UL Refrigerator

[Don Morris]

I hear that there is such a thing. Will it keep ice cream frozen? Where can I get one?

[BlackHatGuy]

There actually kinda sorta is such a thing, but it ends up not being completely UL. I forget who, but someone makes a mini 'cooler' out of reflectix-type material that works pretty well for a day. On a very hot day, I put a couple of beers and a frozen bottle of water in it, then put it in my pack. At camp much later, the water was still partially frozen and the beers were still ice cold. And very refreshing.

I did it as a lark, but it did work.

[Ken Thompson]

Bearvault or Bearikade with dry ice inside With your bag and clothes packed around it should get your ice cream to camp.

[David Thomas]

Without a lot of solar cells, or a generator, or a flame-powered absorptive-cycle refridgerator (none of them UL), no, there is not.

But for a period of 6-10 hours, you can get ice cream to -10F if you have a good freezer, wrap it in clothes, a plastic bag, then a jacket, another plastic bag, then your sleeping bag. Then put the whole package in the freezer for a day or two.

If you need it to last longer, add dry ice. Two pounds or so for 24-30 hours. Again, wrap in lots of insulative clothing. The problem with dry ice is it makes the ice cream TOO cold to serve. I put a thermocouple on the ice cream so I can track the temperature and start unwrapping it hours before dessert time.

The in-between solution (longer lasting than no ice but cheaper than dry ice) is to use a very salty brine. A pound of salt (as many different kinds as you have, but 100% NaCl works) and 3 pounds of water ice makes s 10F ice cube. It will all melt at 10-15F before any of the ice cream melts.

I've used all these tricks to bring ice cream sundaes on BPing trips and to transport frozen salmon fillets across state lines.

[David Thomas]

Doug, rather than bring that frozen water along, just freeze the beer. I tested it on Martinellis and then for real packing Champagne into to a wedding on top of Half Dome.

Decant (slowly to maintain carbonation) the beer into a plastic bottle, about 85% full to accommodate expansion, and freeze it solid. Wrap it in clothes, and take it out in time to thaw for use. 18-24 hours ought to be quite doable. When thawed, it's still carbonated.

[BlackHatGuy]

Great tip, David. Thanks. Backpacking with an engineer must be a hoot!

But really, I'm a Scotch guy, I only did the beer thing on a lark.

[Richard Niemi]

Go snow camping and your problem is solved.

[Paul Wagner]

Yikes!

Do not freeze Champagne or other sparling wine! It releases most of the carbonation and will usually explode the bottle. If that happens in your freezer (I have experience with this!) it will make a nasty mess. If that happens outside the freezer, it can send shards of glass everywhere at high speed.

Danger, Will Robinson!

[BlackHatGuy]

Not in its regular bottle, decanted into something else, is what I believe Dave was saying.

[Jerry Adams]

absorbant clay container. get it wet. evaporative cooling will make it colder. put your stuff inside. they used to do this. only gets it a little colder. must be some way to use something lighter than clay.

[Greg Mihalik]

"It releases most of the carbonation and will usually explode the bottle."

ummmm…. I don't think so.

The bottle might explode because the liquid runs out of expansion room, but the "location" of a pressurizing gas doesn't affect the pressure in the bottle. (In a liquid, or above a liquid.) Removing heat reduces the pressure of a gas.

[David Thomas]

>"Not in its regular bottle, decanted into something else, is what I believe Dave was saying."

Yup. I don't haul glass into the woods only to have to haul it out again. I use PETE bottles. For the wedding gig, One 2-liter soda bottle held 3 x 750 ml Champagne bottles of Champagne (less one glass for the engineer). And weighed 5% as much as the three glass bottles it replaced. It froze just fine (I left about 10% headspace in the bottle and tip it on its side.)

PETE bottles can handle an awesome amount of pressure – fill one with dry ice and let warm up. It must be about at least 50 PSIG when it finally blows. Cold water holds MORE dissolved gas than warm water. So does ice. Hence my losing sleep over methane hydrates and what will happen when climate change REALLY starts to take off.

[Nick Gatel]

I am not going to drink Dom Perignon out of a plastic bottle, nor if it has been frozen and thawed. So… I am not going to take it backpacking ;)

[Anonymous]

Scary stuff, that. Talk about a positive feedback loop on steroids….

[David Thomas]

"I am not going to drink Dom Perignon out of a plastic bottle"

I brought a 375ml glass bottle to put out, front and center. It's all in the presentation. Behind the scenes though, I filled all the glasses from the PETE pop bottle though.

[Robb Watts]

I carry a mesh ditty bag with about 20' of cord attached to it. Beer goes in bag; bag gets tossed into deep part of creek. If all goes well, you get cool beer (if not you get 20' of cord. Or a bath). The mesh bag's other function is to keep together my sawyer setup, spare platy water bottles and flask of Jack, used for dry camps up on the ridges (after the beer is gone). Ultra light methodology applied outside the box.

[Randy Nelson]

Something like this? :)

[Tony Wong]

Doug,

This is what you are thinking of.

http://www.simpleoutdoorstore.com/escape_pod_cooler.html

Tony

[Ken Thompson]

That's it Tony.

[Alpo Kuusisto]

Vacuum insulated large thermos bottle keeps ice cream good for a day.
Fill bottle and put it cap open in freezer for an hour or two. Remember to bring a long spoon.

[Nick Smolinske]

In regards to the vacuum thermos, you can supercharge it by wrapping it in a down jacket or other insulating layer(s) before putting it in your pack.

[Diane “Piper” Soini]

A big ass frozen steak will keep things cool for at least a day.

[Tim Skidmore]

Just come camping in Nova Scotia this year, your ice-cream will be rock solid the whole trip… stupid weather.

[Author]

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