Water bottles instead of Bags of Ice? Salt or no Salt?
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- čas přidán 28. 09. 2017
- Im trying to use ice bottles that I can keep in my freezer ready to go at anytime so I will always have ice for my coolers. Im testing to see if a salt solution water will stay frozen longer that tap water. I know the salt ice bottles are colder and take longer to freeze. but being colder is not always better. I need it to last.
- Sport
Just because it's in liquid form doesn't mean it's warmer. Like the gel packs. They can get below 32 degrees and still be soft. A more accurate thing to do would be to test the actual temperature of the contents of each bottle, not the physical states.
that's what I was thinking also. Use 2 coolers and check the temperatures of each cooler. If the salt water in the cooler does keep it colder, then it should take longer to melt also.
Gel packs are different chemistry. Water, if moving, can be down to 30 F (negative 1c, I think...my conversions were long ago). Still it can be 31 at lowest. Alcohols used in gel packs is liquid state at lower temps. And now I want to try homemade gel packs, dammit. I’ve things to do!
I guess both water and salt water have the same energy output, just salt water is releasing its energy faster being in the melted state sooner. The best thing would be to make your freezer as cold as possible 24 hours before you need the bottles for the cooler. This way the ice is coldest and can have the most cooling energy.
I don’t think there is such a thing as colder or warmer ice. It seems to me that for the same reason that salt water requires a lower temperature in order to freeze (the salt content impeding the normal rate of freezing water), the salt water radiates more cold outward (freezing nearby objects) and returns to a liquid state faster because, when stored at room temperature, the salt water cannot sustain its solid state for as long as the pure water can.
@@lisettegarcia I've been looking further into this since my first response and it seems right that water and salt water have the same energy output when they are the same temperature. The points you made about this all make sense but some people can have colder or warmer ice depending on the time. Adding salt lowers the freezing point and water still in liquid state is absorbing cold faster. Most people doing testing place the bottles into a freezer overnight and look for results the next day. The salt water always wins in a short freezer test if the bottles are big enough to not fully freeze to the same temperature. Put both in a freezer for a week and eventually everything is the same temperature so for sure no such thing as warm and cold ice and they same energy output!
The advantages of having potable water after it melts, far outweigh the tiny advantage in cooling of salt water.
And realize the science i Tells you completely opposite and there's no logic to any of thiss
William this guy has no idea what hes talking about
Getn Lost - Thanks for the test and the time you spent on it. I found it very interesting. Many comments left me confused, but the test and the video are greatly appreciated....by me and, clearly, by many others. Thanks for a vid that made me think a bit.
Thank you for solving this question for me. I go camping a lot and I use the melted ice water to brush my teeth, wash my hair or simply to drink. I obviously can not do that with saltwater. I appreciate you making this video.
I use the gel out of the freezer packs and pour it into the Powerade bottles to do the same thing you do when hunting. Powerade/Gatorade bottles are much more durable than the thin plastic bags the gel comes in. So if you have any cheap plastic freezer packs, gel works much better in the bottles than water.
The salt lowers the required temperature for the water to "phase change"........ Meaning the water has to be colder than 32 degrees to change into a solid........ Both bottles could be at 30 degrees and the salted one will not be a solid.......that's why northern cities spread salt on icey roads...... So the ice turns into a liquid ( melts) sooner than waiting for the weather to get to 33 degrees for natural melting. So the melt time isn't really an accurate test of the temperature of your bottle or what cooling affect it adds to your cooler. It's a psychological thing as humans think liquid water must be warmer than 32 degrees...... Not true when salt is present
Steve Nimmer I think you can make the gel at home with a few basic ingredients
I'd make sure to pull the labels off and mark up some warning on the bottle, otherwise some kid might think they are drinking a blue Powerade.
@@marka7519 heat shrink /hot glue the lid closed
@@xtspin6141 sounds good! BTW, I've had a few Powerade bottles in the freezer for about 6 months now, they are great. And the zero sugar Powerade is the only no calorie drink I like, besides water and tea, so everybody stock up on those!
Thanks for the test and time to make the video. Gave me the information I wanted / needed.
Use the frozen salt water to pre-cool your coolers over night. The colder you get your cooler before packing it with everything the longer it will stay cool.
