Making ice blocks for cooler

[Woodsman]

Plastic milk jugs work for me.

[SirCranksalot]

x2

 

If you have trouble getting the ice out....just run some hot water on the underside of the tupperware itself. Blocks rock! Cubes are for rubes!

Why not keep the ice in the container to avoid having water in the cooler?

 

 

 

[hooked!]

Great tip on adding salt to the water. I'm going to try that tonight!

[scugpg]

Whatever bottles you choose to use, try adding 150-200g/L (5 to 6 tablespoons per litre) salt to the water. This should freeze totally in a deep freezer and melt at a temp of -10 to -15C, it will keep your cooler much cooler!

 

Burt

 

Hey Burt is there a chart somewhere on what amount of salt affects the freeze point? Is the ideal goal to still freeze the containers but freeze at -15 instead of 0 for example?.

 

Thanks!

[Headhunter]

If you have a large enough freezer, put your cooler in the freezer the night before your trip. You loose so much ice making a warm cooler cold at the beginning of the day.

A frozen cooler will keep ice and everything else cold much longer.

HH

[krixxer]

After reading this I went into the kitchen and made 3 ice cubes

 

1. water + sugar

2. water + salt

3. just water

 

 

 

after 24 hours I took out the tray and started my timer.

 

first to melt was water + salt at 45min

 

water and sugar took 1 hour to melt

 

after 1 hour and 15 min the ice cube with just water still had a little pebble of ice floating around in it.

 

 

conclusion: Beer is cold enough with simple ice and it will be cold longer then with other ice mixtures.

[kickingfrog]

But you didn't take the temperature of your solutions. The ice/salt/water would have been below zero degrees Celsius. The water/ice would not be below zero.

[Burtess]

Hey Burt is there a chart somewhere on what amount of salt affects the freeze point? Is the ideal goal to still freeze the containers but freeze at -15 instead of 0 for example?.

 

Thanks!

 

I attached a chart from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Saltwater_freezing_point.jpg

 

Your freezer must be able to attain a lower temperature than the freezing point of the salt solution, or it will not freeze, it will just get cold but stay liquid. Whatever the freezing/melting point of the solution is the important as this is where you get your steady temperature plateau, and where the liquid/solid mixture will maintain a temperature until all solid is melted.

 

After reading this I went into the kitchen and made 3 ice cubes

 

1. water + sugar

2. water + salt

3. just water

 

 

 

after 24 hours I took out the tray and started my timer.

 

first to melt was water + salt at 45min

 

water and sugar took 1 hour to melt

 

after 1 hour and 15 min the ice cube with just water still had a little pebble of ice floating around in it.

 

 

conclusion: Beer is cold enough with simple ice and it will be cold longer then with other ice mixtures.

 

This makes sense as all three cubes started at the same temperature, but they progressed through their melting profiles in different ways. The first to hit and maintain a lower than 0 temp was the salt water, the second the sugar water, and the third the fresh water. But they all melted at different temperatures, the salt water much colder than the fresh. Normally any contaminant added to a "pure" substance will alter the freezing/melting temperature.

This is why I stated I use a mix of salt water bottles and fresh water bottles in my cooler. The salt water bottles will be melting away (at somewhere below 0C) while the fresh water bottles are still rock solid. Once the salt water has fully melted, the temperature of the cooler will rise to around 0C and the next melting plateau will begin when the fresh water melts. Once this is done, the temp will climb to ambient temps.

 

But you didn't take the temperature of your solutions. The ice/salt/water would have been below zero degrees Celsius. The water/ice would not be below zero.

 

Kickingfrog had it, this is the key...

 

Burt

[kickingfrog]

Ice/salt and water will also chill your beer the fastest. Great when you buy at duty free and are tailgating at the Bills game.