Keep Your Cooler, Cooler!

[Mark Brenckle]

I can't believe there's no engineers on here chiming in about btu's and what-not...  you don't need a cooler to do the test, you'll see the results faster if you freeze one water bottle and one brine bottle for the same amount of time in the same freezer.  Then just set them on the counter and see which one melts first...  If you want to get fancy tape a thermometer to the outside and record the temps every hour or so.
  I honestly don't know the answer, but I suspect as Iceman pointed out, you won't be able to tell any difference...

[yajsab]

Iceman is messing with your mind.
 

[Elkrunner]

It sounds similar to this product.  Have any of you used this? 

http://www.trophybagkooler.com/koolergel.html

[Knocker of rocks]

Uh.... gotta throw the proverbial BS out there....take no offense...
 
How does this work better than forzen water? If the addition of salt to water lowers the freezing point of salt water versus plain ol' water, this would not affect the actual temperature of your frozen jug. A frozen jug of water next to a frozen jug of salt water are the same temperature, but have differing melting/freezing/boiling points is all.
 
I would argue that there is no discernable difference.

The latent heat of crystalization is increased.  So while it may become liquid at a lower temperature than pure water ice, a saline ice is in fact colder because of it's greater negative latent heat.

Thereby it will keep your cooler colder longer, whether in a solidus or liquidus

[whacker1]

Ok, I have been following this thread under the same assumption of what Iceman put forth.  My question was a little different though.  For those of you that use 1 gallon plastic milk jugs, occassionally they crack, and then when they thaw they leak all over the cooler.  One of the advantages of using this method was to use a more dry form of ice like ice packs.   So the question I had, does the salt make the expansion less significant or slower, so that the milk jug doesn't crack. 

We have been using 2 liter bottles and cardboard half gallon milk jugs.  The 1/2 gallon cardboard is nice, because you can break them and use them for iced drinks, cocktails, or to spread out through the cooler. 

Or buy 25 lb bags of cubed ice at Costco for 2.99 a bag. 

[Knocker of rocks]

  you don't need a cooler to do the test, you'll see the results faster if you freeze one water bottle and one brine bottle for the same amount of time in the same freezer.  Then just set them on the counter and see which one melts first...

Seeing which one melts first won't answer the question, it would be better served by observing which bottle reached an arbitrary temperature of (say) 35*

[Knocker of rocks]

  So the question I had, does the salt make the expansion less significant or slower, so that the milk jug doesn't crack.

The volumetric expansion of saline ice should be equal to, or almost equal to the expansion of pure water ice.  Your bottle is failing due to the expansion, and the rate of expansion probably has little to do with the failure

[ICEMAN]

To keep your ice jugs from  bursting while freezing, fill and freeze them in increments, say in thirds. Been doing this for many years and they don't seem to rupture this way. ( No geology degree needed...  )

"Latent heat of crystalization..."    Baaah'  your big words don't scare me!     

[BOWHUNTER45]

To keep your ice jugs from  bursting while freezing, fill and freeze them in increments, say in thirds. Been doing this for many years and they don't seem to rupture this way. ( No geology degree needed...  )

"Latent heat of crystalization..."    Baaah'  your big words don't scare me!   

yeah Iceman ...you should know more about this than anyone 

[ICEMAN]