Looking for Dry Ice Suppliers In the Mankato, MN Area.

[lieperjp]

Question about this machine - we've got a show coming up and I'm thinking about trying to build one of these for a creepy laboratory scene. I was wondering how much dry ice would cost to run the machine for about 10 minutes/show for twelve-fifteen shows. I've worked with dry ice before but I have never purchased it myself. Really a rough estimate would do fine.

Also, anyone know of any good suppliers in the Mankato, MN area?

[BillESC]

Dry ice is normally sold by the block. The block will be a cubic foot and weigh 50 pounds. It's been several years since I've bought any but I suspect the price will be around $ 30.00 or so. Keep in mind, dry ice sublimates meaning it will slowly go away.

[Footer]

It is possible to buy dry ice at some Wal-Mart locations, especially in hotter climates. If you are near an industrial area, odds are there is a dry ice supplier in the area. The town I went to college in also had a large prairie farms plant, we had a massive dry ice plant that we could get any type of dry ice we wanted. I remember it running around 25-30 bucks for a cooler of pellets. You might also want to contact your local grocery stores, even if they don't sell it, a lot of companies ship with it and it usually just get tossed in the freezer until it disapears.

Another avenue to getting it is through your science department. At some universitys, they usually have a machine in the lab that can produce dry ice.

[icewolf08]

You also can often get dry ice at companies that supply compressed gasses like Airgas and Praxair. There are many such companies around, and if you head down to your local welding supply store, they can probably tell you where one is (they may even carry dry ice themselves).

[len]

In a pinch, ice cream shops sometimes have it. I remember buying some back in the 80's at a Baskin-Robins.

[cdub260]

I found a couple of possibilities on yellowbook.com.

[MNBallet]

Praxair Inc

(507) 387-7995

Address: 1223 Range St, Mankato, MN 56001

Please be aware that these types of places might not be open on Sat and Sunday! That can cause some major headaches if you don't plan ahead. A 3 pound block can be just a couple of ounces even left in a freezer over night. The stuff is cheap so get way more than you need for weekend shows. Also, in a pinch you can try the hospitals, they have it in pellet form for organ storage and such.

[rcopley]

I did a show a couple of weeks ago and used a box filled with ice and a rubber pipe connecting a fog machine to the box. I'm not sure of your situation but it worked well for getting fog to crawl along the ground like dry ice and getting it to happen on cue. I have seen fog cooler guides that over complicate the construction of it. It worked fine for me to just run a rubber pipe to the bottom of an ice filled bucket.

[themuzicman]

whenever I have used dry ice, and we needed blocks, we went to the grocery store, and had them special order blocks for us from their supplier (Penguin Brand I believe). Giant and Harris Teeter have both done this for us, but I am right outside of DC, not in MN =/

[jamesarnold140]

Originally Posted by lieperjp

Question about this machine - we've got a show coming up and I'm thinking about trying to build one of these for a creepy laboratory scene. I was wondering how much dry ice would cost to run the machine for about 10 minutes/show for twelve-fifteen shows. I've worked with dry ice before but I have never purchased it myself. Really a rough estimate would do fine.

Also, anyone know of any good suppliers in the Mankato, MN area?

You could call Jason's Dry Ice in St. Paul, they deliver over quite a large area and have always treated us very well. Telephone # 651-645-6433 .