Good advice 👍
Why not use salt ice for all of the ice needs.?
Thanks for the tip
The saltwater doesn't get colder. Just because it requires longer or colder to freeze doesn't mean the Straightwater isn't just as cold After the same amount of time
Thanks for making this video, very useful.
I use them same bottles. But never tryed salt may try that thanks for the vidoe good info. Have a great weekend god bless
I have used frozen water bottles for decades. It serves two purposes, a coolant and drinking water. As the ice melts, you can drink the water. Once I placed several liter bottles in my front ice chest on my bass boat and they froze the cokes I put in it. I now use smaller water bottles to keep my food and drinks cold and to provide water in a pinch!
Great channel man great content keep it up. I actually saw you up elk hunting this last season in Idaho next time will stop and have a beer
Hey Getn Lost thanks for taking the time to make this vid im getting a soft pack cooler for my birthday because i love to eat the fish i catch so i have been looking for ice pack options , after seeing your vid and what you and your fans are saying i concluded that im definetly getting a yeti 1 pound ice pack and a small gatorade bottle to keep everything cold.. Sir thank you for conforming my decision. BTW this was not a stupid video
saved us a lot of trouble. Nice video!
Not stupid at all, I found this information of value. Thank you
As I understand, saltwater still is really cold even in a liquid state and it takes longer to heat up, as opposed to freshwater staying frozen longer but when it melts it heats up much quicker. So the real question is even though it's in a liquid state, does it change the temperature in the cooler significantly?
Since frozen saltwater tends to freeze other things in direct contact with it, but salt tends to melt ice into a cold liquid state, it may be worth to experiment using both a saltwater ice bottle in direct contact with a fresh water ice bottle and see if it extends the life of the freshwater ice but since the. I'm just speculating, I have no idea if that would or wouldn't work nor am i too savy on the science principle except at a basic level.
"Ice" is relative.. it should be temperature used. The melted salt water may be colder than the ice fresh water because they have different liquid,solid temperature.
Nice video. My folks used to rinse out the milk cartons back in the day, and freeze them. We used them for the coolers and we also used them for ice for the home made ice cream maker. just hammer them to crush the ice and put in the freezer tub.
I'm thinking of trying a mixture of both. 25% salt water bottles to get that super lower temp and 75% regular for longevity. Thank you for the content!
A Venezuelan here watching the video, I was searching how to make ice last longer and that lead me to this video. It saved me time and resources as less than 2 weeks ago we suffered an electricity/communication blackout (the whole country) and there was not even water supply (many Venezuelans are still without either). So, to me it wasn't stupid, it was clear and helped me. I'm going to go with just fresh water as I can drink it or use it after all.
Thanks.
Hope everything goes better in Venezuela soon, sending prayers your way.
Not a stupid video, it was verry helpful. When camping you need coldness for a longer time not super cold for a short time. A bonus of the plain water when it melts, you can drink it. Thanks for your efforts!!
Fresh water... that way you can drink them as they melt... WINNING!
That's what I was going to say :) We always freeze our water bottles and use them for the cooler. Keeps food cold and we have cold drinks.
Good theory but unless you have enough water- water gone and food gets warm.
Can freezing water in "regular" water bottles cause chemical leaching from the bottles?
Molon Labe Doesn’t leach happen in heat?
Salt water won, who wants to drink 40 degree beer.
Thank you for the video. I was wondering the same for when we have an Emergency. I was wondering what would last longer as we can go weeks without power from a Hurricane. I think thought it would be a great idea to just freeze the Powerade so then you have the drink when it defrosts but also having the water is a great too since our water tends to go out a few days after our power. Thanks again for the video saves me the trouble of doing the experiment.
Thank you so much for doing this "stupid video" as you called it. I have been trying to figure out the answer of which one last longer for about an hour, and you're the first video that's actually given me the answer. So very grateful 👍
Great video and good hack! Water bottles also keep the ice water from filling up the bottom of your cooler, causing food to get soggy.
That was a good video
It’s good to know
I think the salt packs would be good for coolers that are being opened more often like the drinks cooler
You just have to mark them so people don’t try to drink them
Been using the smaller Powerade bottles for over a year but I added food coloring just for the fun of it.
Water is life, salt water will make you ill.
If your packing, then pack to survive if things go wrong.
