Faster then the freezer

[RGD]

Originally Posted by Demented

Depending on how fast dry-ice drops the temperature inside a cooler (and how low it drops), using the this table posted by Icehog3;

5c (41f) requires ~12 days (275 hours)
0c (32f) requires ~9 days (220 hours)
-5c (23f) requires ~4 days (100 hours)
-10c (14f) requires less than 24 hours
-15c (5f) requires less than 24 hours
-20c (-4f) requires less than 24 hours

2 days in the fridge (1 before & 1 after) and 1 day in a cooler with dry-ice should be enough to do the job.

Dmntd

Which is the same for a conventional freezer which since it is already in use would not cost any extra money to achieve the same results.

Now I am not saying that your proposal doesn't have any merits - I'm sure there is some instance - say a college student without access to a freezer - would find this helpful - if it would actually work.

But on the other hand I let me say this - growing up my Dad often used Dry Ice in the coolers when we went on trips or camping. He did this simply because as we all know - dry ice dissipates instead of turning back into water as an ice cube would. Also weighs less. Not once did anything in any cooler ever freeze. Case two - during my college years I worked for Russel Stover's Candies in Indianapolis. This center was a distribution center. We used dry ice every single day in shipping and receiving candies. Not once do I ever recall any candy ever being frozen even when packed heavily with dry ice.
I'm pretty positive if you were to stick a brick of dry ice in a cooler - with a glass of water - the water would indeed become cold - but not frozen. Could be wrong - but try that before relying on the dry ice to freeze your cigars.

I would also have to question whether the gassing off of dry ice would be enough to permeate wood to kill off powder post beetles to the same effectiveness as Vikane would. Powder Post beetles can and do suddenly leave and stop eating various wood items for what seems no apparent reasons at times. As an ex-Orkin Manager I have seen it.

So anyway - good fodder for discussion but I don't think it's practical.


Ron

[trogdor]

Originally Posted by RGD

So anyway - good fodder for discussion but I don't think it's practical.
Ron

Yeah, regular freezers run around -10 to -20ºC, so it seems like 1 day in that should be good. I had a small beetle problem many years ago and stuck everything in the freezer for a few days and it worked great.

The dry ice sounds like it could be fun to try, though, even if it is less practical. It should freeze stuff pretty good, but you have to bury what you are freezing in dry ice pellets. The blocks would not be good for that because they would leave too much air space. To see if it would damage the cigars you could put a few cheapies in a ziplock, toss it in the bottom of a small cooler, and fill it up with dry ice pellets. You could do the water to ice control at the same time by putting a small, partially full bottle of water in there at the bottom, too.

As far as the freezing rate goes, I have lots of experience freezing and thawing living cells. If you want cells to survive you freeze them slowly. 1ºC/minute drop in temperature is ideal. Thawing is the other way - a quick thaw (putting them in a 37ºC water bath) gives healthier cells than a slow one (leaving them to thaw at room temperature). So for killing things, you would want a fast freeze and a gradual thaw. I'm not sure how that would affect the integrity of your cigars, though (taking it to extremes, dipping them in liquid nitrogen would be really fun if they were bad sticks, but I can't imagine that it would be very good for them )

So:
1) Tossing a few Cremosas into a bucket of liquid nitrogen would friggin' ROCK!
2) The kitchen freezer is a tried and true beetle extermination method.
3) Playing with dry ice is fun. If you try it out, let us know how it worked!