Did anyone crack keeping cool

[Ballast]

Did anyone (with the exception of those with a wb) manage to keep their stuff cool/cold and if so how?

It was the hottest Le Mans I can remember and I think we all suffered to a greater or lesser extent. Even our man from Australia found it tough going!

We had 3 beer fridges that did their best but were overcome by the heat in the end, not to mention the fridge and of course 30 Team JPC memebers!  

[Jay (Team Cannonball)]

Team Cannonball officially found an non electrical way to keep the beer cool at least from thursday to sunday morning.

Take one blowup Carlsberg beer cooler. Cover the entire thing in copious amounts of tinfoil. Create a lid out of cardboard and again coat in copious amount of tinfoil. It should now look like a prop from Apollo 13. Fill with cold water and some of those Carrefour ice blocks. For a even cooler effect top up the ice after every Carrefour vist.  Also used a black bodied object as a weight (eg a large bit of wood or a stone) that will absorb a large amount of the reflected heat to keep the lid on. Voila chilled beer till about Sunday lunchtime, if we had bothered to top up the ice on Saturday we would have had cold beer all weekend. I also think that without the extreme heat cold water from the standpipe would have  sufficed.

[Steve Pyro]

We keep ensuring the condenser cooling fins at the back of the freezer were kept cold by draping wet tea towels over the piping.

The freezer produced ice which went in the ice chest to keep the beer nice and chilly  

Also, we had the pool on trickle fill to keep the water cool (stand pipe 10 feet from the pool) and had a dozen or so bottles in the pool with us keeping cool.

[MikeH]

We bought a cheap plastic bin from Carrefour and filled it with cold water from the tap, filled it with beer and water etc., and stuck it in the shade. Worked pretty well, unless we were away for a while, and the sun moved, then you had a bin full of hot water (and drinks!).

[Ballast]

Does anyone know where we can obtain dry ice?

[Steve Pyro]

Dry ice is solid blocks of carbon dioxide at a temperature less than -79 C.

That's pretty cold and is very difficult to transport / keep cold / handle.  Best of luck!

When the temperature rises, the solid CO2 sublimes (turns from a solid directly to a gas) and is capable of giving nasty ice burns (like propane does).

[ecurie]

We had a generator and two fridges with us, so plenty of cold beer.

Generator only ran for a couple of hours in the morning and in the afternoon so not to p*** of the neighbours.

Just open the fridge door for a few seconds and take out as many beers as possible. That way the cold stays in.

Then drink the beers as fast as you can so they can't warm up.

[Robspot]

We didn't do too badly with two fridges (one had an ice compartment) until the genny died on saturday night. We were faced with the very terrifying prospect of all sunday night with no cold beer until some Cornish lads we met dropped off a cold 36 pint keg of Doom bitter on their way home. Took us (three of us) four hours to polish it off but it rounded the weekend off nicely.

Next time we are either taking a 3.5 ton freezer van or a fridge and a freezer.

[Andy Zarse]

Yes FatLad, I managed to keep my crack cool. Mainly by frequent use of the Team JPC swimming pool.

[Ballast]

Hey Steve,

I never said it as a perfect plan  

[Steve Pyro]

Hey Steve,

I never said it as a perfect plan  

But with the correct control measures................. it's do-able  

[Steve Pyro]

Here you go Gaz
http://www.dryice.gbr.fm/frames.asp

Products

Our Heathrow Depot can supply Dry Ice as follows:

Dry Ice Pellets - 9mm round pellets in 10 kgs Bags

Dry Ice Slices - 10 x 1 kg 25mm - other sizes available
 
Dry Ice Solid Blocks - 10 kgs Solid Block

[smokie]

Mark and I managed nice cold beers from the fridge until Thursday, when the rest of my group turned up, went shopping and filled the thing with cheese and other perishable foodstuffs...