The results of our Pykecrete experiment...

So, I said in a previous post that I would tell you how the pykecrete fared while we were camping....

We have two coolers that we generally use. One is your typical ordianry smaller cooler, with wheels. It holds ice for about half a day before it is all melted. The other cooler is an igloo cooler that is supposed to keep things cold for 5 days. It usually keeps ice without completely melting for about 2 days at the most.

Shane had two types of pykecrete. One was made with courser sawdust, and the other was made with finer sawdust. The courser sawdust didn't stay frozen for very long, but it did stay frozen longer than ice. The finer sawdust stayed frozen from Monday through Friday and by then it had melted. This pykecrete was placed in the bottom of our igloo cooler. The blocks were the size of the disposable tinfoil lasagna pans.

The other thing that REALLY suprised me, was that the pykecrete in the bottom of our igloo cooler not only kept things that were already frozen, frozen, for 2 days, it also froze the ice that we put in on top of the food. IT FROZE THE ICE!!! Isn't that crazy? The other half of the cooler we put in refrigerator type foods, and those stayed nice and cool as well.

So, I would say it was a success, and something that we will continue to do.

What a Pykecrete adventure!

If you're like me, you've never heard of pykecrete before. If you're more into eh, ahem, unique things, like Shane, you probably have!

Anyway, Shane was surfing the net and came across pykecrete. I'm guessing he found it on one of his favorite sites, which is neatorama

So, he decided that he needed to make some for our camping trip. When you read this, it will already be made and in use, so I will have to let you know how it all turned out next week!

Anyway, all it is, is water mixed with sawdust. Adding the sawdust makes it melt slower, and makes it almost as strong as cement. I'm not kidding!

Apparently there was a "Project Habbukuk" during WWII where a man named Geoffrey Pyke decided that if they had ships with ice insulating them, the ships wouldn't sink when they got hit. Ice wasn't very strong, so they added wood pulp (sawdust) to the ice. Then they fired a gun at the block of ice. Of course, it went right through it. Next they fired it at the Pykecrete block...the bullet richoceted off!

So, basically what they ended up with was a really strong block of ice that melts slower than regular ice, and is much stronger. They bagged the idea when they felt like it would cost too much and the ships wouldn't be ready until 1945.

Anyway, back to our little experiment...would a pykecrete ice block keep our cooler food cold while we were camping for longer than ice? Therin lies the question...
The answer will have to be released next week when we are back! If you are curious and want to read where I got my pykecrete history you can click Here


Shane and Hazel sifting sawdust to make a "finer" pulp.


Hazel had a lot of fun with this!

The finished first batch with unsifted sawdust...unfrozen...looks like weird oatmeal...