I work in a small refinery and we use a lot of dry ice for our lab. Unfortunately the lab techs are lazy and don't want to create their own dry ice because…who knows. What do I know, just in procurement.

So we hypothesized about getting a deep freeze and putting slabs/pellets of dry ice in there for the tests.

Would it matter if we got a regular deep freeze that you'd have in your garage (will probably be outside since the dry ice will come in 100lbs totes) or is there a specific one to get?

Size isn't really an issue, just curious as I haven't worked with refrigeration before nor dry ice. Thanks in advance

I think it will take a special type of freezer. Dry ice is around -100 F. A regular freezer might get to 0F

You aren't trying to store the dry ice at -100 degrees, not for short-term storage anyways. The colder the freezer the less the loss of the product due to sublimation. Since you are storing outside, you won't have to worry about the carbon dioxide that bleeds off during sublimation. A regular deep freezer should suffice for your type of use.

When you buy dry ice at HEB it resides in a standard deep freezer.

Glad someone else had a good response. All I had to contribute was dry ice seems to be in a normal freezer at the grocery store.

Thanks for the info, we've been ordering CO2 cylinders and have some items to help create the Dry Ice but for whatever reason the wood breaks, the bags break, etc.

Do you have any suggestions on what to use with the Cylinders in case we do not have ice during the weekend?

Again, thanks for the comment and help, OB is always a wealth of knowledge

It depends how long you're trying to store it. I know I put a block in a regular deep freezer before and it was gone the next day.

It will be used daily so they will be opening and closing a couple of times a day I would assume.

ConstructionAg01 said:

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You aren't trying to store the dry ice at -100 degrees, not for short-term storage anyways. The colder the freezer the less the loss of the product due to sublimation. Since you are storing outside, you won't have to worry about the carbon dioxide that bleeds off during sublimation. A regular deep freezer should suffice for your type of use.

When you buy dry ice at HEB it resides in a standard deep freezer.

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Is it a standard deep freezer, or only looks like one? I was under the impression that deep freezers for dry ice storage have the same general characteristics of a chest freezer, primarily for the insulating features, but were modified so that the dry ice's temperature wouldn't shut off the thermostat and hence make the compressor ineffective for slowing down the sublimation of the dry ice.

a high quality, thickly insulated cooler would be better for you than a standard chest freezer. the freezer will just shut off when the thermostat is kept cold by the dry ice. just don't seal the cooler airtight.

I'd try doing a thermostat bypass on a chest freezer so that it runs 24/7.

Won't work. The refrigerants won't hit temp.

You need a cryogenic freezer

I own a deep freeze I keep at -15 deg F…I put about 5 pounds of leftover dry ice in it one day early this year just to see if it would keep…didn't even last 12 hours…you absolutely need a special freezer to give dry ice any kind of longevity.

We use a freezer about the size you see the dry ice at HEB in operaing room and wound care for tissue. It goes down to -80. Or that is where it is set at. They are real pricey though.

what freezer is this?

Bradley.Kohr.II said:

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Won't work. The refrigerants won't hit temp.

You need a cryogenic freezer

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Makes sense. Anybody know what the cheapest cryo rated for outdoors costs? Just curious now.

Sanyo ultra low

Price Probably 3 to 5K