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Cool IT Chiller - Beverage Chiller Manufacturer: CoolIT Systems by: Brian Tiller (7/31/2007)
Introduction Good cooling is an essential part of any computer and it's operation. And if you're intending to push that computer, then it's even more important. But cooling is also an essential part of making sure that computer operator functions well too. After all, we can't have the user falling down on the job if he gets overheated. Today we have an opportunity to check out something new from CoolIT, their USB beverage cooler appropriately named the Chiller.
Specifications:
It's a pretty simple unit. Consisting of a white plastic base surrounding a blue aluminum plate, the Chiller has clean lines with no sharp edges to it. Underneath, it sits on four small hard rubber feat attached to a metal base plate.
Pulling the unit apart, we get a look at what makes it tick. Inside is basically a large heatsink with a small fan at the front of the unit.
Set between the heatsink and the metal cooler plate is a small cooling unit which receives it power from the USB connection.
Essentially the computer, via USB, provides power to both the fan and the small cooling unit. The fins on the heatsink pull heat away and the fan pushes the air out of the unit. In other words, like a mini-TEC cooler. Installation and Testing Do I even need to go over the installation of the unit? Simple enough that even I had no problems. Just plug it in and chill baby! To test the unit, we're going to use two separate methods. We will measure the temperature of both the cooling plate and the beverages that we cool on it, and of course we will also have to test those beverages to see if they do indeed get "Chilled". Cool IT states that the cold plate "chills to 45 degrees". So we used a thermal probe to measure the temperature of cold plate after it had been running for a few minutes.
After only 6 minutes of running, the cold plate had reached a temperature of 46 degrees. Quite impressive actually. We placed a can of nice cold Mt. dew on the plate and let it sit. A few hours later, the can and drink were still nice and cold. Placing a warm can on the plate though proved to be a bit too much for the unit to cool. While it did cool the drink inside, it didn't cool it very much and it took a while to do that. Using a plastic bottle also proved to be a bit much, as the plastic doesn't convey temperature the way an aluminum can will. Conclusion All in all, the CoolIT Beverage Chiller is a pretty neat product. The picture above is my office at work, and I got quite a few comments from co-workers about it. It has no problems keeping a cold canned drink nice and chill, though it's not going to take a warm one and make it cold. And of course, there is also the convection, or lack there of, problem of plastic bottles. For a price of about $25, I'd say that this unit not only proves to be functional, but is also a great conversation piece at work. Pros:
Cons:
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