Keeping It Cold: A Summer Guide to Dry Ice for Road Trips, the Outdoors, and Power Outages

Person using dry ice in a cooler to transport meat

By Greco Gas | Your Western Pennsylvania Propane & Gas Experts

Summer is dry ice season. Between road trip coolers, hunting and fishing hauls, and the occasional thunderstorm knocking out power, a block or a bag of dry ice can do what regular ice can't — hold hard-frozen temperatures for days instead of hours.

Here's what to know before you load up your cooler.

Learn More About Dry Ice

Why Dry Ice Beats Regular Ice in Summer

Dry ice is solid carbon dioxide, sitting at -109.3°F. It doesn't melt into a puddle — it sublimates, turning straight from solid to gas. That means:

No meltwater soaking your food, catch, or ice cream
Colder temperatures, well below freezing, ideal for keeping things frozen solid rather than just cold
Longer hold times — especially valuable when you're hours from a store or the power's out longer than expected

The tradeoff: it needs a little more care in how it's handled and packed than a bag of cubes.

The Basics Before You Load Up

Never handle it bare-handed. Always wear insulated gloves or use a thick towel. At -109°F, direct skin contact causes frostbite instantly.
Never seal it in an airtight container. As it sublimates it releases CO2 gas, and pressure will build. Coolers should be closed but not latched airtight — leave the drain plug open or crack the lid slightly.
Only transport it in a well-ventilated vehicle. Crack a window if the dry ice is in the cabin with you, especially on longer road trips. In an enclosed space, CO2 can build up to unsafe levels. In a truck bed or open trunk with airflow, this isn't a concern.
Never put dry ice directly against food you'll eat unfrozen, like fruit or bread— it will freeze and damage anything it touches directly. Wrap it in newspaper or a paper bag as a buffer if it needs to sit right next to items you don't want frozen solid.

Road Trips: Groceries, Coolers, and Long Drives

If you're hauling groceries, meal-prepped food, or breast milk across state lines, dry ice keeps things frozen the entire way instead of slowly thawing like regular ice does. It's also the go-to for anyone trying to bring ice cream home on a road trip — regular ice just isn't cold enough to stop it from going soft, but dry ice will keep it rock solid for the whole drive.

Packing Tips

Pre-chill your cooler if you can — a warm cooler eats into your dry ice's lifespan fast.
Place dry ice on top of your food. Cold air sinks, so this chills everything below it more evenly.
Wrap the dry ice in a few layers of newspaper or a paper bag to slow the sublimation rate slightly and protect items from direct contact.
A well-insulated cooler (Yeti, Pelican, Coleman Xtreme, or similar) will typically hold 5–10 lbs. of dry ice for 24–36 hours, depending on ambient temperature, how often it's opened, and cooler quality. Cheaper coolers or hot car trunks will burn through it faster
Don't leave dry ice in a sealed car for long stretches in summer heat — a hot, closed vehicle accelerates sublimation and builds CO2 faster than you'd expect.

Hunting and Fishing Trips

Dry ice is a favorite for hunters and anglers who need to keep a harvest frozen solid for hours or days before it reaches a freezer — especially on multi-day trips or when it's hot
out and regular ice just isn't enough.

Packing tips:

For fish, deer, waterfowl, or other game, freeze what you can ahead of time, then use dry ice to keep it that way rather than trying to freeze warm meat from scratch — dry ice is excellent at holding cold but works best when what you're packing is already cold or frozen.
Layer game or fish in freezer bags, then dry ice on top, same as with groceries.
For longer trips (multi-day hunts, boat trips without power), pack more dry ice than you think you'll need — 10 lbs. per day is a reasonable starting point for a
full-cooler, adjusted for your cooler's insulation quality.
A high-retention cooler (Pelican, Yeti, RTIC) will stretch your dry ice significantly further than a basic cooler — worth the investment if you do this regularly.

Power Outages from Summer Storms

Severe summer thunderstorms are a regular occurrence in Western PA, and they can knock out power for hours — occasionally longer, depending on the extent of storm damage. Dry ice is one of the best tools for saving a freezer full of food when the power's out and you don't know when it's coming back.

What to do:

Freezer: The FDA's rule of thumb is about 50 lbs. of dry ice to keep a fully stocked 18 cu ft freezer cold for 2 days (roughly 3 lbs. per cubic foot of freezer space). Place it on top of the food — cold sinks, so the shelves below stay frozen too.
Refrigerator: Place dry ice on cardboard or a folded towel on the bottom shelf — never directly on glass shelving, which can crack from the extreme cold. Two 5-lb slabs of dry ice (10 lbs. total) will generally hold a fridge cold for 12–24 hours.
Keep the freezer and fridge doors shut as much as possible — every open door lets cold air out and speeds up sublimation.
If you know a storm is coming, it's smarter to pick up dry ice before the power goes out rather than after, since demand — and lines — spike once an outage starts. Just don't load it into the fridge or freezer until the power actually goes out— see the warning below.

Warning: Never put dry ice into a refrigerator or freezer that's still running on power. The extreme cold can trip the thermostat and shut the unit down entirely. Only place dry
ice inside once the power is actually out.

What Greco Gas Stocks

Greco Gas supplies two forms of dry ice, and which one makes sense depends on what you're using it for:

16mm pellets — always in stock, no need to call ahead. These are the easy grab-and-go option for coolers, road trips, and hunting or fishing trips. Their smaller size also makes them simple to pack around food and into odd-shaped spaces in a cooler.
4-5 lb. slabs — available by pre-order, with a 50 lbs. minimum. Slabs are the better choice for bigger jobs like fully stocking a freezer during a power outage, since a single slab sublimates more slowly than the equivalent weight in pellets and is easier to place flat on a shelf.

If you're not sure which fits your situation, just ask when you stop in or call ahead.

How Much Do You Need?

As a rough rule of thumb, dry ice sublimates at about 5–10 lbs per day in a good cooler, faster in cheaper coolers or hot weather, slower in high-end insulated coolers kept in shade. If you're unsure how much to buy for your trip length and cooler size, just ask — Greco Gas is happy to help you figure out the right amount so you're not over- or under-buying.

A Few Final Reminders

Buy dry ice as close to when you need it as possible — it starts sublimating the moment it's made.

Store it in an insulated cooler, not the freezer at home (regular freezers aren't cold enough to prevent sublimation and the CO2 gas has nowhere to go).
Reminder: never put dry ice in a running freezer — it can shut the unit down.
If you have leftover dry ice at the end of a trip, let it sublimate outdoors in a well- ventilated area rather than trying to store it for next time.

Stop by any of Greco Gas's three locations — Tarentum, Butler, or Kittanning — and Greco Gas will get you set up with the right amount for your trip, hunt, or storm prep, along with handling tips at no extra charge.

Greco Gas serves the Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania area with propane, industrial gases, medical gases, dry ice, and welding supplies from three locations: Tarentum, Butler, and Kittanning. Questions about propane? Give us a call.