I use nelly bins (fish bins). Big blocks of ice that takes for ever to melt. Once we have a decent catch in the box we use the fish spike like an ice pick and break up the block over the fish. Extended trips we take a couple blocks or just buy a couple of bags and leave them in the box to spread over the catch at the end of the day.
A mate uses kitty litter trays and they work excellent.
Geese never thought making ice was so involved, as mentioned, I just have a couple of square 10l plastic buckets, I fill them with water, freeze them, when frozen, tip them upside down and give them a tap, the ice falls out, I then put it in an old plastic shopping bag and put it back in the freezer, when I need ice, I just grab a bag and away I go. I do also have a couple of big plastic drinking water bottles that I keep frozen for the food esky, these also double as "emergency" drinking water
This might be a little different to the way others think, but the ice, for me, is my backup water supply in case of emergency,,,, and it's also a very useful way to keep fish fresh.
I freeze very clean 3 litre fruit juice bottles with screw on caps, as many as I need.
A lot simpler to stack in the freezer and they can be arranged all round and over the fish in the esky.
They're robust enough not to puncture with fin spikes, they don't pollute with salt water/ fish slime and they don't dilute the brine. Plastic milk bottles have proven to be not up to the job, with the milk fat very hard to clean out, very easy to get a gut ache.
A simple wash off and they're ready to refreeze for use again.
If the worst happens I've got 30/40 litres of clean drinking water packed in discrete 3 litre lots with any possible damage to one, not a total disaster.
I use 4lit. Wine ask bladders to make ice ,just drink the wine then rinse the bladder out then fill with water and put in the freezer ,can be used as a block or smashed up for crushed ice. Des
Bought an Ice machine for the shed, has never let me down, flick of the switch makes about 300-350L of ice overnight. Got it off a fridgy mate for nicks.
Thrillseeker
When I worked in a dairy bottling plant years ago I learned that when you wash out a milk bottle you always use cold water first so as to avoid setting the milk fat which is the issue you allude to in you post no 33. After that wash them out as you would any potable water container and I'm safer to drink defrosted water from this source than I would be drinking the water in say Bali.
I still use 3 lt milk bottles for my ice and leave a inch or so for expansion in both the sea water ones and the potable water ones and freeze them in 9s in their milk crates.
Cheers
Chimo
What could go wrong.......................
Fair enough, frosted against clear(to see contamination), fruit juice containers are far stronger. I wouldn't take the risk.Originally Posted by Chimo
I'll put this myth to bed as well, sea water and fresh, the same volume containers frozen to the same temperature. Fresh water has more cooling capacity than salt water.
While I do not disagree in any way shape or form, and my experience salt and fresh ice lasts the same amount of time, but....... Why is it so?
Thanks for the offer mate but I just checked my cryovac machine and its only 200mm wide so it's not big enough.
I might have to see if they sell smaller ones.
They sell Crevac machines for $250 awesome price for the size of it
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There is a fine line between fishing and just standing on the shore like an idiot
I wonder how much deeper the ocean would be without sponges
Up here we Use Hussar as baits for real RED FISHS (SHSIIFDER)
Noel, it's a thing called specific heat.
The specific heat of water is 1 calorie/gram °C = 4.186 joule/gram °C which is higher than any other common substance. Which means that it takes 4.186 joules of energy to heat one gram of water 1 degree C.
Adding salt to fresh water reduces its specific heat which means it takes less energy to heat salt water than it does fresh.
I'll try and put a graph here that shows how specific heat is reduced as the salt content increases,
specific heat.jpg
The salt ice effectiveness is reduced by the 3.5% of NaCl, there is less water in the container and its ultimately less effective.
This is exactly what I use. Can't understand why you use bags or any thing hat perferates easily? As you have to totally start from scratch every time u make ice! With the juice containers fully sealed, you can just wash off thoroughly and place in the freezer again. No extra handling, and they rarely get busted spiked or cracked. I don't make a brine or slurry , I just kept the fish amongst 8-9 of these containers. t
"let not he boast who puts his armor on, as he who takes it off"
I used bottles too for years but these bags don t get easily perforated maybe one or two does but I utilise the busted ones to use in my ice slurry when filleting so nothing lost . Same wash with warm soapy water drain and back in freezer . What ever works well for everyone s personal use I guess, this has been good or me lately they last even better in the esky or over time and lay flat when frozen. Nothing bets 10 kg bags of crushed ice but to expensive . I had heaps of stainless trays at one stage to but they kept freezing in block s when left to long then I done them separately in shopping bags but i guess got lazy .
CALL SIGN : JT OR SC552(social club member)
There is a fine line between fishing and just standing on the shore like an idiot
I wonder how much deeper the ocean would be without sponges
Up here we Use Hussar as baits for real RED FISHS (SHSIIFDER)
There is a very good reason to add water to the esky. Heat tranfer difference between still air and still water is about 25X. i.e. water is 25X more effective in removing heat from the fish and because it is sloshing around it is even more effective.
Using sea water gives a slight advantage, provided there is enough ice, for a few degrees colder than fresh and it reduces osmosis(fish drawing in water through their skin)
Adding extra salt to reduce the temp further is pointless because
1: It's very difficult to get into solution at 0 degrees c.
2:Freezing the fish is not useful, below 4C is fine.
This graph shows how much salt is needed for the slurry to remain liquid at a certain temperature.
Attachment 99716
I have about 10 large flat freezer blocks I picked up at Bunnings at $2 each. They are filled with salt brine so defrost at about -2oC. I sometimes add a bit of saltwater to make a slurry but normally just bury the fish under the freezer blocks. I also make 4L icecream containers of salt water for bigger trips. These take over a week to get nice and cold. When they melt they don't dilute the slurry
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