Ice vs dry ice.

URY914

Observer
How does the salt water ice work? Wouldn't it just lower the temp of melting and freezing?

Go here;

http://stuffexplained.wordpress.com/2012/08/06/adding_salt_to_ice_in_a_cooler/

If your goal is to keep the beer cold for a long time (ie. if you go camping or on a picnic) it’s still a good idea to add some water and salt to the ice because it will make your beers colder initially which means they’ll stay cold longer. The salt will make the ice melt as well but the resulting water will still be very cold. The specific heat capacity of water is double that of ice [3], which means, in theory, the sub-zero water will stay colder longer than plain ice will. You could argue that the starting temperature of ice is much lower (-18°C) than sub-zero water (which might be just a few degrees below 0°C). So it’s a bit of a tradeoff. Also, adding salt to the water does lower its heat capacity but not by much [4].

Note: you need lots of salt (handfuls) for the above stuff to work. Table salt is fine.
 

evldave

Expedition Trophy Winner
Dry Ice will freeze everything in your cooler....eve if it's wrapped in many layers of paper and set only on one side of the cooler.

Think frozen eggs and milk!

ask me how I know.

I built a special rack in my cooler, the dry ice sits on the side of the cooler... It doesn't come in direct contact with any items... I have a friend's wife make some dream dinners ahead of time and can eat 9x9 dinners nightly for a week with about 20# of dry ice.

As a note, I wouldn't use dry ice with beer at all, too risky lol

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
 

troyboy162

Adventurer
Go here;

http://stuffexplained.wordpress.com/2012/08/06/adding_salt_to_ice_in_a_cooler/

If your goal is to keep the beer cold for a long time (ie. if you go camping or on a picnic) it’s still a good idea to add some water and salt to the ice because it will make your beers colder initially which means they’ll stay cold longer. The salt will make the ice melt as well but the resulting water will still be very cold. The specific heat capacity of water is double that of ice [3], which means, in theory, the sub-zero water will stay colder longer than plain ice will. You could argue that the starting temperature of ice is much lower (-18°C) than sub-zero water (which might be just a few degrees below 0°C). So it’s a bit of a tradeoff. Also, adding salt to the water does lower its heat capacity but not by much [4].

Note: you need lots of salt (handfuls) for the above stuff to work. Table salt is fine.

I'm still not tracking on the benefits of frozen salt water. You would just change the freezing point. Unless your goal is 29 F water, then you wouldn't benefit. Youd be better off with normal ice at -10 F. Adding salt to ice already frozen has a temporary effect if you are tailgating.
 
Last edited:

Forum statistics

Threads
185,823
Messages
2,878,597
Members
225,378
Latest member
norcalmaier
Top