SpinChill

SpinChill
Time
Cooler

#WarmBeerSucks


SpinChill

PORTABLE DRINK CHILLER

SpinChill
SpinChill cools canned drinks in 60 seconds. It also chills most beer and wine bottles!
$24.99

 

Cooling a container of liquid without spinning relies on conduction all the way from the outside of the can to the center of the liquid.  As the outside layers of liquid cool, they insulate the inner layers which slows the cooling process.  SpinChilling the container introduces a mixing phenomenon known as convection which allows the warm liquid in the center of the container to make its way to the outer edges of the can to be cooled instantly.  This increases the rate of heat transfer and cools the beverage down at a rate of at least 20 times faster.



NO EXPLOSIONS?


It all has to do with the air pocket. A carbonated beverage has carbon dioxide dissolved in the liquid under pressure. When the can is opened, the liquid inside equalizes with the pressure in the atmosphere, and the CO2 comes out of solution. All carbonated beverages fizz upon opening, but whether they foam over depends on how fast the CO2 comes out of solution.

In order for CO2 to come out of solution, it needs a nucleation site. The nucleation sites are usually gas pockets that form on microscopic scratches on the wall of the can or bottle.
When a beverage is shaken, the main air pocket is broken up into millions of small bubbles dispersed throughout the beverage. When the container is opened, the solution has nucleation sites everywhere and the CO2 comes out of solution so quickly that the bubbles throw the liquid out of the top of the can, spraying fizz everywhere.

When a beverage is smoothly rotated by a SpinChill, all the small bubbles combine to form one large air pocket. There are less nucleation sites for bubbles to form so the drink doesn't fizz.   All you'll hear is the satisfying pssssst! of a freshly opened cold brew (or soda).





THE SPINCHILL STORY


Ty Parker and Trevor Abbott began the SpinChill adventure during the summer of 2013 in Gainesville, FL. 

As part of the HackerHouse accelerator program, they traveled to Atlanta, GA for the AngelHack hackathon. Coming from Mechanical Engineering backgrounds, neither of them wanted to delve into computer programming so they set out for WalMart to see what physical thing they could "hack" together.

Many times during their college career they'd had warm beers and only one way to cool them down: throw them in ice water and wait. They decided to use our knowledge of heat transfer and love of cold beers to solve this problem by creating the first SpinChill prototype.

The hypothesis was that spinning the beer can in ice would add convection and increase the rate of heat transfer significantly. When they opened the first SpinChilled can in front of a live audience at AngelHack, they were sure that the beer would spray everywhere but would at least be cold. Everyone was shocked to find that of the two beers placed in the ice, the stationary beer foamed more than the beer that was spun. 

Since then, they've prototyped, developed, and refined the designs.  They've found manufacturers, both here and abroad, to produce the products.  They ran a successful Kickstarter campaign to raise the initial funds for tooling costs and to pay for a first round of production.  Once the Kickstarter campaign ended, they started selling products online and shipping them from Gainesville, FL, where they still are today!

They've enjoyed traveling around, sharing their story, and drinking cold beers with like minded people. Ty and Trevor hope you have as much fun SpinChilling as they have.



THE TEAM

Trevor Abbott was born and raised in New Port Richey, FL.  He is currently pursuing a Mechanical Engineering degree from the University of Florida.








 

Ty Parker Spin Chill InventorTy Parker was raised on a potato farm in Elkton, FL. Fascinated with machinery from working on the farm he decided to get a Mechanical Engineering Degree from the University of Florida.  He has worked as an engineer at a large coal fired power plant and has designed and manufactured drones in Gainesville, FL.