5 ms·

How do you safely handle dry ice? I'm legitimately asking, I know retailers sell it with big warning labels but I wouldn't know how to transport it, move it, an

How do you safely handle dry ice? I'm legitimately asking, I know retailers sell it with big warning labels but I wouldn't know how to transport it, move it, and similar.

tnorthcutt 6y ago
Wear gloves, keep it in a paper bag or cardboard box, etc
- 082349872349872 6y ago
  Here the home delivery for frozen groceries is by styrofoam containers, containing dry ice in cardboard boxes along with the ordered goods.
vraylle 6y ago
Typically wherever you buy it they will have small Styrofoam coolers next to it. It typically comes sealed in thin plastic bags. Get it home, put on a glove, and throw it in your freezer. Any glove is fine as long as you're not standing there with it in your hand. There are several grocery stores that have it available here.
EvanAnderson 6y ago
Wear gloves when handling it-- don't touch it with bare skin. Store it in insulated containers, but don't seal it in an airtight container. Maintain adequate ventilation. It will sink to the floor and displace oxygen.
dfginio 6y ago
Other people are giving good advice, but you should also know that it isn't that dangerous. People have died from the fumes, but only when they have a lot of dry ice in an enclosed area (e.g. a car). It can cause explosions, but that's mostly from people going out of their way to build bombs. It can cause burns, but not instantly and the pain will warn you before you get seriously injured. Don't be particularly afraid. It's not hard to handle.
- moron4hire 6y ago
  If it were really dangerous, you wouldn't be able to buy scads of it at a grocery store.
- dang 6y ago
  Could you please stop creating accounts for every few comments you post? We ban accounts that do that. This is in the site guidelines: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html. You needn't use your real name, of course, but for HN to be a community, users need some identity for other users to relate to. Otherwise we may as well have no usernames and no community, and that would be a different kind of forum. https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comment&storyText=false&prefix&page=0&query=by:dang%20community%20identity https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comme...
heelix 6y ago
It is not super dangerous stuff. You can (and should not) juggle it bare handed briefly without ill effect. One thing to consider is dry ice is frozen CO2. Camping, it was a clever way to pack in our steaks without having a watery mess. What we figured out, was the mosquitos are attracted to CO2. The poor guy with the food pack had a cloud of blood suckers around him every portage. A normal cooler works fine. Something that seals and could build pressure would be problematic.
- thaumasiotes 6y ago
  > What we figured out, was the mosquitos are attracted to CO2. Yes, unfortunately, the usual meaning of a concentration of CO2 is that there's an animal nearby exhaling it.
at_a_remove 6y ago
I've handled it for decades. First thing you do when you get your slab is that you wrap it in two towels, then you fold down the loose edges and pop that in a cooler. Towels towels towels, that's my go-to. You can handle dry ice with your bare hands -- I have scores of times -- the trick is that contact with pressure (squeezing or weight) is what is going to give you frostbite. Otherwise, I have swiftly moved two pound chunks with bare hands if I were lazy. Any pair of winter or driving gloves is sufficient so long as the fingertips aren't open. Just leather gloves are dandy. Now, if you're feeling fearful, you can drive with the windows down, but to be honest, carbon dioxide in too high of quantities will invoke a gasping/coughing reflex. You would have plenty of warning. You can verify this by putting a small chunk of dry ice in water, leaning over the cup, and inhaling. You'll cough, and that is the reflex to look far. It isn't shy about making itself known. I have driven around with fifty pounds of dry ice in coolers with no issues. Now that you've driven home, you can take the dry ice, towels and all, and put one in the freezer, one or two in the fridge. Now, this stuff sublimates, so you won't have water everywhere, but don't worry about pressure building up in the two compartments, you'd have to use straps to hold the doors down tight enough to be an issue. I put the dry ice at the top of each compartment, as a trend. It'll save your refrigerator's worth full of food.
- 01100011 6y ago
  One note: if it behaves like dry ice in a cooler does, it can carbonate many of your food items. I've used dry ice on camping trips and ended up with carbonated fruit.
  - at_a_remove 6y ago
    I have used this, in a more dangerous fashion, to recarbonate flat soda.
    - function_seven 6y ago
      Drop a few pebbles of dry ice into a 2-liter bottle, cap, and monitor for plastic stretching sounds?
pwg 6y ago
> How do you safely handle dry ice? Heavy leather work gloves have worked well for me the few times I've needed to load some dry ice into a freezer due to a power cut.
masklinn 6y ago
Dry ice is really easy to handle. If you don't swallow it, the main danger is letting it sublimate in an enclosed space as that'll fill said space with CO2, but we are very sensitive to CO2 levels (unlike CO or N2) so the danger is low there, just don't be a complete moron. Seriously, dry ice sublimates so when you hold a block or pieces unless you actually grip the thing, the layer of sublimating CO2 protects your hand rather well. Use gloves or tools if you're going to move large amounts (e.g. dozens of blocks by hand, or pellets by the literal fistful) both to protect your hand and to avoid wasting your dry ice more than necessary. But as far as "dangerous" things go, dry ice is really low on the scale. The biggest danger is putting too much in a completely sealed and locked environment as the sublimation will cause significant expansion, increase in pressure, and therefore a possible explosion.
cozzyd 6y ago
If you want to make a sound you'll never forget, put some dry ice on a metal sheet.

