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Dry ice!!!!  I would have thought it would last about 2 minutes, having ruined your food before subliming back to a gas (sublime means change from solid state to a gas without passing through an obvious liquid state)!  When we got the opportunity to play with it (I mean, use it in experiments!!) in A Level Physics, we used to have great fun watching it 'hover' on the little cushion of CO2 it produced as it sublimed so quickly at room temperature!!

Maybe what the Auzzies actually use is large blocks of ordinary water ice, deep-frozen?  Large blocks melt slower than cubes and when made in industrial freezers (somewhat colder than domestic freezers), it feels 'dry' and actually sticks to the skin (can cause burns) as there is no layer of liquid water on its surface.

I use dry ice at work too, in a foundry where we have it delivered in huge cool box style containers. It will last ages if it is kept covered but allowed to breath.

The problems are that if you put some things like fizzy drinks in to cool and forget them, they explode violently and it should never be stored in enclosed areas it can starve the oxygen out. Often when getting the dry ice out the bottom of the containers it causes shortness of breathe and dizziness so I would never use it for camping.

Quote: Originally posted by jonellis on 19/6/2007

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salty water is colder

there is a thread on here somewhere about it

if you put salt into water with ice (bucket with beer) you get cold beer within 4 mins

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have you been watching mythbusters

I have just thought about this and have a vision of xtinexoop rolling up the tent flap in the morning and opening  the cool box ready to prepares breakfast , the next thing you know is there is an eerie ground hugging fog creeping across the campsite like something out of a science fiction movie

After donning heavy insulted gloves  and using tongs to remove the contents of the box we hear a cry of the sausages are frozen down to minus 78 degrees so they should be ready some time next week kids