How long can I leave ice cream out of the freezer?

meansizzler · 23-09-2008, 7:44 AM

Want to travel with a tub of ice cream, yes weird, how long without it melting?
1 hour 20 ok?...

dng007 · 23-09-2008, 7:48 AM

Reckon it might be a bit soft by then - guess it depends how big the tub is, and how cold your freezer is - but for example, I find a 1 ltr tub is starting to melt by the time I get home after shopping, and thats around 20-25 minutes later.

Can you wrap it in extra ice packs, etc?

**Bald Monkey** · 23-09-2008, 7:55 AM

wrap it in plenty of newspaper...

*avinitski* · 23-09-2008, 8:03 AM

if convenient get an ice box?

kingfats · 23-09-2008, 8:11 AM

Couple of days?

**Steven** · 23-09-2008, 9:09 AM

Its freezing out now!

dUnKle · 23-09-2008, 9:20 AM

buy new tub when you get there ?

Digger · 23-09-2008, 9:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by meansizzler

Want to travel with a tub of ice cream, yes weird, how long without it melting?
1 hour 20 ok?...

She's too far away! Either get her to buy her own or she can come to you

.

Decadence · 23-09-2008, 9:27 AM

Wrap it in newspaper. 1 hour 20 should be ok.

Noggin1980 · 23-09-2008, 9:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by meansizzler

Want to travel with a tub of ice cream, yes weird, how long without it melting?
1 hour 20 ok?...

Buy the biggest tub you can get, make sure it's well insulated, put in a bag and then wrap in jumpers perhaps (remember most things that help to keep things warm will also help to keep them cool-not the car heater though lol) and keep in the coldest place in the car (the boot?)

Putting other frozen things next to the ice cream will help too, if you buy and freeze a big box of tip tops/ice pops whatever you call them and put them next to the icecream container then wrap it all will help alot too. You could use anything else frozen but ice pops will be fine to refreeze so are better to use than something like a bag of peas.

Jenn · 23-09-2008, 9:55 AM

Lidl sell insulated bags for frozen food, it can only help.

mjn · 23-09-2008, 9:58 AM

If you spend the 1hr 20 min journey eating the ice-cream, you won't have a problem

**Iccz** · 23-09-2008, 10:12 AM

Reminds me of the story of someone who bought a snowball off ebay
Maybe the guy has sold some ice cream on ebay and has to deliver it to the person who bought it?!?

Either way, go with what people have said, unless you have a cooling box + ice packs, insulation ideally with something else cold is the best way to go about it.

GasDad · 23-09-2008, 10:31 AM

You haven't told us the type of ice cream - a better quality ice cream (ie with more cream in it) will melt quicker as it will have a lower freezing point and because it will have a lower specific heat capacity.

As others have suggested - put it in a cool bag with ice packs etc, wrap it up, crank up the AC in the car and put it in the passengers footwell. (in the boot it risks being heated by the exhaust in some cars).

Hope she wants a flake in it......

**Iccz** · 23-09-2008, 10:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by James Day

Hope she wants a flake in it......

I can't quite work out if that's innuendo. Either way

eric pisch · 23-09-2008, 11:50 AM

if your in the artic you can leave it out pretty much all year round

its a service i provide !

andykn · 23-09-2008, 2:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by meansizzler

Want to travel with a tub of ice cream, yes weird, how long without it melting?
1 hour 20 ok?...

Why not leave it out in a cool part of your house and see? Itdoes depend on how good the ice cream is and how good your freezer is, too.

**Bald Monkey** · 23-09-2008, 2:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by andykn

Why not leave it out in a cool part of your house and see? Itdoes depend on how good the ice cream is and how good your freezer is, too.

But be warned if you re-freeze it you'll probably get ice crystals forming in it which may be a bit crunchy when you come to eat it!

Sporran · 23-09-2008, 4:49 PM

depending on your car and its size, most newer cars allow you to direct the AC to the glove box making it in to a semi fridge.

Its usually a dial type thing on the inside of the glove box. Just open it up, close all the dash vents and switch on full.

JagoPlasma · 23-09-2008, 7:27 PM

gaffer tape it to the roof and drive really fast

Noggin1980 · 24-09-2008, 11:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JagoPlasma

gaffer tape it to the roof and drive really fast

I know you arn't serious but I think it wouldn't be a good idea anyway, I assume you are thinking that the fast moving air would have a wind chill factor like it does to us. I belive that not only would it not have a wind chill effect but it might even have a wind warming effect.

