Awesome Stuff: Have A Cool Drink This Weekend

from the you-deserve-one dept

Sat, Jun 15th 2013 9:00am — Mike Masnick

For this week's awesome stuff post, we're going to suggest it's about time you kicked back and had a cool drink. You deserve it. Thankfully, there are a bunch of crowdfunding projects to help you make that cool drink a reality.

First up, The Ice Baller, for those of you who think your ice cubes are too cloudy, too small, and too... cubed. It's a device designed to make larger, clear, round ice balls. Pretty self explanatory. Apparently, a lot of people want big clear ice balls, because this one shot past its $20,000 goal pretty quickly and there's still over a month left. Personally, it seems fairly pricey to pay $70 (well, $55 if you got in early) to make ice balls, but what do I know?
Ice is so last century. How about some ChillBottles -- little stainless steel refreezable bottle-shaped devices to cool down your drinks. They even come in a small "six pack" stainless steel case that will keep the bottles cool outside of the freezer. This reminds me of another Kickstarter project -- called pucs which closed a couple weeks ago. That one was much more popular, but the ChillBottles are still available (and cheaper). This one only has a couple hours left, so if you want them, don't waste much time. Of course, it might seem a bit odd to put a "beer bottle" shaped frozen bit of stainless steel into a non-beer drink, but this isn't about thinking too hard. It's about getting drinks cooler.
Okay, maybe you shouldn't just be thinking about what to put inside your drink to cool it down. Some designers have come up with a funky looking device called TurboCool to (they claim) quickly cool down any canned drink. I have to admit that I'm not sure I understand how or why this works, but it's basically a cannister in which you put water & ice, and then your can, and you pump the top so the can spins. Sort of the same functionality as a salad spinner. I can see how this would get the drink marginally cooler faster, but still seems like it would take a while to get a drink really cool. These guys are pretty ambitious -- seeking over $150,000 for a device that cools a single can marginally faster than a bucket of ice, but they still have over a month.
Finally, what good is a cool drink if the drink isn't very good. Rejigger seems like an easier way of making mixed drinks without having to carefully measure each component. Basically, it's a cup with three separate compartments, sized to the usual different ratio of "parts" in various classic drinks. Just pour in the right liquids to the right ratio slots, and you've got a quick mixed drink. This one is also super ambitious, seeking $75,000, and it's got a long way to go to reach that goal. However, they still have nearly a month to go.

There you go. Kick back, relax, have a cool drink and enjoy your weekend.

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Filed Under: awesome stuff, crowdfunding, drinks, ice

20 Comments

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BearGriz72 (profile), 15 Jun 2013 @ 7:14am

ChillBottles - Just like ...
... metal versions of (and apparently inspired by) Whiskey Stones
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Anonymous Coward, 15 Jun 2013 @ 9:49am

Large round ice spheres?
http://compare.ebay.com/like/350545975281?var=lv&ltyp=AllFixedPriceItemTypes&var=s bar
like these?
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Anonymous Coward, 15 Jun 2013 @ 9:49am

Large round ice spheres? like these?

http://compare.ebay.com/like/350545975281?var=lv&ltyp=AllFixedPriceItemTypes&var=sbar
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Anonymous Coward, 15 Jun 2013 @ 9:51am

There you go. Kick back, relax, have a cool drink and enjoy your weekend.

Thanks, Mikey! I think I'll have a nice, ice cold glass of MILK!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVaYKhYTH1k
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Anonymous Coward, 15 Jun 2013 @ 9:54am

Re:
Don't forget to ask your parents to buy you some.
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Anonymous Coward, 15 Jun 2013 @ 11:34am

Re:
Stop trolling. If you don't like TechDirt or Mike, you can leave.
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AC Unknown, 15 Jun 2013 @ 11:59am

Re: Re:
The troll won't stop. It will keep on barking.
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Anonymous Coward, 15 Jun 2013 @ 2:33pm

Re: Re:
Bawk!! Cluck! Bawk!!
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Anonymous Coward, 15 Jun 2013 @ 2:34pm

Re: Re: Re:
Woof! Cluck! Bawk! MILK!!!!!
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Anonymous Coward, 15 Jun 2013 @ 9:40pm

moooooo
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Anonymous Coward, 15 Jun 2013 @ 11:35pm

Large round ice spheres? like these?

Those molds are probably adequate for most people, but these guys were looking for a better (read cheaper/easier) way to make the ice clear. The examples that you provided clearly produce cloudy ice.

I'm not sure I understand how or why this works

It's the same mechanic that's employed by an ice cream machine. Spinning the can/water speeds up the thermal exchange process. They claim that it only takes 60 seconds.
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Pixelation, 16 Jun 2013 @ 9:53am

Ice Baller
I dated her...
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Leigh Beadon (profile), 16 Jun 2013 @ 10:21am

Re: ChillBottles - Just like ...
I thought whiskey stones looked awesome, but according to basically every single Amazon review of them or similar products, they are useless... The guy at Worst Things For Sale actually crunched the numbers to show why they suck for cooling drinks down: http://theworstthingsforsale.com/2013/05/27/whiskey-stones/

So maybe the steel does a better job...
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Anonymous Coward, 16 Jun 2013 @ 2:01pm

Derp derp!!! Run away!!!!
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Aaron Wolf (profile), 16 Jun 2013 @ 6:53pm

PATENT PENDING‽
This is a broken system. They get their funding up-front from people who are already paying, the community paid already. There's no justice patenting this! We need to get rid of this patent nonsense. And Techdirt shouldn't be promoting that people fund new patents.
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Ninja (profile), 17 Jun 2013 @ 6:21am

The ice ball caught my attention but I'm troubled by their claims that it lasts 80% longer than an ice cube. I mean if the volume of the ball is bigger than the cube it's obviously going to last longer, however if you use the same volumes the sphere should melt first since it has a bigger surface area and thus it exchanges much more heat with the liquid. The ball would probably cool whatever liquid faster than the cube though.

That said, the most useful would be the ChillBottles as they are reusable and they should cool any drink reasonably fast since steel will exchange heat with the liquid a lot faster plus it would not dilute your drink.

The big cooler doesn't seem a wise choice for carbonated drinks. And the last one doesn't appeal. At least not for me.

So Ninja's awesome choice of the week goes for the ChillBottles with an honorable mention for the ice balls because they are sexy ;)
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Anonymous Coward, 17 Jun 2013 @ 12:10pm

Re:
I mean if the volume of the ball is bigger than the cube it's obviously going to last longer, however if you use the same volumes the sphere should melt first since it has a bigger surface area and thus it exchanges much more heat with the liquid.

No, the sphere has a smaller surface area compared to a cube of the same volume. In fact, a sphere has the absolute minimum surface area for a given volume. So it would last longer precisely because it's not as good at cooling your drink.

Another possible factor is that the lack of air bubbles in clear ice means that a given volume of the ice actually contains more mass and is denser. So a sphere of clear ice would last longer than an equal volume sphere of ice-with-air-bubbles.

That said, the most useful would be the ChillBottles as they are reusable and they should cool any drink reasonably fast since steel will exchange heat with the liquid a lot faster plus it would not dilute your drink.

These would suck for the same reason whiskey stones suck (see posts above), except that steel has a lower heat capacity than stone so they will suck worse.
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Jun 2013 @ 4:12am

luv it!
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Jun 2013 @ 10:13am

Meh
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Jun 2013 @ 3:33pm

http://rdd.me/e9cd9hqe
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