A very good test though for short term day weekend trip packing.
Well ya salt lowers the melting point so it will melt first but you need to do it in a cooler and and check the temperature because that salt water is still colder than the fresh water
BINGO :-]
Not a stupid video!!!! 7:18 Actually answered my question. There 'IS' a trade-off. If you want colder ice, add salt, but it won't last as long. If you don't add salt, the ice isn't as cold but it last longer. I'm SURE there is a physics law that covers this.
Great job!!
Nice testing....Good stuff...
I prime my cooler prior to going on a trip. I put frozen gallon jugs in the cooler. It’s the same premise as adding hot water or boiling water to your thermos before you go and put your favorite hot beverage in it. If you put a hot beverage into a cool thermos it will take away some of the liquids heat. So I prime my cooler the same way! I hope this helps y’all.
Great video the salt water freezes at a lower temp but melts at a higher temp so chills the surrounds faster good if you want to cool down fresh meat or fish two bottles from the same freezer will be the same temperature the pure water will last longer if you used a few salt bottles they would extend the life of the pure water ones that is how yeti cooler bricks work with regular ice regards mike
Thanks for testing the salt water thing, good to know about freezing if that is needed (not usually for me). I was resisting using salt because I’d rather have drinkable water as a backup to backup. I got 7+ days on 25qt cooler from Cabela’s (ice rated for 5 days) on a pre-thanksgiving week trip with niece to Joshua Tree NP, and discovered using frozen water bottles kind of by accident when I froze some the size you showed to pre chill the cooler with the intent on having them melted be cool water in the desert. The blue ice type chillers only lasted 3 days while the the bottled ice just kept going & going.
The other suggestion I wanted to mention was reusing the ice pack bags that a friends Rx came shipped in. I refroze those & used them successfully for pre chilling the cooler, then tossed them back in freezer for next time. Not sure how long those would work on a trip since I wanted the fresh water to drink later in the trip, but they worked great in the pre chill phase of getting ready. Thx again for your simple video.
Very useful info. Thanks for taking the time to share.
If you put salt on your hand and put ice on it you can get frostbite because the water is still cold. The question is the liquid still cold. Liquid nitrogin freezes stuff on contact since its cold but is still a liquid. At room temprature it becomes gas. So even though it melted is it still cold
Thanks for this. Salt=colder. No salt=lasts longer. Good info
I really appreciate this experiment! I know yall are concerned about whether the contents inside the bottle is liquid or solid (ice) but remember the salty water can still be well below 32F and be completely liquid depending on the amount of dissolved salt. The only way to test this I think is to put a (remote) thermometer in a cooler with each one and see how long it takes each one to get past it's melting point, so you could see how long it takes a prechilled cooler to get from say 28F to 36F and see if there is a time difference. The cooling action mostly comes from the BTUs absorbed (latent heat of melting) during the change of state (melting) which is 144 BTUs per pound (for pure water). If the ice is below 32F or water is above 32 it's only 1 BTU per pound for each (1) degree F. I don't know if the salt water freezing and melting at a lower temp contains more overall BTU capacity or not. I think the soft gel packs just expand less so there's less chance of rupture and making a mess, but I could be wrong. It would be very interesting to see if salt or glycol or something else requires more latent heat of fusion/melting than water's 144 BTU/lb regardless of melting temperature. Thanks for the video, was really cool!
Good info.
Thanks for sharing.
Not a stupid video at all. Honest review !
Great vid man. Straight to the point, no nonsense. Good info.
We used to sail in the New Mexico desert. Yes, we have a big lake. It's almost dried up right now but it's filling up this winter. Anyways, we used to spend virtually every weekend on the boat. We would just fill 6 or 8 two liter soda bottles with water and freeze them. We would put them in the ice box on the boat and it would stay cool for 5 days, even in 100+ degree temps. In spring or fall, when it isn't as hot, you can get a week out of it with a well insulated box.
I do the same for a big Igloo cooler for regular camping. The Igloo isn't as well insulated as the ice box on the boat was but it will still stay cool for a 3 day weekend with a little ice left.
You also get cold water as the ice melts if you want.
For many years I have used salt water bottles for coolers. I use a very heavy salt to water solution. I add a bag of ice to cooler as well and my experience has been that they are colder and last longer they also froze the ice around them. As a side note I freeze them in a chest freezer much colder than your fridge freezer..
