# Ice As A Prep



## Prepadoodle (May 28, 2013)

Odds are that we will never see a catastrophic event of biblical proportions, but it's almost certain you will face a short-term power outage sooner or later. I'm sure most of us have enough food, water, ammo, and beer to see us through a few days without power, but do you have any ice on hand?

This is another of my goofy little preps that won't kill you if you don't do it, but can make your suffering a little more enjoyable if the lights go out. Besides, it costs so little it can actually pay for itself, even if the power doesn't go out.

Just fill three or four 2-liter bottles with water and stick them in your freezer. (Leave about 10% for expansion so they don't burst when they freeze)

That's it. Pretty simple, huh?

Yup.

If the power goes off, you will have a few blocks of ice on hand to keep your food from spoiling, and also have a few extra gallons of water once they thaw.

Your freezer can act like a cooler, don't ya know? If the lights go out, you can transfer the more important or expensive items to your freezer, and the 2-liter bottles plus whatever else you have in there will keep things nice and chilly for several days. The only problem with regular freezers is that they dump most of the cold air every time you open the door, So like, don't open the door much.

You can also use a regular cooler that opens at the top. These don't really spill out all your frosty air, but aren't as well insulated as the freezer. That's ok though, just wrap a blanket or sleeping bag around it for extra insulation and you're good to go. All of your frozen food is like ice anyway, but having a few extra 2-liter bottles of ice can't hurt.

Having the extra thermal mass in your freezer means your freezer won't have to cycle as often. This might even save you a few bucks in energy costs. Oh yes, it's true.


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## Swedishsocialist (Jan 16, 2015)

Nice advice


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## Sasquatch (Dec 12, 2014)

Always a good idea. When I go car camping I always throw a block of ice in the cooler and surround it with cubed ice. Keeps everything cold longer especially in the heat when I camp in the desert.


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## Chipper (Dec 22, 2012)

Local power company has been preaching this for years as a way to conserve power. They send out a little news letter with tips twice a year.


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## sideKahr (Oct 15, 2014)

Good prep. I already had a big block in my freezer, but the drinking water idea is excellent. I just did it. Thanks.

P.S. I used 16 of the tall, thin one liter drinking water bottles to line the walls of the bottom of the freezer. They take up very little space. Again, good prep.


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## Moonshinedave (Mar 28, 2013)

I've been doing this for quite some time, take a few out of the freezer and put into the fridge to help keep it cool. If it's late at night or I am at work, I tell my wife to do this until I get home and hook up the generator. Great tip.


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## Maine-Marine (Mar 7, 2014)

Prepadoodle said:


> Odds are that we will never see a catastrophic event of biblical proportions,


I would like a little piece of that wager..what odds are you giving? I got me $10 burning a hole in my *Sporran* (trouser pocket for you bloody anglish folk) !


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## Prepadoodle (May 28, 2013)

Maine-Marine said:


> I would like a little piece of that wager..what odds are you giving? I got me $10 burning a hole in my *Sporran* (trouser pocket for you bloody anglish folk) !


I actually tried to figure out the odds a few years ago and came up with like 10% in the next 20 years. The way things are going, that now seems a little optimistic, so let's say 20% chance in the next 10 years. So about 4-1 odds against a MAJOR event over the next decade.

I would count full scale nuclear exchange, extinction level asteroid impact, ice age, total breakdown of civilization, alien invasion, global pandemic (has to kill 85% of all humans) and grid smashing EMP as "qualifying" events.

If it happens, your $10 could turn into $40. Of course, there would be no way for me to pay you.

If nothing happens in the next 10 years, you would owe me $10. I'm not giving out my mailing address for $10. Just donate it to your favorite charity.


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## Maine-Marine (Mar 7, 2014)

Prepadoodle said:


> I actually tried to figure out the odds a few years ago and came up with like 10% in the next 20 years. The way things are going, that now seems a little optimistic, so let's say 20% chance in the next 10 years. So about 4-1 odds against a MAJOR event over the next decade.
> 
> I would count full scale nuclear exchange, extinction level asteroid impact, ice age, total breakdown of civilization, alien invasion, global pandemic (has to kill 85% of all humans) and grid smashing EMP as "qualifying" events.
> 
> ...


Qualifying events for me would be ... 
water turning to blood, requirement for chip to buy or sell things, world wide famine, most of the grass or trees burning up... or stuff form the book of revelation from the 7 seals, trumpets, or bowls

or if the temple is rebuild and then made desolate - which would start the events

I will donate $10 to YOUR favorite charity.. you donate $40 to a local food bank


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## Mad Trapper (Feb 12, 2014)

Frig freezer and big freezer always has any empty space filled with ice. Some cubes the rest in 2-L or 1-gal containers.

If I need more freezer space some of the ice gets rotated in the refrigerator, which seldom is totally full.

In retrospect, Grandfather's farm had an ice pond and a milkhouse. Ice was harvested and stored under sawdust to last the summer.

Anybody consider saving natural ice (those in the north) these days? Ice used to be a commodity which was sold and shipped worldwide. 

How about a broken commercial freezer buried in a hillside. Store winter ice in it, along with perishable foodstuffs.


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## Denton (Sep 18, 2012)

Way ahead of you, sir. I purchased 100 pounds of ice and stored them in the back of the shed a few years ago. One must be prepared for power outages!


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## whoppo (Nov 9, 2012)

Our chest freezers have a bottom layer of fifteen 3-Liter bottles... they'll stay cold for quite a while without power.


