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Making dry ice at home

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Re: Making dry ice at home

#41

Post by bluGill »

wrs wrote: post #26

Our chem lab in high school (in the 80s) had a CO₂ tank attached to a metal cylinder similar to the 3D printed one shown here. You just hooked it up and turned on the valve to create a puck of dry ice. So if you need it frequently and have trouble finding it for sale, maybe look for the modern equivalent. (It being high school, about 5% of the dry ice created was used for legitimate chemistry purposes.)

It probably had a vortex tube in there. I've seen them for sale, but never really had a need for enough dry ice to ask if it was worth buying.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vortex_tube

Re: Making dry ice at home

#42

Post by mprovost »

gambiting wrote: post #22
JohnFen wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At that point, why not just buy the dry ice directly? It would surely be cheaper...

Honest question - where do hell people buy dry ice from like it's the easiest thing ever, I've looked into it and there was no one within hundreds of miles from me who would sell to private buyers. UK here.

As an American I had the same expectation trying to buy dry ice in New Zealand - couldn't find it in supermarkets or petrol stations. I wanted to get some for our outdoor/off grid wedding to keep the beverages cold for several days. Eventually I called BOC (who supply industry and hospitals) and they agreed to sell us some but when I showed up with a cooler (chilly bin) they laughed at the tiny amount I wanted and filled it up. I don't think they'd ever sold it like that to a private buyer.

Re: Making dry ice at home

#43

Post by bluGill »

gambiting wrote: post #22
JohnFen wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At that point, why not just buy the dry ice directly? It would surely be cheaper...

Honest question - where do hell people buy dry ice from like it's the easiest thing ever, I've looked into it and there was no one within hundreds of miles from me who would sell to private buyers. UK here.

In the US some supermarkets have it for sale. Most do not that I've seen, but I know a few who carry it in stock.

Re: Making dry ice at home

#44

Post by Timon3 »

omginternets wrote: post #35
londons_explore wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the UK and most of europe, dry ice is limited to industrial/scientific uses. No retail shops sell it.

"The US innovates; the EU regulates", as the saying goes. Makes me sad...

And as usual, the saying is BS - I was able to find an online shop selling the stuff to private people in Germany in a few seconds.

Re: Making dry ice at home

#45

Post by omginternets »

Timon3 wrote: post #44
omginternets wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"The US innovates; the EU regulates", as the saying goes. Makes me sad...

And as usual, the saying is BS - I was able to find an online shop selling the stuff to private people in Germany in a few seconds.

That's a relief.

Re: Making dry ice at home

#47

Post by SkyPuncher »

sneak wrote: post #40
gmiller123456 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Never disappeared around here. A lot of people rely on it to get their frozen stuff home without thawing out. So it's more available in rural places where people will have a long drive home.

Ahhh, that makes a ton more sense now. As one of the aforementioned soda-bottle-bomb-making-youngsters, I had no idea what people's legitimate uses for it were outside of party tricks.

I buy it on camping trips. It has a major benefit of not getting your stuff wet as it melts.

Re: Making dry ice at home

#48

Post by spdustin »

My FAVORITE thing to do with dry ice is make ice cream. It’s the smoothest ice cream you can make at home, and as a delightful bonus, it’s fizzy!

You have to crush the dry ice into graupel size (even better, into snow) for it to be safe, and it can be super messy if you add the dry ice too quickly. It’s important to make the pieces as small as possible to ensure they fully sublimate, and no dry ice is remaining in the mixture where it could be ingested. Frostbitten tongues are terrible; frostbitten stomachs are a threat to life.

Just start with a normal ice cream base in a large mixing bowl. If you have a stand mixer with a blade suitable for ice cream, that’s even better. Slowly (or there’ll be a big mess) add crushed/pulverized dry ice while mixing. Keep going until the ice cream is stiffer than soft-serve, but not so hard that you can’t mix it any more.

It’s colder than normal ice cream, so eat small mouthfuls. But damn, it’s got an indescribable /zing/ from the little bit of CO2 that dissolves into solution with ice cream base. SO GOOD.

Re: Making dry ice at home

#49

Post by tlavoie »

gambiting wrote: post #22
JohnFen wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At that point, why not just buy the dry ice directly? It would surely be cheaper...

Honest question - where do hell people buy dry ice from like it's the easiest thing ever, I've looked into it and there was no one within hundreds of miles from me who would sell to private buyers. UK here.

Here in Canada, it's companies like Praxair or Air Liquide. Major centres will typically have one, maybe a 10 pound minimum for dry ice.

Re: Making dry ice at home

#50

Post by eek2121 »

bluGill wrote: post #43
gambiting wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honest question - where do hell people buy dry ice from like it's the easiest thing ever, I've looked into it and there was no one within hundreds of miles from me who would sell to private buyers. UK here.

In the US some supermarkets have it for sale. Most do not that I've seen, but I know a few who carry it in stock.

All the stores near me sell it.
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