Yes, I do the same; chest freezers are (usually) set to about -10 degrees (deep freeze), vs 0-10 degrees for a fridge/ freezer. Doesn't seem like a big difference, but if you read about long term frozen storage, the recommendation for storing "frozen" foods is 2-3 months in a fridge/ freezer, vs 1 year+ for a "deep" freezer. Fridge/ freezer is designed for short term storage and ease of thawing food that is rotated/ used on a regular basis :)
The °F scale is based off of equal parts water and salt. So if you make that ratio then it freezes at 0°F.
Thanks for doing this test, I always wondered. I freeze half gallon milk/OJ containers with screw tops. They fit into the square corners of the cooler, stand up or lay down, they keep bag ice frozen much longer, provide extra water if jugs are cleaned properly for extended trips.
I line the bottom of cooler with frozen 1/2 gal jugs, wire shelf rack over them. Not much use for Ice then.
Excellent video. Thanks bro
I've been using bottled water this way for a few years now ,works great & you will have water to drink when it starts to thaw out ,also keeps meat & other items from getting ruined, also keeps the 🍻COLD for at least 4 days in a good cooler 👍👍
Great video. My feeling is that salt water ice container used in conjunction with cube ice will keep the cubes ice in your cooler longer. The reason being is when I do it all cubed ice that touches the salt ice containers freeze into a solid block. It kind of what you said with the food. I understand there is more science but that is just my experience.
How about you use both? You can freeze things and still have it cold when the salt ice melts
SMART! The salted colder ice slows the melting of the 'non' salted ice by being cooler and the non-salted ice will last even longer. VERY SMART!!!
Very helpful thank you! Saved me some salt lol
Thanks for the videos its useful
Good to know... Thanks
What make ice effective is not the specific temperature, it's the phase change. To raise 1 gram of water by 1 degree C take one Kalorie (spelled with a K), but it takes many, many times that amount of heat to raise 1 gram of water from a frozen 32F to a liquid 32F. It's called the Latent heat effect. The effect is very large, over a 100 times the energy required to change phase. This is how evaporative cooling works and this is why steam is such a good cleaner. It is why water will sit right at 212 for many minutes before coming to a boil (the phase change from liquid to steam).
tarstarkusz I honestly do not know if phase change is an important factor in cooling the other contents in a cooler, so take this question with a grain of salt, if you will. How does the phase change affect the cooling effect of frozen liquid inside a container (bottle) that is inside another container (cooler) surrounded by other items? I would assume (correctly or not) that the much larger thermal mass of a frozen salt water liquid in a same sized bottle would produce much more cooling effect, because of its larger thermal mass, compared to just H2O in the same bottle. What am I missing?
The reason ice is so effective at keeping a cooler cool is that it has to absorb an enormous amount of energy before it melts. This is why a jar of 32F water will not have the same cooling effect as the same jar with 32F ice in it. Whether or not it is in a bottle or just laying on the floor of the cooler makes no difference. Heat gets into the cooler and that heat needs to be absorbed by something. The beautiful thing about latent heat is that the ice (not water) can absorb an enormous amount of heat without actually dropping in temperature (the phase change comes first)
The cooler construction will help because it will keep out the heat that the ice absorbs. The better insulated the cooler is, the more effective ANY cooling system will be.
Salt water has a lower melting temperature. Also, whatever % of the water is salt, is displacing water. Salt does not experience a phase change and does not have latent heat. Salt water, when it is frozen will keep the cooler colder, but probably not any longer than regular ice. To get a large effect you need to use a lot of salt and that salt takes up room in the jar. Also, the ice is going be at the same temperature as the freezer. If your freezer is set at 28f, adding salt will not magically make it get colder. It is perfectly possible to have 28F ice, but that ice will quickly reach 32F, but it will sit at 32 and remain solid until all of the latent heat effect's heat is absorbed and the ice begins to melt. This will simply happen at a lower temperature for salt-water.
You may want to google latent heat effect.
