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Written by Mikhail Ivanenkov
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Wednesday, 15 August 2007 |
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Page 3 of 3
As seen above, the can sits snug inside the fridge. It would have been nice to have another inch or so of width to make it easier to grab the can by the sides and remove it, but it's no deal-breaker.
The final surprise is the blue LED in the corner. Unfortunately it's not controlled by the door so it's always on (unlike a real fridge), but it is a nice touch though a white one would have been more appropriate. Getting the fridge to work is simple. All you do is plug it into your USB port and it's on. The fan at the bottom is silent and consequently pushes little air, but it's enough to keep the TEC running efficiently. Of course a fridge wouldn't be complete without some testing, so I decided to give things a whirl.
I decided to measure three things: the can temperature (measured on the side), the TEC temperature, and the liquid temperature (which was quickly poured into a glass and readings taken). This was done in three intervals: before anything was plugged in, after 10 minutes, and after 1 hour. All of this took place in a basement with a relatively stable climate. Temperatures were taking using a Fluke 561 HVACPro IR thermometer at a distance of about 1". Ambient temperature was recorded at 23.5C. The results are as follows.
Upon connection, the TEC immediately became cold. After 10 minutes it was down to 15.3C and 14.6C after an hour. However, the can temperature (measured on the side, not the bottom) remained almost the same and the liquid temperature only dropped about 2C. This is, of course, bad. But why would this happen? Well, the USB fridge uses conduction (physical contact) as the primary cooling method. Naturally this requires a significant amount of surface area between the cooling plate and the can to be in contact with each other. Now go look at the bottom of a typical can - it's not flat. In fact, only a tiny ring actually comes into contact with any surface. This was done to allow for cans to be stacked on top of each other.
As I guessed, this ridge did in fact get really cold, but the rest of the can remained untouched. Unfortunately, there's simply not enough surface area to effectively cool a typical can. A flat can (some juice cans are like this) would work much better. A solution to this would have been a round, elevated plate that would come into contact with more of the can itself. But as it stands the fridge is flawed in this regard when dealing with standard soda cans - there's not enough contact between the two to make it an effective cooling solution. It would work with a flat can or a mug, just not Coke.
Pros
- Interesting concept
- Quite a feat (TEC, fan, and LED all powered by 1 port)
- Silent
- LED inside
- Great conversation starter
Cons
- Color may not be for everyone
- Additional width for can placement/removal
- Inefficient at cooling standard soda cans due to lack of surface contact area
The USB mini fridge is actually a really cool idea (no pun intended). It's quite an accomplishment to be able to pack all that into a single USB powered device. Unfortunately, as testing revealed the surface area of a typical can in contact with the cooling plate is just not enough. An altered plate would solve this. As it stands it'll still cool your beverage, but very slowly and rather inefficiently as the TEC will be nearly 10C below room temperature while the drink isn't. If interested you can get yours here. Feel free to comment on this review here. Thanks for reading and enjoy the site!
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 15 August 2007 )
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