More coral shipment temperature data

[playfair]

Therman and I did a "round trip" coral shipment last week, and he was kind enough to participate in a temperature test using my dive watch.

He shipped FedEx, so we have good tracking info, where as I shipped USPS, so there is no info. Both of us used heatpacks, and similar packing methods. Upon delivery these packs are cool (from the reaction using up all the oxygen) then heated back up when the cooler was opened.

It is interesting to note that the cooler WILL reach "room temperature" of the sorting, it's just a matter of how long it takes.

BTW, once again, all the corals made it

ps, I did a shipment to Dallas right after the last one, and submerged the watch in a bag of tank water. Because the temps were pretty warm in both places, the data wasn't too interesting.
For the current data, the watch was first acclimated to tank temp, but was not shipped in water.

 

[jamesw]

Kick butt data!!!! Once again, thank you.

Cheers
James

 

[Anonymous]

I am interested in what heat packs you used? What was their time period rated at? What was the heat pack temperature rating?

I have seen heat packs rated for

7 hr
20 hr (what I use)
30 hr (quite costly)

I would guess from your numbers you are using 7hr hand warmer heat packs..... If you are using longer lasting heat packs, then it looks like we are all wasting our money on them

BTW... Thanks for your interesting investigation...

 

[mako]

Depending on the size of the container you are using for shipping I don't think it is going to matter which heat pack you use. Once the oxygen is gone they don't produce heat anymore. I am thinking it takes less than 7 hours on average.

FWIW

 

[playfair]

Mako is right... Both heatpacks were rated for 18hrs. When the sealed medical cooler (1.5" wall thickness) was first opened, the heatpacks were cool, then proceeded to warm up.

The cooler has a total volume less than 0.2 cuft. It would appear that the heat packs had very little effect... I've heard before from shippers that they are only used in the event the cooler gets damaged in shipping, letting air in.

The next step is to try and allow the heatpack to breath, but not allow outside air exchange with the contents of the cooler. Perhaps if the pack is taped to the lid, and several small holes can be punched through the styro to allow air exchange only with the pack?

 

[Anonymous]

hi.
Yeah, but then the only thing that got heated is the air outside the holes, won't it?

 

[Mac1]

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote

Yeah, but then the only thing that got heated is the air outside the holes, won't it?

Nah, I think the pack would "radiate" to enough of a degree, to get heat to the critters. What I would be more concerned about is the holes allowing air only to a small area of the heat packs (and only that small area reacts...), or being too large, and letting cold air get into the container.

- Mac