I'm sure I wasn't the first to come up with this but I just started using the bags out of empty boxed wine to make my own ice blocks. If you pull the bag out of a "black box" wine or similar you can rinse it out, refill and freeze it, either through the normal spout or the whole valve can be removed. This creates a block that is comparable size to one you would purchase and retains the melt for drinking. Another benefit is that I can form the block(s) in the freezer to create a custom ice block to conform to either the cooler or around containers. Let me know what you think.
They're more fun to pop. But seriously, using plastic bags to form ice blocks seems to work for a lot of people. I tend to prefer more rigid containers, just a little easier to handle.
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I did 3 Sunny Delight jugs on my last trip and it worked great. I still had a chunk of ice left in one of them 12 days into the trip. THey are a nice rectangle shape and fit well in a cooler. The ones I used up made for a nice cold water treat and made for great day use water containers for the rest of the trip too.
I would think leaving the bags in the box would be a good way to maintain the block shape. I don't drink enough wine to justify that though.
On a long enough trip, I bet you could freeze the wine itself for later in the trip...not sure if that ruins it or not though.
There is a warning that goes out at this point in a thread about avoiding drinking from a well rinsed milk jug. They harbor protein in the plastic and you could get sick when the science project warms up.
I think if you drink before a day of melting you may be fine.
I make my ice in rectangular gladware. Four blocks fit perfectly on the bottom of my 65 and 70 qt coolers, and 2 fit nicely in my 30ish qt coolers. I use cubes to fill any gaps. Glad has enough sizes to custom fit about anything, the blocks are solid, I.e. no handles, or dead space, and make for a flat surface at the bottom to put food on. I do remove them from the containers, I'm not a melt water saver.
I was thinking of fillin empty two liter soda bottles with distilled water and freezing them. Is there any way to get buble free ice when you freeze it yourself?
Yes there is.
Firstly, avoid getting a 6,000 dollar machine for that.
Inspired, Piacentini said he “started buying Igloo coolers and filling them with water. It worked like a charm—the water freezes cold and hard until it gets to the bottom. You can then just cut or scrape the cloudy ice off, or if you time it right, you can get the ice out before the cloudy part freezes.”
Let's back up.
Here is a guy who wanted clear ice.
No air bubbles to you and I.
until one day, while looking at an ice cube, he had a brainstorm: “I’m looking at it, and I realize it’s cloudy right in the middle because it’s freezing from the outside in, which means that as the water freezes, it pushes the impurities away. I realized if you could get it to freeze in just one direction, you’d get all the bubbles off to one side and could just scrape them off.”
I sue the 2.5 gal containers from the grocery store. 3 of them laid flat fit perfectly in the bottom of my 120 Igloo cooler and then you have ice water at the end of the trip. I have an standard cooler and have still had ice after 10 days.
I've been using 1/2 gallon paper cartons that originally contained almond milk (well rinsed of course). I can fit 4-5 of then along the bottom of my Coleman cooler. The top is a little bit of wasted space, but they are uniform and stack well too. They fall apart after a couple of single day uses, or after one multi-day use. But I like putting block ice in a container as it keeps the cooler dry
So far I've been able to keep ice for up to 6 days with a pre-chilled cooler. Granted, cooler temp I'm sure gets above 40 degrees sooner than that. But certainly no need for a roto-molded cooler for a 4 night trip
I built a plywood box about 1.5 feet cube and make an ice block in it that exactly fills the center section of my 150Q cooler. I built the box so that the bottom and one side are wired with a couple pieces of bailing wire twisted tight. Line the box with a big plastic bag, put it in the chest freezer and freeze it in layers of about 2 inches at a time. When done I snip the wire ties and take the block out of the bag. It takes a few days to make but I get a big solid block that lasts a good week or more.
That video shows blocks for people making ice sculptures. I'm sure one could figure out a way to replicate it for our use. I worked in a kitchen that did ice sculpture and had vibrating platforms that they put their forms on in the freezer and it kept air bubbles from forming too.
You know.
Looking at this from the standpoint of dealing with a spouse who believes acquiring river running gear has become an obsessive compulsive disorder.
Perhaps just a white towel from a yard sale draped over the cooler with water from the river dumped on the towel periodically would be adequate.
Boil the water before freezing for much clearer ice and allow to sit till cooled off before freezing. It removes a lot of the oxygen.
I freeze all my own block ice and ice cubes, they outlast store bought by days. On long trips I even vaccum seal my ice cubes to get rid of some of the dead air space. Walmart sells ice cube trays that makes cubes about 2x the size of a normal tray, they last longer in a cocktail!
Clinebelle in Loveland makes a form for ice blocks. I own 2, but sadly couldn't convince the wife to get a B-30. They're really easy to use. It takes a little over 1 day in my chest freezer to be solid enough to remove from the form, and another day to be fully deep frozen. Not perfectly bubble free, but way better than a store bought blocks. I only carve ice for cocktails anyway...
My ideal is to have a 3-4 inch block of solid ice that exactly fits my cooler bottom. I used to achieve this by starting with a layer of crushed ice cubes, filling the gaps with cold water and then freezing the whole thing solid by putting some dry ice on top for 24-48 hours. Placing some weight on top keeps the ice from floating.
Now that I own a chest freezer I just make my own custom size ice blocks. I found a plastic container that is exactly 1/2 the foot print of my cooler and use a heavy duty trash compactor bag as a liner. If I boil then cool the water first and build up the block in layers less than 1 inch at a time I get mostly clear ice - no bubbles.
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