How do you safely handle dry ice? I'm legitimately asking, I know retailers sell it with big warning labels but I wouldn't know how to transport it, move it, and similar.

tnorthcutt 6y ago

Wear gloves, keep it in a paper bag or cardboard box, etc

082349872349872 6y ago
Here the home delivery for frozen groceries is by styrofoam containers, containing dry ice in cardboard boxes along with the ordered goods.

vraylle 6y ago

Typically wherever you buy it they will have small Styrofoam coolers next to it. It typically comes sealed in thin plastic bags. Get it home, put on a glove, and throw it in your freezer. Any glove is fine as long as you're not standing there with it in your hand. There are several grocery stores that have it available here.

EvanAnderson 6y ago

Wear gloves when handling it-- don't touch it with bare skin. Store it in insulated containers, but don't seal it in an airtight container. Maintain adequate ventilation. It will sink to the floor and displace oxygen.

dfginio 6y ago

Other people are giving good advice, but you should also know that it isn't that dangerous. People have died from the fumes, but only when they have a lot of dry ice in an enclosed area (e.g. a car). It can cause explosions, but that's mostly from people going out of their way to build bombs. It can cause burns, but not instantly and the pain will warn you before you get seriously injured. Don't be particularly afraid. It's not hard to handle.

moron4hire 6y ago
If it were really dangerous, you wouldn't be able to buy scads of it at a grocery store.
dang 6y ago
Could you please stop creating accounts for every few comments you post? We ban accounts that do that. This is in the site guidelines: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html. You needn't use your real name, of course, but for HN to be a community, users need some identity for other users to relate to. Otherwise we may as well have no usernames and no community, and that would be a different kind of forum. https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comment&storyText=false&prefix&page=0&query=by:dang%20community%20identity https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comme...

heelix 6y ago

It is not super dangerous stuff. You can (and should not) juggle it bare handed briefly without ill effect. One thing to consider is dry ice is frozen CO2. Camping, it was a clever way to pack in our steaks without having a watery mess. What we figured out, was the mosquitos are attracted to CO2. The poor guy with the food pack had a cloud of blood suckers around him every portage. A normal cooler works fine. Something that seals and could build pressure would be problematic.

thaumasiotes 6y ago
> What we figured out, was the mosquitos are attracted to CO2. Yes, unfortunately, the usual meaning of a concentration of CO2 is that there's an animal nearby exhaling it.

at_a_remove 6y ago

I've handled it for decades. First thing you do when you get your slab is that you wrap it in two towels, then you fold down the loose edges and pop that in a cooler. Towels towels towels, that's my go-to. You can handle dry ice with your bare hands -- I have scores of times -- the trick is that contact with pressure (squeezing or weight) is what is going to give you frostbite. Otherwise, I have swiftly moved two pound chunks with bare hands if I were lazy. Any pair of winter or driving gloves is sufficient so long as the fingertips aren't open. Just leather gloves are dandy. Now, if you're feeling fearful, you can drive with the windows down, but to be honest, carbon dioxide in too high of quantities will invoke a gasping/coughing reflex. You would have plenty of warning. You can verify this by putting a small chunk of dry ice in water, leaning over the cup, and inhaling. You'll cough, and that is the reflex to look far. It isn't shy about making itself known. I have driven around with fifty pounds of dry ice in coolers with no issues. Now that you've driven home, you can take the dry ice, towels and all, and put one in the freezer, one or two in the fridge. Now, this stuff sublimates, so you won't have water everywhere, but don't worry about pressure building up in the two compartments, you'd have to use straps to hold the doors down tight enough to be an issue. I put the dry ice at the top of each compartment, as a trend. It'll save your refrigerator's worth full of food.

01100011 6y ago
One note: if it behaves like dry ice in a cooler does, it can carbonate many of your food items. I've used dry ice on camping trips and ended up with carbonated fruit.
- at_a_remove 6y ago
  I have used this, in a more dangerous fashion, to recarbonate flat soda.
  - function_seven 6y ago
    Drop a few pebbles of dry ice into a 2-liter bottle, cap, and monitor for plastic stretching sounds?

pwg 6y ago

> How do you safely handle dry ice? Heavy leather work gloves have worked well for me the few times I've needed to load some dry ice into a freezer due to a power cut.

masklinn 6y ago

Dry ice is really easy to handle. If you don't swallow it, the main danger is letting it sublimate in an enclosed space as that'll fill said space with CO2, but we are very sensitive to CO2 levels (unlike CO or N2) so the danger is low there, just don't be a complete moron. Seriously, dry ice sublimates so when you hold a block or pieces unless you actually grip the thing, the layer of sublimating CO2 protects your hand rather well. Use gloves or tools if you're going to move large amounts (e.g. dozens of blocks by hand, or pellets by the literal fistful) both to protect your hand and to avoid wasting your dry ice more than necessary. But as far as "dangerous" things go, dry ice is really low on the scale. The biggest danger is putting too much in a completely sealed and locked environment as the sublimation will cause significant expansion, increase in pressure, and therefore a possible explosion.

cozzyd 6y ago

If you want to make a sound you'll never forget, put some dry ice on a metal sheet.