Insulin cooling case for field environment

Bob - July 14, 2021

Good morning.

https://www.frioinsulincoolingcase.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Are-YOU-Ready-Disaster-Prep-PWD-and-Optimism-092020-WEBSITE.pdfC

The company Frio Case has a relatively new method and product to keep insulin within required temperature range during field work. Their basic website is Frio case . com

Rather than post link directly to their insulin cases, the top link is their good pdf intro on disaster prep that leads into the insuin cases.

Hope this proves of value to some forum members.

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Thanks for the link, Bob.

I couldn’t get the prep link to open but the product is interesting. Apparently it uses a hydrogel like contained in diapers or wound dressings for slow release of moisture to provide evaporative cooling. On a side note, you can buy hydrogel on amazon, search for “Newsorb” I believe (I’ve used it for tshirt printing of all things) or “Sodium Polyacrylate”

The action is evaporative cooling like a clay pot cooler. It would work well at low humidity.

 

So I discovered there are beads of Sodium Polyacrylate made for different uses in addition to the powder. With these one could make a “cooling quilt”. Search for “water beads” or “sensory beads”. Again, like swamp coolers, not really good for humid regions.

 

Bob, the above link didn’t take me to the pdf that you stated because I think you have an additional letter ‘C’ at the end of the URL. (….BSITE.pdfC) Take that out and it works.

I found the pdf through their About tab and then Emergency Preparedness. There were some good things in there such as “We save about $4 for every $1 spent
on preparing ourselves.” and “80% of Americans live in a place that has experienced a weather-related disaster since 2007”

On the topic of the cooling case. I find that technology super interesting that you can get such stable temps for such a long time using only water. I wonder what the scalability options are and if the same results can be produced in a larger container such as a 1 foot by 1 foot cooler or a 3X3 cooler. Or if this only is able to work so well because it is so small and practically touches the medication. I would rather buy a 1X1 cooler than 30 individual pouches as a prep to keep my medication safe in case of a power outage.

 

Good evening Bradical,

Appreciate the correction to access link.  Thank you.

My guess is that research is currently going on by various groups in re scalability. I’m looking for final reports on this also.

 

Hi

I’ve been reading this forum for a while, I just thought I’d add my thoughts on this as it’s a subject close to my heart!

Frio are a well know company in Europe.  I’ve been familiar with their product for the best part of 20 years.  I know the subject of refrigerated meds has come up a few times.  Another tip I often share with people here is to speak to your local pharmacy about the possibility of sourcing some Medicool packs.  These are similar to ice packs you might use in a cold box but specifically designed for the transportation of medications and are designed to keep medicines at chilled (2-8 celsius) for up to 72 hours inside a Polybox.  A polybox is just a thick walled polystyrene transport box. You may not get 72 hours if you’re in a really hot climate but you would in more temperate zones.

You could invest in a medical chilled transport box but manufacturers often send polyboxes out and then pharmacies end up dumping them if they can’t send them back and are quite happy to have someone to take them away! Asking cost nothing, worst case scenario they say ‘no’, best case scenario you get a cheap/free solution! Simply keep the Medicool packs in your freezer so they are ALWAYS ready to go and if the power goes out simply replace them in the box, pop your meds in (preferably in a box in the middle so not in direct contact with the cold packs) and pop the lid on.  This is the system I set up when we were having a period of sporadic power cuts.

If you rely on these kinds of medication it may also be a worth while investment to have a fridge temperature data logger. This is a device that looks like a USB drive with two indicator lights.  It records the internal temperature of the fridge. If the fridge goes out with range this will be recorded by the logger and the light will flash red instead of green.  They run off a small battery and can record up to 2 months of data reading every 5 minutes.  The number of readings can be varied and you would use up the memory faster/slower. Simply download the readings to see how long and what temperature it’s reached. You also get versions with a display but I find them cumbersome. Its also easy to pop into your emergency box (as above) and you have an immediate visual clue to whether your medication has stayed within it’s storage limit! The logger runs on a small battery so which lasts a few years, just make sure you have a spare in your supplies.

 

I’ve used some of those cold packs from a family member’s medical supplies for about three years now. Still are holding up great and are excellent cold packs that I use when going on road trips. That’s a helpful tip about how to get some free ones

 

Good morning Sewknot,

A warm welcome to the TP forum. 

Am guessing you’re transmitting from the UK.

My small group solved our temp controlled pharma matter … in theory at least … Our problem is obtaining the RX pharma.

Appreciated reading your insight and suggestion to just ask the pharmacist/chemist.

Again: welcome to the TP.com forum. Looking forward to your posts.

 

Great suggestion. I was receiving insulin via mail at one point and it came in the styrofoam box. They then changed to a bubblewrap type of package. But those boxes were neat! Approx 3″ eps would have been an R-value of maybe 10. I had hoarded so many I had to purge eventually.

Along the same line, home stores sell various types of foam board for a DIY solution. Extruded polystyrene that has an R-value of about 5/in. I built a box from with 6″ walls and a tight lid so effectively R-30.

The problem with great insulation however is the temperature wants to be near freezing while your gel or ice is melting, and that is scary. I want to make a box with a thermoelectric refer unit. 12v, low draw and cheap enough you could have multiple backups. 

I had a cheap walmart fridg using this tech but the insulation was sad and it soon died. It sucked power to boot. Sunfrost has a small DC fridge designed for meds in remote locations, compressor type, uses about 10a/hrs/day but it is a couple grand and I haven’t worked myself up to that yet.