There are many ways of using dry ice. If you’re going on a trip, use the following procedure to preserve food in an ice chest.
Putting Dry Ice in an Ice Chest
Required Tools and Materials
Dry ice
Newspaper
Ice chest
Instructions
When the food is packed in, put the dry ice on top of it. The incoming cold air will keep the food cold. Dead air space should be avoided, so put newspaper in-between the empty spaces. Put frozen food in first. When the dry ice has disappeared, add the non frozen food.
It’s a good idea to put the non frozen types in a separate section of the chest. For average sized ice chests, consider using dry ice that weighs 20 lbs (for a 24 hr period). The larger the chest, the more ice is needed.
How to Make a Fog with Dry Ice
Required Tools and Materials
Dry ice
Bottle
Goggles
Hot water
Instructions
Boil some water. Let it cool to the point where you can touch it a bit. Pour this in the bottle. Now put in the dry ice and watch the white fog emerge. For different colors, add some food coloring to the water before putting in the dry ice.
Other Ways of Using Dry Ice
Instead of a bottle, put the water and ice on a plate. The fog effect will last longer. Chop some large dry ice chunks. Put them in a jug of beverages. The drinks should be at room temperature.
Once the dry ice settles at the bottom, the fog will remerge. 4 lbs of dry ice per gallon is the ideal ratio. For something foggy, put 100 lbs of dry ice in a hot tub. The generated fog will be good for 60 minutes.
Dry ice can be used when making root beer (add dry ice with root beer extract and water). Cosmetic surgeons also use dry ice to help eliminate warts. Apart from preserving foods, it can be used to preserve flour and grains.
Keeping Insects Away with Dry Ice
To keep mosquitoes away, place chunks of dry ice around your mosquito trap. Any kind of trap will do because mosquitoes will be attracted to the dry ice.
Using dry ice to keep beetles away from furniture is also possible. Put the furniture in a freezer packed with dry ice (you’ll need several pounds). Check back in 24 hours and you’ll see the insects and eggs will all be dead.
Tips and Warnings
Get plenty of dry ice as they evaporate quickly. Always wear gloves before you touch dry ice. If you don’t, the water will solidify and burn. If working with glass, wear safety glasses.
Dry ice causes the temperature to change, which might cause glass to break. Remember that dry ice turns to gas. If this occurs in a bottle, it might shatter into bits.
Using dry ice can be fun. You can use it not only when trekking and camping, but it’s also capable of producing really cool effects.