When using ice packs to keep things cool in a cooler, the freezing point of the liquid in those packs is the temperature at which the pack will spend most of the time, for the reason "tarstarkusz" already explained. The heat required to melt ice ("latent heat of fusion") is about 140 times the amount of heat required to increase the temp of that same ice from 30°F to 31°F. So if an ice pack is 10°F when it comes out of the freezer and is placed in a room temperature cooler, the temp. of that ice pack will fairly quickly rise to very, very, slightly under the freezing point, at which it will remain (for a lot longer than it took to rise to that temp.) until fully melted. That's why an ice pack that freezes at or near 32°F is only really good at keeping a cooler at refrigerator temp (~under 40°F) rather than at freezer temps... to do that, you need a saltwater (brine) solution, or a commercially-produced "phase change" pack with similar properties as brine, and a much higher price tag. Table salt works OK, but is only optimal if your freezer goes down below -6°F, which is the eutectic point of a NaCl-Water solution.
Also, salt water has a lower heat capacity that pure water which you've somewhat touched on. So per unit volume (x jugs of frozen water), you're better off with pure water. To keep your beer cold, pure water ice is best; ice cream would need more fully saturated salt water. At 100% salt saturation the phase change happens below 0°F
Good to know, thanks
if you really want to test them, you need to take the temperature of the water in both. you can't go by how much "ice" ("ice" meaning saltwater ice) is in the bottle. even though the salt water bottle had little "ice" it still may have been colder than the regular ice bottle, as the "ice" will melt quicker than the regular ice. depending on how much salt you added, will determine how much lower it will take to freeze, and conversely, how much lower it will start to melt.
I guess no one is listening to us.
The water in the salted bottle is still colder than the ice in the fresh water bottle. Salt water takes longer to freeze and it's colder when it melts. That's why you add salt to an ice cream churn to melt the ice at a colder temp
Thanks!
What would happen if you used a combination of both salt water and non-salt water frozen bottles in a cooler instead of just one or the other?
I just want to say, good job showing how water without salt has a freezing point of 0 degrees Celsius and how adding salt to water drops the freezing point. Salt does not melt ice, it causes the freezing point to drop, there fore it stays liquid at colder temps and can freeze the stuff around it. When you understand salt doesnt melt ice then it all makes sense.
It may seem like a stupid video but it was helpful and informative, thanks
I would be interested to see what the outside temp of the bottles were. Just because the saltwater is liquid and the freshwater is still solid does not mean the freshwater is colder. The liquid saltwater may still cool a cooler better than the 30 deg freshwater even though it is still solid.
the salt water doesn't get any colder than the temp of your freezer same with the freshwater the reason for the salt water helping your cooler be colder is it will soak up heat faster than freshwater removing heat from surrounding parts of your cooler ....sounds weird but as the salt water melt the water will start moving in the bottle transfering heat from things touching it to the salt water but the fresh water will perform this function much slower because it will not liquify till 32f or 0c at witch time it will start doing the same thing but the salt water will turn liquid below 0c or 32F and start this process at a cooler temp ......
It's all the latent heat effect. This is why 32f water raises quickly, but why a 32F ice cube takes a long time to turn to water. The salt lowers the temp at which the latent heat effect kicks in.
You could fill the bottles up with a flavored drink like iced coffee along with flavored water for some added treats 😋 The coffee drink could be for the ride home from camping 😉
Thx for this
Did a test in my reflective double bubble lined cooler and the regular water lasted longer. Taking a 7 day river trip this spring and hoping with upgraded cooler and ice bottles to not have to buy ice.
everchevy Yes the water without salt seems to last longer. The salt bottle is colder, it definitely did not last as long.
Great video, didn’t read all the comments, but first thought was what about a base layer of frozen salt water with no salt frozen water on top. The frozen salt water will help keep the ice water colder and frozen longer. At least I think that would be logically correct?!
My next thought was what about if the salt water was actually fully frozen. When fully frozen instead of doing a timed freezing process...the salt water will definitely last longer with equal freezing capability.
It doesn’t matter what you go with, they’re both at the same temperature. Salt only changes freezing point, not how cold something is. At 32 degrees F one is solid and the other not. But same temperature
Good comparison
I drive truck here in AZ, been driven for 12 yrs & usen like gatorade empty bottles as ice in my little cooler, It works great ,get home loosen up the caps- lids stick them back in freezer for next day.A lot cheaper & lot less messerier than ice.
