# Home Made Ice packs



## I Fish (Sep 24, 2008)

For the last few years I've been using water with a little salt in plastic bottles(32oz Poweraide or 2 liter pop) instead of store bought ice. I may have found something a little better.

Like many, my Father in Law gets his medicine shipped to him. It comes in a styrofoam cooler and has 2 or 3 plastic bag ice packs, called Nordic Ice. I don't know what the gel is made of, but the original ice packs say they are non toxic. He always saved them and re-used them, but, eventually the plastic bags always end up with a hole in them.

Sooo, I cut the corner off a few bags and squeezed the gel into one of my bottles.
In a little test I did, the bottle with the gel stayed frozen longer than a bottle with salt water and a bottle with pure tap water. I'm going to play around with the 3 and an infrared thermometer to see how much different the temps are. Will update at that time.

In the mean time, if you have access to those ice packs, don't throw them out just yet.


----------



## CrappieCowboy15 (Apr 13, 2011)

look up polar bear tubes you make them with pvc. I imagine if you put that stuff in there you would be on a gravy train with biscuit wheels.


----------



## 1BigIcehole (Nov 19, 2015)

Great tip!
Thanks, I work in a bunch of hospitals and have access to these daily.


----------



## buckeyebowman (Feb 24, 2012)

Neat idea. About 4-5 years ago I bought some plastic bag ice packs at Marc's called Enviro-Coolant in the closeout section. They were like 5 for 99 cents, so I bought ten of them. Not a single one has sprung a leak yet, but if one does I know what to do with it. 

The salt water idea makes sense since brine freezes at a lower temperature than does fresh water. Despite knowing this, the idea never occurred to me. But then, we'd freeze bottles of regular drinking water as coolant because when they melted, we could drink them.


----------

