Keep Your Cooler, Cooler!

[konrad]

The following is an e-mail I received from bowshooter.com.

I wish I had thought of this one!




Keep Your
Cooler, Cooler!
By Robin Conrads

 

To help foods stay frozen in your ice chest, freeze a brine solution in a reusable container and place it into the chest.  A frozen brine solution is colder than ice and will keep food frozen longer.

Fill a clean milk jug with water, leaving about 1" of space for expansion. Add 1/4 cup of salt to the water, replace the cap and shake well. Mark the jug as "brine" or "non-drinkable water" so there isn't any confusion in camp. If you have a large cooler, make two jugs.

Freeze the brine solution, shaking it several times during the freezing process to redistribute the salt. Place the frozen jug into the bottom of the cooler and pack frozen meat and other frozen items around it. Add more ice and the other items that don't need to be frozen.
 
Keep the cooler in the shade and open it as little as possible. It might even be wise to have a second cooler for non-perishables, like canned or bottled beverages, so you aren't getting into the frozen food cooler as much. Remove the meat and let it thaw before the planned meal. If this works properly, the meat will not thaw in this cooler.

There is no need to make this solution every time you use the cooler. Just put the jug back into the freezer when you get home, and it will be ready for the next trip.
 
 
Thanks from www.bowshooter.com

[elkinrutdrivemenuts]

I'm gonna use this during archery season, thanks for posting,

[Gas Man]

I have been using bottles like this for awhile in my Fish cooler on my boat. Gone are the days of running to buy ice prior to fishing. I like to throw in two or three frozen 2 liter bottles depending on how long I plan on fishing for and how hot it is. Two will last all day in Spring and Fall, and three for the hotter days of summer.

[Rainier10]

The brine sounds like a long lasting cold.  Because I try to keep the weight down, I freeze a few bottles of water and Vitamin Water and use those as the ice in my cooler, by the end of the trip the they are thawed and ready to drink.

[ICEMAN]

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.

[quadrafire]

With a name like Iceman you should know
You ruined it for me.I was just getting ready to make up some brine.

I think one of you should do a test in identical coolers (I would,but I don't have any that match) and let us know the results.

[steve04]

Kinda like super chilling a soda in 2 mins???
http://youtu.be/dc9BHiQUpWU

[fair-chase]

Kinda like super chilling a soda in 2 mins???
http://youtu.be/dc9BHiQUpWU

  I just put the ice in a glass and then pour the soda over the ice. Kablam!!! Instantly cold. No waiting around for 2 minutes. 

I have no idea if the salt works or not but I do know that the temperature at which you freeze the ice can make a difference. So ice frozen to -20* will keep cold longer than ice that is simply frozen to 30*. Pretty simple. Also, I prefer using dry ice whenever I can accommodate it, but it does take a bit more pre planning than regular ice because it is not as readily available and needs to be handled properly.

[LongRange300RUM]

The salt does make it colder. Haven't you ever made homemade icecream you use ice and salt on the ouside of the drum to get the ice cream to freeze up. If the salt doesnt do anything why use it. If you add salt to ice the ice will melt but the salt water from the melted ice is colder than the ice itself

[BOWHUNTER45]

Interresting ... I will try it ...

[Ironhead]

 Adding salt to the ice/water mix causes a temperature drop that slows the melting rate and increases the freezing rate. The net result is that the ice melts more and more slowly after the initial addition of salt.

[ICEMAN]

The salt does make it colder. Haven't you ever made homemade icecream you use ice and salt on the ouside of the drum to get the ice cream to freeze up. If the salt doesnt do anything why use it. If you add salt to ice the ice will melt but the salt water from the melted ice is colder than the ice itself

Yeah, but we are talking about salt saline solution in a closed bottle staying colder longer than just plain water.
 
Salt does lower the freezing point of water....as in an ice cream maker, but I still argue that the frozen bottles will both deliver the same cold to your cooler.

Isn't this fun?

[Kola16]

ICEMAN. You are totally right about the ice being the same temperature, but does it stay frozen longer? That is the question I think 

[ICEMAN]

 

[mtndew]

This sounds like a job for Hunting Washington myth busters! I will do an experiment over the next week or so, and post the results!

[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]