Dry ice in cooler with ice—

That’s what I want. I filled it up for an elderly family and I suspect they will not need it till tomorrow night maybe even latter. I got them a generator set up and unless they run out of gas they can keep the refrigerator going. I figure if they need it they can bust pieces off.

The extreme cold from dry ice goes to the bottom.

So what you want to remain frozen goes under it. And then what you want cold above. I've also found it beneficial to play with a thin layer of something over the dry ice... layering In a cooler that's super effective maybe a thin layer of packing foam and in a standard igloo type just a plastic film/bag. Otherwise you may still end up with semi-frozen drinks on top.


Have used this method on many 2 week trips in desert type regions with success. IE: south Utah in summer.

eta: Ideally it's best to have a second cooler that you load once a day, from the dry ice cooler, so that you only open it once a day to increase it's lifespan. Preferably in the cool of the morning.

Growing up my father had a boat on the coast with an ice box. He would buy block ice at the marina but it would last only a couple of days. He started putting a bucket of water in the deep freeze at the house and that would last a week. I do the same thing but use a smaller one for my yeti when hunting and taking deer to get processed.