| Author |
Message |
pat young
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, February 25, 2006 - 4:33 pm: | |
Hello members of the Bus Illumanati
I just got a free fridge, but haven't got it hooked up yet, and I'm also worried about drawing down the bateries having it run all the time.
Has anyone taken one of these little refrigerators and juts thrown a chunk of dry ice in the freezer section? Seems like it would be cheaper than buying bags of ice..
OK just asking.
Patrick Young |
ED Hackenbruch (Shadowman)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, February 25, 2006 - 4:40 pm: | |
Dry Ice is expensive! |
Richard (Busnutrick)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, February 25, 2006 - 7:03 pm: | |
Pat,
Be careful with dry ice in an enclosed space such as a bus. It uses up oxygen. There was a refrigeration technician in our area that died recently when he was repairing a commercial freezer that had been packed with dry ice to keep the contents cold. Someone went in to check the progress of the job and found him DEAD from lack of oxygen!!!! Now I don't know how much dry ice was used but it really got my attention. I have heard of other similar incidents since then also. I would guess that you would not have enough to be a problem but I thought you should know.
Rick |
Marc Bourget
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, February 25, 2006 - 7:09 pm: | |
More accurately, I believe it displaces Oxygen because the C02 is heavie/denser. |
Kyle Brandt (Kyle4501)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, February 25, 2006 - 7:38 pm: | |
If you do this, how do you plan to regulate the temp? You may just turn it into a freezer.
In boy scouts, we used dry ice once in an ice chest. I don't remember how much we used (it didn't seem like much), but by the next morning everything was frozen solid! Milk, eggs, bacon, OJ. The little bit of melting ice that we left in there had refrozen & stuck everything together. We never did that again!
kyle4501 |
jimmci9 #2
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, February 25, 2006 - 8:25 pm: | |
the rv refrigs dont have a circulation fan... so anything in the freezer with the dry ice would stay frozen... and anything in the refrig part would soon be room temp...... |
Dale Fleener (Dale_mc8)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, February 25, 2006 - 10:32 pm: | |
Pat, If this is a RV frige, hook it up to LP. No battery draw that way. (OK, maybe a little for the electronics, depending on how old it is.)
Dale MC8 |
Bryce Gaston (Busted_knuckle)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, February 25, 2006 - 11:20 pm: | |
Refridgerator or old style "Ice box"? |
TomNPat
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, February 26, 2006 - 3:24 am: | |
Pat,
We used dry ice briefly for a refrigerator failure about 7 years ago in our truck camper. Found that when our fifth wheel frig also later quit that we were better off buying a freezer and freezing 2 1/2 gallon water jugs and placing them in the freezer compartment.
Neither situation is optimal. But the dry ice worked in Gridley, CA at 103 degrees ambient by buying a pound at Safeway (About every day) and buying another when that one evaporated. The truck box leaked enough to assure that we weren't suffering from a lack of oxygen.
The water jugs in the fifth wheel were easier on the lettuce, but we again bought a new frig instead.
These were some of the experiences that led us to put a household frig in our bus.
TomNPat |
FAST FRED
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, February 26, 2006 - 6:06 am: | |
To have an efficent refrigeration system , and hold the cold it requires a different concept from most house stuff.
The key is insulation and unfortunatly insulation is both expensive to purchase and own.
Expensive to own because of the volume required for a well insulated box.
On a boat that is attempring to refrigerate , we use a simple test . Put in a big block of ice and wait 2 days without opening the box , remove the ice and weigh it and replace for 24 hours.
IF your ice loss is under 5 lb a day (3 being much better) it is possable to use electrical refrigeration.
To do a good marine holding plate system or DC system is thousands of bucks in parts, and a good refrigeration guy to install it.
Thats why most serious boondockers go for propane. At about 20lb a month , its hard to beat, even tho the unit costs more than the house takeouts.
For a Built box setup , 4 inches of insulation and a very efficent DC compressor , look at the Sunfrost .
FAST FRED |
Cory Dane
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, February 26, 2006 - 8:15 am: | |
Made a trip recently to Florida and didn't power up the frige during the trip.
Stead, I had pre-frozen about a half dozen plastic Pepsi bottles, Get the size that will fit the frige, with water in them. Just before leaving on the trip, I put them in the freezer section. Fit in what I could of food in the freezer, the rest went in to the frige area as normal.
I found that the cool flows down from the freezer, just as it would if it were working, the entire frige was cool, drinks were cold. the trip was about 24 hours and the Ice was still cold when we got there.
If you have better suited containers, you can use ice cubes and load up before you come home too.
I used dry ice on a trip as well. I didn't think it lasted all the long but the supplier said to wrap the ice in saran wrap (plastic wrap), says it seems to keep the ice from evaporating as quickly as if not wrapped. It worked for a few days anyway.
they sell the "pic'n nick basket" type of ice (blue) for camping and such that you freeze also but I don't know where you would freeze it at the campground again. Our little frrriges arent real good at freezing things, as you know.
I had real good luck with freezing the water in the pepsi bottles, and if you didn't know the frige was not on, you would not guess that only ice was keeping it cool. Just leave an air space for expansion or you will bust the bottle when it freezes.
good luck
CDane |
David Hartley (Drdave)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, February 26, 2006 - 5:17 pm: | |
Actually why double the effort?
Just buy a case of bottled water and freeze it.
Then put some in the freezer section and the rest in the door trays or even on the shelf.
Then you can drink the water as needed and no loss of time trying to wash and fill pepsi bottles. My coffee make takes 2 1/2 of the large size bottles of water. So it gets used anyway. |
pat young
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, March 03, 2006 - 9:00 am: | |
Thanks for the many great ideas, especially the inexpensive or free ones!
Patrick with now happier wife in Fresno |