I would guess that how long a bottle stays frozen is not the test for how much "cooling power" a bottle has. A bottle with salt dissolved in its water will be more heavy and more dense. Think if it as a thermal mass of water, and a larger thermal mass of water mixed with minerals. So, even if the salt water bottle melts faster, it may still provide more "cooling power" than the plain water bottle. Therefore, if the salt water bottle weighs significantly more than the plain water bottle, it will provide more cooling power than the plain water bottle.
On another video, a guy covered 2 thawed steaks. One with a frozen salt bottle, the other was a frozen plain water bottle in a cooler. 5 hours later, the salt bottle covered steak was frozen solid. The frozen water only covered steak was as limp as it was put in there. The way to properly cool items is to pre-chill the cooler, then place 2 salt bottles on one side of the cooler and place 2 water only bottles on the other side. Place a gel pack next to the salt bottles to act as a buffer to keep items you don't want frozen solid. Then add drinks and food items. Cover all them with a bag of ice. This will last 3-5 days, depending on how often you open the cooler and how cool you can shade the cooler from direct heat. Extra insulating the cooler works too.
I have been doing this for decades. I use filtered water (I have a Sawyer Squeeze water filter) and as the ice melts, I have ice-cold water for drinking.
BTW - I keep eight, 32 oz. bottles of ice in my refrigerator-freezer, and when my power was out for two days in July 2016, the food in my refrigerator stayed cool until the power was restored.
Use pink RV antifreeze instead of salt. Adjust the formula to freeze right above the temperature of your freezer. Can be used to keep things frozen, ice does not, or as an ice extender.
What if you put two bottles in your cooler. One with salt and one fresh? Do they stay colder for longer than just fresh water?
Thanks for doing that otherwise I'd be doing my own test.
What if you sprinkle some salt on top of qubed ice in the cooler?
depending on cooler space and intended use, you could use both. salt water bottles would slow the melting of fresh water bottles
I saw another video where they added wads of cotton to the water and it stayed solid a LOT longer. Might be worth a try.
I use a combination of salt ice and regular ice in my bottles using a Rubbermaid chest for work. I use the smaller 20oz powerade bottles so I can get more water bottles in my cooler. But I live in Phoenix, and when it is 120+ outside. I'm just grateful I have cold water throughout my day. They are melted by 6pm but the water is still cold and I cycle out the melted bottles with frozen each morning
Maybe you should just take both? I'd imagine the fresh staying frozen longer and the salt being colder, used together, would make a primo cooler. Am I stupid? Just take both
If you have a cooler filled with ice and you put in bottles/containers of frozen saltwater you can keep the ice frozen for longer.
What happens is the saltwater ice will melt first (at around 28°F). As it melts it needs to draw energy from the regular water ice in order to break the bonds and turn into a liquid.
As it does this it lowers the temperature of the regular ice and thus the regular ice will stay frozen for longer than it otherwise would have.
In effect you are sacrificing the saltwater ice and letting it melt first in order to make the regular ice last longer.
Thanks for sharing. You also have water to drink.
I'm curious what temperature of both is, Even if the salt water bottle has turned back to liquid, if it's colder than fresh water bottle, it should still be a better option. Thinking I may get one of those temp guns & try the same experiment testing if there is a temp difference hours later.
Agreed. Let us know.
Okay, finished the experiment & it seems odd, but I'm sure someone with a better knowledge of thermodynamics can explain it.
So I put two identical PowerAide bottle in the freezer, one fresh water & one with about a quarter inch of salt in it ( well shaken with hot water in both & left to cool for an hour). Next morning at 9 I start the experiment. Salt temp 27.3 fresh temp 30.6. Why salts so much colder when they were side by side in the freezer makes no sense to me, but that's the reading.
10 am: salt 31.3, fresh 34.5.
11am salt 32.5, fresh 37.6.
12 pm salt 45.1, fresh 39.2.
1 pm, salt 52.9, fresh 40.7.
2 pm salt 57.7, fresh 41.8
@@ruffus8039 looks like I will be sticking to freshwater then.
I wonder if they could play off of each other, keeping the "cooler" colder and longer... for example: in a medium-sized cooler, add two salted and two non-salted water bottles. keep the salted next to the non-salted bottles.
