Ice a la tube

Summer is ice chest season. That means you’re loading up on bags of ice that inevitably turn to water. The hassle of soggy picnic supplies is actually an easy fix … more annoying is no ice cubes at cocktail hour.

We’ve got a solution.  ice tubes. If you add these frozen PVC  tubes to your cooler it will stay cold longer, there will be less mess, and you’ll have ice for your drinks.

So I headed over to Ace Hardware to pick up some 2 inch PVC pipe and end caps (2 per tube). You may find short cuts of pipe or if you ask they’ll cut one of the 8 foot lengths down. You’ll also need a can of PVC cement, hack saw, coarse grit sandpaper, a sharpie and a tape measure. These tube will soon be filled with tap water and table salt.

Start by measuring the cooler(s) to see how long the tubes need to be. The end caps will add to the overall length of the finished tube so you need to subtract this extra amount when cutting. There is also some air pressure resistance in the final capping that can add to the finish length. If you make your pipes about an inch and a half shorter than the desired length, that should work.

Measure and cut the pipe into pieces and then use some coarse grit sand paper to clean up the rough ends and rough up about an inch of the outside ends of each tube.

Using the dabber on the PVC cement spread a generous amount around the inside of the cap and fit one to the end of each of your tubes. Now let that set for a couple of hours.

You’ll need some way to stand the tubes on end … a wide mouth mason jar works. Sand all the tubes up on their capped ends and add a table spoon of salt to each tube. Fill about ¾ of the way with water. Repeat the cap sealing making sure you push the cap firmly down against the air pressure so you get a good seal. Leave them standing for a couple of hours.

Throw them in the freezer and they are ready to add to your ice chest. These ice tubes will work to keep things cold as is, but will also extend the life of any ice cubes you bring along.