2021-02-05, 11:33 AM
Was just discussing dry ice a few nights ago when working out details for an upcoming 7-night DV trip – how long are you going down for? And congrats on taking a family member! My fondest memories of the outdoors and what really got me into them were my uncle dragging my ass into the Sierra and Black Rock Desert.
Anywho, after looking at the hassle of dry ice we settled on a two cooler system, one of which is a Yeti that will remain sealed until halfway through the trip. The sealed cooler is going to make use of these big ice packs I have from Engel – https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01LZ4QVWK/ – which unfortunately seem to have skyrocketed in price. I use these on all my trips because melting ice in a cooler is a hassle. A lot of the food in this cooler will also be frozen, so I'm not too concerned about the contents getting funky before day 8.
The other cooler (hello, 15+ year old Igloo cooler) is going to use block ice (poor man's dry ice?) and will be filled with drinks, snack stuff like grapes, the first few days of pre-prepped meals, and so on. Plus, we can chuck more ice into it at Stovepipe Wells halfway through.
I don't think you want to keep dry ice in a sealed container as that weird taste is from it off-putting CO2 if I remember correctly ... if you don't let it vent it would probably expand and pop the bag or whatever airtight container you put it. And you can't put dry ice in water .... plus dry ice has a good chance of freezing and potentially exploding any liquids you have in the cooler like canned beverages. So, perhaps not the easy solution you're looking for?
Anywho, after looking at the hassle of dry ice we settled on a two cooler system, one of which is a Yeti that will remain sealed until halfway through the trip. The sealed cooler is going to make use of these big ice packs I have from Engel – https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01LZ4QVWK/ – which unfortunately seem to have skyrocketed in price. I use these on all my trips because melting ice in a cooler is a hassle. A lot of the food in this cooler will also be frozen, so I'm not too concerned about the contents getting funky before day 8.
The other cooler (hello, 15+ year old Igloo cooler) is going to use block ice (poor man's dry ice?) and will be filled with drinks, snack stuff like grapes, the first few days of pre-prepped meals, and so on. Plus, we can chuck more ice into it at Stovepipe Wells halfway through.
I don't think you want to keep dry ice in a sealed container as that weird taste is from it off-putting CO2 if I remember correctly ... if you don't let it vent it would probably expand and pop the bag or whatever airtight container you put it. And you can't put dry ice in water .... plus dry ice has a good chance of freezing and potentially exploding any liquids you have in the cooler like canned beverages. So, perhaps not the easy solution you're looking for?