On: Reverse Microwave Chills Beer In 45 Seconds

[staunch]

It's cool, but I doubt it will compete on price:performance with a bucket of ice.

[lightblade → staunch]

I have some doubt on that, but I can't give you any numbers.

With price, you have to consider the energy cost of freezing the ice.

With performance, this thing is less like a microwave and more like a convection oven. A bucket of ice chills the content from outside to the center. This machine creates a spinning vortex inside the beverage container, bringing the warmer center to the outside to be chilled by the surface (by which this machine blows cold water over it).

The idea behind the machine is pretty simple actually. I think this belongs in the clever invention category.

[staunch → lightblade]

Sounds like the same general concept as an ice cream maker. Spinning the liquid in a closed container is the fancy part I guess.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Electric_ice_cream_maker.j...

[xutopia → staunch]

If you add salt to the ice it'll chill even faster.

[jlgreco → xutopia]

Salt, and water to increase the contact area with the can/bottle (unless you want to wait for the ice to melt).

[paultannenbaum → jlgreco]

Since we are going off on a tangent, a cool camping hack when you don't have ice is to stuff a beer in a tube sock, dunk it in water, and hang/tie it to a tree branch in the shade. If there is even a touch of wind it will be nice and cold in 10 minutes.

[aaren → paultannenbaum]

This is much more elegant than the spinning trick, as it doesn't require energy input.

Works really well in deserts, if you keep the sock in the shade.

[staunch → paultannenbaum]

I wonder if you wound up the sock and let it spin if you'd get something virtually equivalent to this machine.

[aaren → staunch]

I think you need to experiment.

[jlgreco → paultannenbaum]

Evaporative beer cooling.. very clever. I wonder if there is a market for a product dedicated/optimized for this (incorporated drawstring/hanger, ideal material, etc.)

[toomuchtodo → jlgreco]

"Billy Mays here for Beer Sock!"

[derekp7 → xutopia]

Didn't mythbusters do an episode on this once? Fastest way to cool a beer, or something like that? They concluded that the fastest was to use a CO2 fire extinguisher.

[clueless123 → derekp7]

In rural areas in Peru I've seen natives dunking closed beer bottles on water, then add nitrogen based fertilizer to get them chilled really fast! (A strong endotermic reacion happens)