Temperature tracking of a coral shipment!

[playfair]

I sent out a cooler of frags to Yznhmr through USPS Express mail on 10-5...

Also stuffed in the cooler was my dive watch, which I set to store temp data on the hour. After the package was recieved (and frags acclimated), he emailed me the info.

The following is the data in chart form:

Unfortunately, USPS tracking is lacking, and I only have limited info on the stops...

Update: I spoke with USPS to try and find out which pathway was used, but only got bits and pieces of info... beginning to think they really have no idea how it gets to the destination! Comments are updated.

[ October 09, 2001: Message edited by: playfair ]

 

[jamesw]

Yes! This is great information!!!! Thanks for posting. What a great idea!!!

Freight shippers (especially flower growers and fruits/veggies) use something called a "Ryan Recorder" which they put in w/ their shipment. The recorder measures temperature and pressure.

I did a google search on Ryan Temperature Recorder and found a place that carries ALL KINDS!
http://www.sensitech.com/ps_offering.htm

I look forward to seeing more of this type of information.

Cheers
James

[ October 08, 2001: Message edited by: jamesw ]

 

[MrSandman]

Playfair,
Very interesting information. I wonder how the curve would look if you had included a heatpack in there.

 

[Chucker]

Neat idea, Dave! If you're planning on doing it again, I'd suggest "acclimating" the dive watch to the temp of the shipping water before adding it to the package- then you should be able to skip that initial warmup slope, and just be able to record the drop of temp over time.

 

[Modo]

Did you ship the watch in water or just in the cooler?

 

[monkeyboy]

Thats a really good idea! On JamesW's link they have one w/ a probe to measure water temp. I'd like to see what happens w/ a heat pack in the dead of winter.

 

[yznhmr]

Thanks for the cool watch Dave.

...lol..
I agree with the acclimating the watch to the water, even better in a bag of water..

 

[playfair]

Jamesw- I bet those other recorders cost a few big bucks... My watch (which only records temp) was under $70, and hopefully Yznhmr will return it! lol

Chucker- The watch only takes about 20 mins to stabilize 10 degrees, so I am a little baffled by that "warm up". I think that all the popcorn I filled between the bags helped to slow the transfer of heat from the bags to the airspace in the cooler where the watch was. Will make adjustments next time.

Modo- the watch was bagged (had some sharp points on it) and stuffed between a couple of the frag bags.

I have a couple more experiments to do with this (including heat packs), which can now be done by setting frag-less bags of H20 in the cooler out on the front porch. It sure would be nice to extend the shipping season up north here!

 

[Bishop1]

Ok I'm gonna say this, it's not rude or anything.. but this is what happens when you post experiments for review

Packing the watch in styrofoam peanuts does not give an accurate model.
<UL TYPE=SQUARE><LI>Considering the water, in the bags, in the box as an envirornment which is affected by external forces. Since the watch was not in a bag in water; water being the material with greatest energy and therefore contributing to the system, the heat transferred by the water to the system will be transferred to the watch.</UL>

With respect to the graph, this shows that the water began cooling from time = 16:00, indicated by the intial peak in the graph. Since this is read as heat being gained by the watch, it is to be seen as heat being lost by the water to the system. The thermal conduction properties of styrofoam are of course low and convection properties though minimal are low as well, heat lost by the bags probably happened much quicker than indicated.

Setting a box outside on the porch is only a test of how much heat will be lost while you wait on UPS to pick it up and they never do.
<UL TYPE=SQUARE><LI>The temperature variances in cargo planes can vary a great deal, with the on-coming winter, the temperature fluctuations in sorting facilities and distribution centers will not be accurately portrayed.</UL>

Of course this never hurts to try, finding an accurate model that gives the correct answer but not for entirely the correct reasons can give enough information to go on, and of course it never hurts to try.

All that being said, the total displacement in temperature was 5°F, which is as much of a shift as most people see in their daily tank routine, so all the systematic and procedural errors probably don't effect the total outcome to that great of a magnitude.

This was a most excellent idea, one of more interesting I've seen in a while, and hope you continue to look into it.

rambling..
bish

 

[yznhmr]

Ok Dave, you will get the watch back, then you can put it in a bag of water and ship it with more frags to me and we can try the experiment again...

 

[Lefty1]

Ship it to me!

RR

 

[Lefty1]

Cool!

Was the watch bagged in tank water? I would be interested in seeing air temp vs water in the bag temp.

RR