Dry ice (frozen carbon dioxide) may be utilized to create some really cool traditional Halloween fog displays and other spooky effects and you should consider using it to make your next Halloween event memorable. A good dry ice fog display will require a bit of work and preparation, but the effects you can produce are really spectacular.
There are some safety concerns and common sense cautions that you should be aware of when working with dry ice.
Dry Ice Safety:
The outgassing from dry ice (frozen carbon dioxide or CO2) displaces oxygen and can cause suffocation in confined spaces Do not touch dry ice; it will burn bare skin (-109F)! Do not put dry ice in your mouth! Do not put dry ice in beer – the frozen CO2 turns beer bitter (don’t know why this happens; it just does)! Large dry ice fog displays can get very messy; not recommended for indoors.
Dry ice is a bit expensive; it costs around $25.00 for a 50lb block. You can use a Styrofoam chest or cooler for storage; but as soon as you get it, it starts to slowly dissipate. It’s best if you get your dry ice at the very last minute.
You can also rent a tank of CO2 and make your own dry ice on site as needed; but this works best for small displays, such as fogging punch bowls or small cauldrons. For a big display that features fog flowing down a flight of stairs or covering the floor, you’ll need big blocks of dry ice!
Tools & supplies:
1 pair heavy insulated gloves 1 hammer 1 large meat cleaver or heavy blade (Don’t use the good knife because dry ice makes steel brittle and may shatter it) At least two 5 gallon green plastic buckets (or Halloween cauldrons) 20 or more green Chemlight glow sticks (or clones) Lots of HOT water (turn up the heat a bit on the hot water tank so you have plenty) One 50 pound block of dry ice is enough to make three 15-20 minute large (5 gallon) fog displays plus several additional 10 minute small pitcher or punch bowl sized displays
Procedure:
Wear gloves and use the hammer and cleaver to chop off enough fist sized chunks of dry ice from the 50 pound block to cover the bottom of a 5 gallon bucket to a depth of around four inches or so. Fill another 5 gallon bucket with hot water. Place the bucket with the dry ice where you wish the display to occur, such as at the top of the front steps or up on a sturdy stand. (The display is more effective if it is elevated a bit because dry ice fog is heavy and flows down hill.)
If you have an audience, have them watch this part – it’s really cool! Pour the hot water into the bucket with the dry ice chunks, carefully filling it right up to the brim – this will be a bit messy right at the start. Be prepared; this will instantaneously produce copious amounts of CO2 fog and roiling hot water! Next, toss four or five Chemlight glow sticks into the display so the whole thing produces an eerie glow. After a few minutes, add more hot water to the dry ice display bucket to keep it filled and hot. The glowing bucket will produce fog for 15-20 minutes, then you can replace it and start another.
Notes:
This is a really awesome effect, but you will need to practice a bit to perfect the display. Dry ice fog flowing down a flight of steps is the coolest thing ever. Keeping the dry ice bucket full of water helps the fog flow over the top edge of the bucket. When the fog finally dies away, dump the now cold water and recover any remaining pieces of dry ice to reuse. If some of the dry ice chunks become encased in frozen water ice, this can be chopped off to recover the dry ice. Do not add dry ice to hot water, as this instantly makes a huge mess – add hot water slowly to the dry ice so you can control the spillage. The Chemlight glow sticks may become dim when they get cold — revive them in hot water. A continuously operating dry ice fog display will require one person to continuously maintain it.
Small inside displays:
Put several shot glass sized pieces of dry ice into a pitcher (or other vessel), fill with hot water to the top; toss in a couple of Chemlight glow sticks. This will create a very cool ten minute glowing fog display which will flow over a table and you can repeat it over and over. This makes a perfect Halloween centerpiece. You may also toss a few pieces of dry ice into the punch bowl; but don’t let anybody eat it!
The exploding washing machine effect:
This is definitely something you only want to try outside; but if you add a quarter cup of liquid soap to the hot water and pour that onto the dry ice, it will produce copious amounts of fog filled bubbles and a continuous eruption of soap suds. Warning; this is very messy and slippery…
Another spooky dry ice effect:
Dry ice stresses and shrinks metal which can cause it to squeal with loud, peculiar and eerie noises when it comes into contact with the dry ice. You can use stainless steel, aluminum or even a brass faucet (or some other large hunk of solid metal to create this effect – experiment!). Don’t forget to wear your gloves! Take a fist sized chunk of dry ice and press it onto the selected metal; move it around until you find a “sweet spot” where the metals shrieks loudest and then play with it to change the volume and quality of the noise. Some people find this effect very disturbing – like fingernails scraping a chalk board; but the sounds you can create are rather unique and definitely eerie.
Happy Halloween!