:


> Put it in a ziplok bag, or vacuum seal it.



Do not completly seal it. When it sublimates it creates CO2 gas, if you seal it you create a nice gas bomb.


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## dbaxter (Feb 22, 2013)

We saved one of the containers that Omaha Steaks sends you stuff in. The foam is about two inches thick. More than any cooler you can buy. Kept a couple pounds of ice over a weekend run without refrigeration.


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## soundman (Feb 22, 2013)

Is it a long enough run to justify the purchase of  a dry ice generator? If you can get a bottle of liquid co2 (Airgas) you can make dry ice inhouse to order. If the effect is only using a tiny cube it might be worth it. Ones that make bigger chunks are a little more costly.


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## zmb (Feb 23, 2013)

I think I've heard that keeping dry ice in a regular freezer will coat everything with wet ice being so cold and will require defrosting to make the freezer usable again. You'll probably going to have to settle for a thick cooler not much bigger than how much dry ice you have on hand and provide a way for the gas to escape.

General Dry Ice Handling and Storage: http://www.uswelding.com/PDF/DryIceSafeHandlingStorage.pdf


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## ptero (Feb 23, 2013)

How thick are the walls of your cooler? And of what construction? A current style lunch cooler is probably not the best for this. And a zipper (dunno if your cooler zips) would allow a lot of airflow, which you want to minimize.

A cheapo foam cooler, lined with 2" or thicker foam might work better. We used a shop-built one with an exterior layer of luan, lined with 4" of foam. That did alright just sitting backstage. It helped to also fill in the spare inside area with chunks of scrap foam. The less air the better. Weatherstripping under the lid and a weight on top when closed helped seal it. It will still breathe plenty for safety.

Then again it may not be worth it to build one for low volume use. Whatever you use, anything to reduce the air inside (plus improve insulation at the same time - even better), and to minimize airflow would help. Have fun.

The Dry-Ice Generator mentioned sort of worked, but for our application it did not work out. The density from those is not nearly as solid as regular dry ice. It's similar to a hard pack snowball at best, even after tamping into a steel pipe. It could lean towards cold-slushy. In the end it's life was much shorter. That could be fine for a short gag. Depends.


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## techieman33 (Feb 23, 2013)

Weird, when I worked at a grocery store we had a city wide power outage that lasted a few days and we got in a couple tons of dry ice and it was all sealed in plastic bags. Maybe there were small holes in it that I just didn't notice.


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## derekleffew (Feb 23, 2013)

My local grocery store (Smith's) here sells dry ice year 'round. I'm sure it's expensive compared to a regular supplier, but might be worth it if you can find one on someone's normal route to work. Also, Does walmart sell dry ice? - Yahoo! Answers .


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## BillESC (Feb 23, 2013)

The best solution is to keep as much air away from the dry ice as possible. Any styrofoam chest will do then pack wadded news paper, towels, or other similar materials around the block. No matter what you do, you'll lose at least 10% a day minimum.

As mentioned before, NEVER SEAL a container as you will create a bomb.


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## Les (Feb 23, 2013)

BillESC said:


> No matter what you do, you'll lose at least 10% a day minimum.



+1. Our supplier, Continental Carbonic, told us the exact same thing.


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## JLNorthGA (Feb 23, 2013)

As others have said - thick foam (2" styrofoam) walls. Other things that help - sawdust, newspaper, etc. The best non-commercial storage container that I've seen consisted of a cardboard box with sawdust - several inches deep which surrounded another cardboard box with 1-2" styrofoam inside of it. The dry ice was wrapped in newspaper and put it the interior styrofoam container.


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## gafftaper (Feb 23, 2013)

I've heard that the freezer is the worst place to put dry ice. This is because of the humidity in the freezer. The difference between a freezer and a cool closet is only 40 degrees or so... Which is nothing compared to the temperature of the ice. So there is very little to be gained by a freezer vs just insulating the ice itself really well. 

Don't know if it's really true. It's what a guy told me once when I bought it. But it sort of makes sense. 


Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2


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## TEarlywine (Feb 23, 2013)

confirming experience of at least 10% loss per day no matter what.

Igloo makes a "3 Day Cooler" (or some phrase like that) that works really well, especially when you keep some leftover foam nearby to gradually fill up as much air space as possible. Additional tape to seal the lid helps too. Remember, it's the cold trying to escape to warmer air that you are working against. Helps to put the cooler on top of some foam, too.

We have a couple of Airgas locations nearby... and a Smart&Final that is even closer for last minute oops (although you pay retail price there, and they most likely get it dropped off by the Airgas guy).

I really like the sound of the DIY dry ice - need to look into that further.

(note to lurkers, dry ice is pretty safe but is so cold it can be dangerous to the inexperienced and should not be handled or used without instruction. I shudder to think of someone playing around with it like I used to.)


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## ruinexplorer (Feb 24, 2013)

Later here, but I was also going to suggest diy. As the article suggests, in larger amounts it is cheaper to get commercially made ice, but if you are losing too much each day, you might have savings making it yourself.


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## venuetech (Feb 24, 2013)

Dry Ice Fog and Special Effects


> Do not store Dry Ice in a refrigerator freezer. The extremely cold temperature will cause your thermostat to turn off the freezer. It will keep everything frozen in the freezer but it will be used up at a faster rate.



I think you would want to keep the block of dry ice as large as you can. If you break the block into small pieces then you loose 10% of each of those per-day.


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## BillESC (Feb 24, 2013)

During the disco days, I was the B of F & B Manufacturing. The only thing our shop produced was the "Fog-It" line of fog machines. We sold machines to the big guys like Bash, Altmans, Chicago Stage, Lime-light, etc. We built several thousand until we sold the business to Big Apple Lighting.

We were also a North Jersey distributor of dry ice moving more than a thousand pounds a week.


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## venuetech (Feb 24, 2013)

gafftapegreenia said:


> sight gag every night of a classic "misty frothy beverage mug"



I think i recall a recent story that involved a dry ice drink, the person actually swallowed the dry ice. so give every one involved clear instructions. as i understand it there should be a separate ice container within the mug so the dry ice cannot come into contact with the drinker.


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## gafftapegreenia (Feb 24, 2013)

venuetech said:


> I think i recall a recent story that involved a dry ice drink, the person actually swallowed the dry ice. so give every one involved clear instructions. as i understand it there should be a separate ice container within the mug so the dry ice cannot come into contact with the drinker.



Don't worry. We're a professional theatre and have been running this gag for about 7 weeks now, and it was rehearsed thoroughly with clear instruction before tech began. She doesn't even tip the mug (really it's more of a giant ceramic beer stein) she just pantomimes taking a drink while other actors on stage make slurping noises. In addition there is a physical barrier in the bottom of the stein to keep the dry ice in the bottom.


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## gafftapegreenia (Feb 27, 2013)

We happened to have a high quality white styrofoam cooler lying around (a Kol-Boy, made to ship items in standard cardboard boxes with dry ice), so with the addition of some 1" and 2" pink foam I fashioned a dry ice sarcophagus with just enough room for a block of dry ice swaddled in news print in the center. The show week starts again tonight, so we shall see how it works.


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## gafftapegreenia (Mar 5, 2013)

Thanks again for the tips, dry ice is now lasting long enough for 4 shows instead of 2, thus now we are able to do a show week with two blocks total instead of 3 or 4.


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