Beverage heater or cooler install?

**Naesstrom** · 06-29-2007, 05:20 PM

So... as the geek I am I must admit that Im addicted to coffee, but my Girlfriend is hooked on coke...

I drive a old Volvo 740, if u ever have seen one u must have noticed that big spare room between the front seats, I dont have any pic of it now but its pretty big... most ppl have their money or something there...

Well, the thing is that I found 2 amazing products, both is USB powered and I think I make them go there...

The first one is a beverage cooler, just connect it to the USB port and then it goes down to 7 degrees Celcius, sweet for those long summer days when your McD coke is getting to warm...

http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/electronic/7f5a/

The second one is ofcourse a coffee heater, basicly it just keeps your coffee warm, maybe for those long drives in the winter...

http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/electronic/85b6/

Im not sure its possible to get them both there so what would u do... the heater or the cooler?

**carputerdude** · 06-29-2007, 05:26 PM

I saw the beverage cooler at Fry's the other day and thought...mmm... silent cpu cooler maybe?

**Siezmik** · 06-29-2007, 05:33 PM

I picked up one of those coolers for free at last year's E3 and I have to tell you, they don't work well at all. The biggest issue is that there's just isn't enough cooling power in the peltier to cool all the liquid sitting on the plate. If there was an aluminum sleeve around the beverage, thermally connected to the cooling plate, then maybe, maybe that would boost the efficiency.

All in all, sitting on my desk in my office, the cooler struggled to keep a can of Coke more than a few degrees below ambient. I can't imagine that it would work at all when combined with the wide temperature variants inside a car.

Needless to say, my cooler made a nice (albeit of dubious value) gift to someone else.

**Naesstrom** · 06-29-2007, 05:35 PM

Originally Posted by carputerdude

I saw the beverage cooler at Fry's the other day and thought...mmm... silent cpu cooler maybe?

Might work, on the swedish site where I first found it they said that it wasnt meant to chill "warm" drinks with, only to keep already cool ones cold!

Read somewhere else though where someone had tried using some peltier thingy that I think work better for that though...

**Rob Withey** · 06-29-2007, 05:52 PM

Why doesn't some one make both in one unit? A peltier device pumps heat from one side to the other, it has a hot side and a cold side. Make a flippable device and you can choose.

**kevinlekiller** · 06-29-2007, 05:59 PM

Originally Posted by Rob Withey

Why doesn't some one make both in one unit? A peltier device pumps heat from one side to the other, it has a hot side and a cold side. Make a flippable device and you can choose.

Doesn't the direction of the current affect the cooling/heating in a peltier?

**TruckinMP3** · 06-29-2007, 06:05 PM

Originally Posted by kevinlekiller

Doesn't the direction of the current affect the cooling/heating in a peltier?

Yes it does....

**gibroni** · 06-29-2007, 06:11 PM

I think the intent of the device is to keep cold drink cold than to chill a warm one.

**Super_T** · 07-02-2007, 01:57 PM

Originally Posted by gibroni

I think the intent of the device is to keep cold drink cold than to chill a warm one.

Correct, it doesn't have the bawlz to chill a warm drink. Due to the tiny amount of heat transfer area from the cooler to the drink (just the bottom), in a hot car it probably won't be good for more than 10 degrees of lift or so. All the heat it pulls out of the beverage gets dumped into your car via the bottom of the unit as well.