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## Kauboy (May 12, 2014)

I picked up four 1 gallon water jugs last time we went camping to use for this same purpose. The jugs were the same as milk jugs, so they already had that little expansion bubble that pops out. I froze them up in the deep freeze at home, and tossed them into the cooler before leaving. They lasted the entire trip, and provided wonderfully chilled water on demand.
Now that you've reminded me of this, I think I should go pick up some more to keep around.


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## Auntie (Oct 4, 2014)

I never thought of doing this for power outages. We have about 20 2 liter bottles of water in one of our freezers for the rabbits on hot days. I will ask friends for more 2 liter bottles and put some in the other freezers.

Thanks!


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## Tennessee (Feb 1, 2014)

I’m missing something here about keeping ice as a prep. I keep gas for my generators which I need for lights, charging batteries and running my freezer which makes ice. As long as I have gas I will have ice. So I would say store gas instead of ice.


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## Stick (Sep 29, 2014)

We used to cut ice and store it in a straw pile. Put frozen elk in there, too. I've been without refrigeration at all for three years, until last June when I got a solar powered freezer. Works pretty well, and it was a real treat this summer to have cold water and icy drinks/ Have a wind generator on the way for those dark midwinter days that don't solar charge.


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## Prepadoodle (May 28, 2013)

Mad Trapper said:


> In retrospect, Grandfather's farm had an ice pond and a milkhouse. Ice was harvested and stored under sawdust to last the summer. Anybody consider saving natural ice (those in the north) these days? Ice used to be a commodity which was sold and shipped worldwide. How about a broken commercial freezer buried in a hillside. Store winter ice in it, along with perishable foodstuffs.


I actually mentioned this in a thread awhile back. Chopping and hauling ice can be a lot of work, but the idea can be modernized.

Build a super root cellar type thingie on the northern side of the house. I was thinking like an inner and outer wall (about 12" thick total) with the space between filled with cellulose insulation. This would be at least partially dug into the ground, and rest on a 12" insulted floor. Then make a removable roof about 8" thick and insulate that. (Instead of one piece removable roof, you might want a fixed roof with an access hatch)

Instead of chopping and hauling, just fill the whole thing with jugs of water and leave the top off over the winter. Once it starts warming up in spring, put the roof on and maybe further insulate with straw bales if you live in a warm climate. You might also use a tarp to keep the whole thing in shade.

*DANGER: MATH AHEAD*

4' x 8' x 6' deep (inside measurements) would be 192 cubic feet. Ice is about 62 pounds per cubic foot, so theoretical 11,900 pounds of ice. If we can get say 70% stacking efficiency, that's about 8300 pounds of ice. Figure 25% loss through melting, that's still 6,225 pounds. If you would need ice for 250 days a year that would be around 25 pounds of ice a day, which seems like a lot of ice.

1 cubic foot is about 7.5 gallons. 192 cubic feet would be 1440 gallons. At 70% packing efficiency, that would be about 1,000 1 gallon jugs. That's a lot of jugs. You could buy them new for about $0.70 each, but you could also just use whatever combination of 2 liter, 1 gallon, 5 gallon, and 55 gallon containers you could scrounge.

Just as a point of reference, buying 6,625 pounds of ice in 10 pound bags would cost over $1300 at $1.99 a bag.

Another way to look at it is you could build the insulated box for $600 (or less, maybe much less) spend $500 on containers and end up with a huge freezer that wouldn't cost a dime to run. With scrounged materials and containers, you could do it for $100 (insulation and nails, etc)


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## Ralph Rotten (Jun 25, 2014)

Prepadoodle, this is a very good thread. I've been suggesting lining freezers with pop bottles of water for years now. 

See, it isn't just a prep: freezers fail all the time. I got mine because when it thaws it smells like rotten flesh because once upon a time rats ate the power cord and caused it to shut off for a week or two. Had the previous owners had water jugs in there they might have had time to notice it thawing (like I did last time someone tripped over the cord). 

Another great use of those frozen jugs is to freeze them with inexpensive koolaid inside. Then take them backpacking or camping. As they thaw, you drink ice cold juice. In your pack they keep your back cool (especially you people who prefer internal framed packs---wierdos!) I'd never buy ice because I have so many jugs that can be frozen. 

Definately line your freezer. If TSHTF you may need to pack your freezer, and it would help if you didn;t have to stop at the store for ice.


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## Ralph Rotten (Jun 25, 2014)

Oh yeah, my favorite trick is to freeze Margarita mix. Then when it thaws I mix it with...TEQUILA!
Daddy knows how to climb a mountain.


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## GTGallop (Nov 11, 2012)

I do that with round stackable gallon jugs in the bottom of the deep freeze / chest freezer.


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## bigdogmom (Aug 28, 2015)

I have been doing this for years. I put water in empty Vodka bottles and put them in the freezer. I use them in my coolers for camping / day trips and it gives you a small supply of drinking water as well. I have my friends that visit trained as well. If they come with coolers they all have frozen bottles in them. They know there is a supply in my freezer so they swap them out as needed.


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## tinkerhell (Oct 8, 2014)

last summer during huricane arthur, I froze probably 6 gallons of ice in 2liter pop bottles 2 days before the huricane landed. we lost power for 36 hrs, the freezer was in very good condition when the power came back on,


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## RNprepper (Apr 5, 2014)

How do you all have so much room in your freezers? Mine is always packed full.


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## preppermama (Aug 8, 2012)

Freezer organization is a big deal during outages too. If you know where an item is in the cooler you'll spend less time with the door open routing around for it and letting the cool air out. This is why I prefer the stand up freezers to chest freezers. They are much easier to organize.


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## Auntie (Oct 4, 2014)

RNprepper said:


> How do you all have so much room in your freezers? Mine is always packed full.


We have 3 freezers. After losing a freezer full of meat because the freezer died I don't put all my eggs in one basket anymore.


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