ELIF: Why don’t we have cold liquid drink coolers?

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If you put a warm beverage in a fridge, 10 minutes later it is still warm. Put it in near freezing water, and in 10 minutes it is cold. Also since the cold is mostly in the liquid, it doesn’t escape when a lid is opened. Why are there not liquid filled beverage coolers?

Edit: maybe cooler is the wrong word. Mainly thinking of stationary beverage chiller to replace something like a mini fridge that is constantly plugged in.

In: Technology

5 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Such things exist, and occasionally pop up in the wine section of upscale grocery stores. They have a large footprint, and must be kept chilled (or at least pre-chilled) to be useful, so few people with working refrigerators would want one in their homes.

Anonymous 0 Comments

The terminology you are looking for is the thermoelectric cooler, or Peltier cooler. They work, but require a good bit of electricity to really help and only cool by about 40° from ambient. Not bad, but not as frosty as ice, which is inexpensive and commonly available.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Because water is super-heavy. Sure it has high heat capacity, particularly ice, but a fridge sized cooler would weigh an unacceptable amount. Small [specialized gadgets](https://www.amazon.com/Chill-Matic-Automatic-Beverage-Chiller/dp/B0148K37K2/ ) work that way, but it’s not feasible for large scale solutions.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Because it’s easier to provide your own cold water when you need to cool your beer than carry it back from the shop in a massive container and cool it down somehow.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Have you really never filled a cooler with ice and water?