Cockpit Drink Cooler

Let'sgoflying!

Let'sgoflying!

Touchdown! Greaser!
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Dave Taylor
I love new gadgets, especially when they are free!
Office Depot sent this to me with my last order...it claims to be a cooler/heater; you can see I put a couple of drinks in there to test it out. It runs off 120v or 12v. I will have to check to see what it draws before I put it in the cabin.
Anyone know how the refridge side works?? Too tiny for a compressor. I can hear a fan going now and then, and its putting out a bit of warm air from the rear. "Cold mode up to 68W" hmm is that ~6A? Anyway, its...cute!
 

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Let'sgoflying! said:
I love new gadgets, especially when they are free!
Office Depot sent this to me with my last order...it claims to be a cooler/heater; you can see I put a couple of drinks in there to test it out. It runs off 120v or 12v. I will have to check to see what it draws before I put it in the cabin.
Anyone know how the refridge side works?? Too tiny for a compressor. I can hear a fan going now and then, and its putting out a bit of warm air from the rear. "Cold mode up to 68W" hmm is that ~6A? Anyway, its...cute!
Click to expand...

Please let me know how it works in the airplane when you're done trying it out. I am planning on rigging up some sort of fridge in my plane when I'm done.
 
I tried running the Coleman version that was made for over-the-road driving, etc. At best, it didn't get twenty degrees below ambient temperature. I returned it.

While doing medical courier work, I encountered a freeze pack that would freeze to ten degrees and maintain decent temps of 35-45 for about five hours in ambient temps of 75-80. I found the source but would have to buy a case of 36.
 
its been over an hour and I don't think its any cooler - I will look for a thermometer.
Maybe it will be better at warming stuff.
If it turns out to be another piece of Ch_n_s_ %$^#*, I think I will take it apart and try to figure out their theory of refrigeration. Baffling!
 
It's most likely peltier as spike suggests.
 
It is a peltier. A semiconductor device that when dc current is applied pulls heat from one side and dumps it to the other. It is about 50% efficient meaning that if it draws 68W it has the capability to transfer ~190btu's. They work well if the side that you are dumping the heat to has a good way to dissapate it (a heatsink and fan). If you reverse the current it will heat instead of cool
 
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Let'sgoflying! said:
its been over an hour and I don't think its any cooler - I will look for a thermometer.
Maybe it will be better at warming stuff.
If it turns out to be another piece of Ch_n_s_ %$^#*, I think I will take it apart and try to figure out their theory of refrigeration. Baffling!
Click to expand...

Dave,

You pretty much have to stock these things with drinks that are already cold. They'll keep cold drinks cold quite well, but if you put in room-temperature drinks it'll take on the order of 8 hours for them to get cooled.

Some of these do work better than others. And they're thermoelectric - No compressors, no fluid of any sort. It's not as good as a real refrigerator, but they're OK if you understand their limitations and work with them.
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermoelectric_cooling
well where the heck have I been? (ok, under my rock) This has been known since the early 1800's and this is the first I have seen it? Are there any applications commonly found in homes or businesses that I have been overlooking?
How come they did not start making Peltier devices even before refrigerators if they knew this worked so long ago??
PS I turned it off because it says, "not for overnight use". It got the room temp coke to the temp of cold room temp. So as you mention, need to start with cold drinks and it might prevent them from getting hot.
I thought I'd get some comments on current draw and airplane 12v receptacles.... no?
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermoelectric_cooling
well where the heck have I been? (ok, under my rock) This has been known since the early 1800's and this is the first I have seen it? Are there any applications commonly found in homes or businesses that I have been overlooking?
How come they did not start making Peltier devices even before refrigerators if they knew this worked so long ago??
PS I turned it off because it says, "not for overnight use". It got the room temp coke to the temp of cold room temp. So as you mention, need to start with cold drinks and it might prevent them from getting hot.
I thought I'd get some comments on current draw and airplane 12v receptacles.... no?
Click to expand...

The most common consumer use of Peltier devices other than the beverage coolers is to help cool the microprocessor inside some PCs. The principle they operate on is exactly the same one that make thermocouples work. In fact a bimetal thermocouple will also transfer heat if you pass a current through it but the Peltier devices are far more efficient even though the Peltier coolers are quite a bit less efficient than the more complicated compression/expansion systems.
 
lancefisher said:
The most common consumer use of Peltier devices other than the beverage coolers is to help cool the microprocessor inside some PCs.
Click to expand...

TECs are also widely used to cool laser pumps for long haul fiber optic networks and are also sometimes used in night vision devices to keep the sensors cool.
 
Bill Jennings said:
TECs are also widely used to cool laser pumps for long haul fiber optic networks and are also sometimes used in night vision devices to keep the sensors cool.
Click to expand...

Yep, although I wouldn't call those consumer applications:D. Astronomers use them to cool their imagers as well (the reason for cooling an imager chip is that this reduces the noise level allowing for greater effective sensitivity).
 
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