I belive wind chill is more about taking the heat away from you quickly rather than actually having any cooling effect, doing this I think would take the cold away quickly instead.

Anyone confirm my assumptions?

**Iccz** · 24-09-2008, 12:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Noggin1980

I know you arn't serious but I think it wouldn't be a good idea anyway, I assume you are thinking that the fast moving air would have a wind chill factor like it does to us. I belive that not only would it not have a wind chill effect but it might even have a wind warming effect.

I belive wind chill is more about taking the heat away from you quickly rather than actually having any cooling effect, doing this I think would take the cold away quickly instead.

Anyone confirm my assumptions?

The feeling you get when its windy/cool is just convective heat loss. The more wind the more convective heatloss, hence windchill factors.

Now where the science comes into temperature outside vs cooling in a fridge is the fact that you have your ambient temperature outside, lets say 14'c like today (here) if the wind blows at a certain speed and causes the windchill to make it feel like 8'c.
Working from a warm item to cool, it would cool quicker than a warm item in say a fridge. Because the wind will cool it quicker - but it will not go any cooler than the ambient temperature outside, that's why a thermometer will always read the temperature outside and not cooler as we'd feel because of windchill.

The best type of insulation is a vacuum, such as a thermos, which works on the basis that it is a huge reduction in heat transfer. Essentially it does not keep things cold or warm it just reduces the transfer of heat keeping it as close to its original temperature.

As stated before the best metods would be in a cooling box with freeze packs or kept in the coolest place possible insulated as well as possible, foil would be good.

PhantomHumper · 24-09-2008, 12:22 PM

Can't you just buy ice cream when you get to wherever you're going?

JagoPlasma · 24-09-2008, 1:06 PM

I guess it could be home made icecream

**IronGiant** · 24-09-2008, 1:53 PM

Wrapping it in a wet towel on the roof of a fast moving car would give substantial evaporative cooling well below ambient and might even work

But I still wouldn't recommend it...

Dave

**Iccz** · 24-09-2008, 2:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by IronGiant

Wrapping it in a wet towel on the roof of a fast moving car would give substantial evaporative cooling well below ambient and might even work

But I still wouldn't recommend it...

Dave

How would that work?

Surely you can't cool something to below ambient temperature even if it's moist.

As I said before the science involved is purely down to convective heatloss...

Now if you use logic based on cooling drinks in ice... You can cool a bottle of bubbly down by putting it in a bucket of ice, however, it will cool significantly faster if you put water in that pitcher with the ice, and even more so if you put salt in that water... since so many more molecules of "cold" come in contact with the bottle when the water is present versus when it's just dry ice.

The same will apply to a moist towel. It will just cool it faster to ambient temperature, it will not go below that temperature.

It's the same with human skin, you only go down to ambient temperature, which is lower than body temperature... if you're in wind, then the chill will take you there quicker, and if you're wet in wind it will be even quicker, but you will not go below that temperature. It will however make it 'FEEL' colder to you, simply because the cooling is quicker.

I'm pretty sure thats how the science works behind it.

Unless you can explain otherwise?

imightbewrong · 24-09-2008, 3:01 PM

Do we at least get some clue as to what this is all about, before we try to work out which laws of physics need to be broken to achieve it?

**Iccz** · 24-09-2008, 3:07 PM

Moving Ice Cream from A to B. We don't really need to know much else before we start talking about the physics behind it?

Though I am interested as to why someone would want to take some ice cream 1 hour 20 mins away.

**IronGiant** · 24-09-2008, 3:21 PM

Evaporative cooling relies on the latent heat of evaporation, and can go lower than ambient eg:

At 32°C (90°F) and 15% relative humidity, air may be cooled to nearly 16°C (60°F).

It's why the nozzle of a CO2 cylinder freezes when you let it off.

If you used a more volatile liquid than water on your towel you could go much lower than using water, but try explaining to a traffic cop why you have a vodka soaked towel strapped to the roof of your car

imightbewrong · 24-09-2008, 3:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Iccz

Moving Ice Cream from A to B. We don't really need to know much else before we start talking about the physics behind it?

Though I am interested as to why someone would want to take some ice cream 1 hour 20 mins away.

I think that was my question