Originally Posted By: Treeseeker
ICE

Instead of using loose ice cubes, fill used plastic bottles with water (not quite full), leave the cap loose and put in the freezer until frozen. Then tighten the cap and you can now store sideways if you wish. Then after the ice melts you have a bottle of pure water.

I know they say you shouldn't use old plastic bottles that have contained anything with sugar in them since some sugars seep into the plastic and later promote bacterial growth. However these bottles are going to be frozen so little bacteria is going to grow.

I store a number of these in my freezers since they slow down the warming of the freezer after a power outage. They are also handy when you need an ice chest for the day.




This is an excellent way of delaying the defrosting of a freezer during a power outage, and the water should be drinkable if consumed promptly after defrosting.

However in the specific case of preserving insulin or other perishable medications, then I can not recommend it. Any reasonable number of such frozen bottles of water would soon be depleted, and each time the bottles are handled or transferred from the freezer to wherever the insulin is kept this involves opening of doors and admission of heat.
Initially the bottles will be at well below freezing point and could freeze the insulin and spoil it.
My suggestion of large volumes of loose ice cubes can NEVER go below freezing, and will remain very close to freezing until almost all the ice has melted.