I use blocks of ice, frozen to about 5 deg. in gallon ice cream containers, butter containers, Tupperware, whatever... put the ice in the cooler and leave the plastic at home. That way when I pack up camp to leave I can drain the melt and carry lighter. I also freeze half of my water bottles and set them out to thaw as needed. Two weeks ago it was in the mid 90s, on a sandbar with no shade, UV was extreme. I put about 2 gallons of solid ice (5 small blocks) in the bottom of an igloo cube and topped it off with bagged ice over the food. Left Friday at 2, by Monday there were still small chunks of ice, and our container of tuna salad was as cold as ice cream. I have an orca, but the important stuff (beer) goes in there. My dad does it differently, but he spends a week in the desert. He fills his engle with only block ice he freezes himself and uses that to replenish his cheap coolers as needed... after a week camping he's giving ice away before he heads home.
Good Info........I would have liked to see you use a laser thermometer on each one to see the exact temp of each bottle. Does regular water stay at 32 degrees, and the salt water drops to say 0, or what?
Depending on the freezer you are using, the ice water will definitely be colder. The salt water has a lower freezing point, so it has the potential to be a liquid and still be colder than non-salt water. Do not confuse specific heat and state (liquid vs solid) with cooling capacity. You could use Propylene glycol (antifreeze) and make ice packs as cold as any residential freezer will go, and they will still be liquid.
That make a sense we use salt to avoid freezing so the salted solution do the job to go back to liquid faster then water☺
Could you have tested the both bottles in a cooler rather than on your desk?
Without knowing the temperature we could infer that butter, which stays solid longer at room temperature, would be be an even better choice than frozen tap water.
I did the same test. Not much difference when they do melt completely. I thought the salt water would stay frozen longer but not so. So, I will stay with fresh so I can drink it as it melts !
I don’t know if anyone knows this but that is how you make homemade ice cream with salt an love not just ice
Transfer of heat. The salt lowers the melting point of ice which speeds the transfer of heat. This gives it the ability to freeze items touching it since it transfers the heat faster from the item. Your trade-off is it concentrates the cold and freezes close items as the salt ice melts at a faster rate. The regular ice transfers heat from the cooler and items at a slower rate, allowing it to last longer. Items are chilled but not frozen. Both ice water and salt ice are the same temperatures when frozen, just one transfers heat faster.
Interesting.How does it work if you put half and half of the various bottles? say 2 salt, 2 fresh? does the fresh stay colder longer because it gets a boost from the salt bottles?? I might have to try this at home and see.
Logotha Ironsides From some videos I have seen it works best when using both. Some say salt water bottles with bags of ice works super.
I'll try this later👍
I leave unopened bottle water in the freezer if the refrigerator goes out it won't destroy my food while I'm at work 😑👍
We just freeze a bunch of bottles of Gatorade and 1.5l water. That way we can take them out of the cooler as we need and have icy cold beverage all day long as they thaw out. We always have more than we'll drink to keep things cold.
We add 2 liter bottles to the freezer during hurricane season helps keeps freezer cold if power goes out.
Brandi E C ---I've been doing basically the same thing for years... Only I use my discarded Plastic milk/Gallon jugs (Sanitized w/bleach of course). They kept my frozen foods SAFE very well... Example--My vacuum sealed Early peas were still 85%-90% still frozen during last Hurricane power outage. No Power/No Running water!! that lasted 8 DAYS 7 NIGHTS Altogether. PLUS as An added bonus a few of them provided A much-needed source of FRESH water available to drink as well !!!! Savannah GA
To make ice cream you add salt to the ice so that it gets colder, but it melts quicker.
If you had a small second cooler you might be able to use the salt water bottles to keep ice cream or other frozen goods for a day or two.
Well, actually you add the salt so it melts. Melting (changing from a solid to a liquid) like evaporation, (changing from a liquid to a gas) is a cooling process for the container that sweats. It is why we sweat when we are hot, it cools our body as the moisture evaporates from our skin (in less humid climates :-) ).
Use one of each?
Laundry soap and rubbing alcohol are used to make diy liquid ice packs fill your bottles with the solution. Also when bending brass and copper they fill the tube with this 50/50 solution put it in a freezer the metal bends with out breaking.
will this keep beer cold ? or should i just stick to buying ice
Do a combo of the both in your cooler
How about sea salt vs table salt