Dry Ice FAQ

♦Note: information regarding dry ice handling, cautions and use.

● OVERVIEW

Dry ice is the solid form of carbon dioxide (CO₂). It's called "dry ice" because it does not melt like wet ice. Dry ice is extremely cold ( -109°F/-78.5°C), non-toxic, and completely dry, it is commonly used as an expendable refrigerant, chief among them as a refrigerant to prevent food from perishing or shipment of medical products and has many other commercial uses.

● PRECAUTIONS: REGARDING DRY ICE
Do not place dry ice inside drinks that maybe accidentally swallowed by anyone. Because of extreme cold temperature it would put the person in extreme danger. You should use gloves or cloth of thick materials to create insulation between the skin and the dry ice, to avoid skin burns or bruises.

● INFORMATION REGARDING DRY ICE:
Dry Ice is a Co2 gas that has been compressed into solid and its temperature can reach 114 degrees below zero. Dry ice comes in 10 pound slabs from the factory and its dimension is about 9 inches by 9 inches square, about 2 inches thick and is white in color. As it evaporates It changes shape slightly. It is easy to break into small pieces with a hammer or any hard object. Dry ice should be handled with care. Do not store dry ice in an airtight container, since dry ice is colder than regular freezer, it can not be stored in a regular household freezer and needs to be stored in a very high quality container. Inside a cooler an amount of dry ice of 5-7 lbs will last for about a day.

● FOR TRANSPORTING PRODUCTS:
Dry ice can be used for transporting or temporary storage of frozen foods, laboratory samples, medicine, etc. For best results, it is recommended to use insulated Styrofoam or plastic containers. To increase insulation, cloth or other materials could be used to be wrap the product and dry ice inside the container and also to wrap the container from outside.

As dry ice will keep evaporating constantly, we recommend using next day or second day service to ship frozen foods and items, 10 pounds of dry ice will keep an item frozen for up to 48 hours, making sure that the dry ice is place on top and around the items to keep frozen, if you just need to keep the items cool, place the dry ice at the bottom of the container and place a layer of material (cardboard for example) and the items on top of it, also 5-7 lbs of dry ice, will keep 2 lbs of frozen food, cold for 24 hours

Before buying dry ice, make sure to check with whatever company you are shipping the items, to verify the amount of dry ice that can be used for shipping, also if traveling check with the airlines to see what is their. 

● FOR POWER OUTAGE:
In case of power outage, dry ice can be used to maintain or reduce temperature inside refrigerator or freezer. Please refer to the above information regarding transporting products and also in addition, it would be helpful to put the product in the refrigerator or freezer in one corner as much as possible and put dry ice next to it and put cloths type, material over them to create maximum insulation. the usual amount for use is 1.5 lbs per cubic ft of refrigerator space

● FOR SPECIAL EFFECTS:
Dry ice could be used for special effects, such as in creating smoke like effect for (like Halloween) parties. It can also be used for school experiments.
The following are some examples of how dry ice can be use for special effects or experiments.

Put the dry ice in a container (example: witch’s cauldron for Halloween) at room temperature and as it evaporate creates a smoke or steam illusion out of the container

Put the dry ice on a surface and pour cold water over it to make it evaporate or hot water to make it evaporate faster and create a smoke looking effects.

Each pound of dry ice gives a certain amount of evaporation (smoke looking effect) with the above we can create bigger special effect for short time or a smaller special effect for a longer time. the most common ration for fog and special effects is 5-10 lbs of dry ice + 4 to 8 gallons of water.