How do drink machines keep the drinks from freezing in cold weather? Also, how come the drinks don’t get fizzy when the fall?
I’ve read, probably somewhere in this forum, that shaking up a drink isn’t exactly what makes them fizz. Regardless, a bottle or can of a carbonated beverage doesn’t fall very far in a machine.
I can’t say about the freezing as I live in California where it isn’t a problem. Usually I worry about the reverse where the drink isn’t cold. Perhaps the machine is sufficiently insulated to prevent freezing.
We had a soda machine where I work and I used to fill it from time to time since it was cheaper than paying the boys at Pepsi to do it and we had our choice of what to stock that way. Anyway, as far as the fizz goes, the drink really only “falls” a few inches and most of that is more of a slide down a short ramp than it is a drop. The drink columns are lined up inside and and all lead to a trianglulatr shaped ramp that is narrow at the bottom and when you make your choice, it releases a can of soda onto the ramp where it moves down and out the little door. Not much really goes on to make it fizzy.
As for the cold issue - ours was inside so I’m not expert at this, but it was a pretty thick box, so I doubt that it’d get too cold inside as a result of the outside temp. At any rate, the only soda machines I ever really see outdoors are those selling cheap soda outside of groceries stores and they’re invaribly out of order. I’ve never checked the ones at roadway rest stops or whatever in the dead of winter. Another WAG is simply that running the machine generates heat (there are heat vents on the back of the machine) and if the machine detects that the soda inside is getting too cold, it’s probably a simple matter to blow that heat inside rather than outside simply by reversing the direction of the fan. Our new machine (which I don’t load) has a digital display telling how cold the inside is, and it’s often read below 30 degrees and the drinks aren’t frozen so I expect the freezing point of soda is lower than that of water.
Some of the answer was given by BobT- the machines are heavily insulated.
I read in one of David Feldman’s Imponderables books about this exact thing 
Besides the insulation, except for the most extreme cases, the 60 watt bulb in the machine that lights up the front generates enough heat to keep the drinks from freezing.
If you are stuck in the middle of the Yukon and see a coke machine in the middle of the winter, it may have a heater in it somewhere…
I also think that the sugar helps lower the freezing point of soda anyways
my two cents worth
They will freeze.
I have bought frozen soda before.
Usually though it is not frozen. Probably because the machine is insulated.
I guess it is OK to wag in this thread so I would guess that the refrigeration unit is probably a heat pump. There would not be any reason to run a refrigerator if it is -30 so the fan idea is probably bogus.
I have also noticed that the outside units are not always in the same place in the winter.They are a little more protected from the wind.
Soda won’t freeze, huh? Haven’t you ever stuck a can in the freezer to cool it quicker? Leave it too long and it’ll explode (because it froze). I live in North Dakota where we often have temps dip to -30 or colder for extended periods, sometimes several days (you environmentalists should be working on getting some of that global warming up here!) Anyway, when the temp gets that cold not only will the soda freeze, but often the machine itself will quit working. And these are Coke and Pepsi machines, not cheap brands.
Hold on there, cowboy. Did I ever say that soda doesn’t freeze? No, I said soda doesn’t freeze at the same point as water, basing that upon the fact that soda coming out of a 30 degree machine wasn’t even slushy. I never once tried to imply that soda will remain liquid at 10 degrees, or zero or -20 or whatever else.
oops, guess I read it wrong, I thought someone said it doesn’t freeze. Still doens’t refute the fact that it does freeze in machines. Though I admit it takes a really cold temp to do it if it’s in the machine. Dammit, now I’m left wondering why. I hate you people. 
Heaters huh
well I said it was a WAG
Soda (pop) might not drop very far, but like you’ve never had one “explode” on you in all your years of purchasing soda (pop) from vending machines?
And, who says shaking doesn’t cause this? Enough aggitation will cause the CO2 gas to come out of solution and form on the vessel’s (bottle or can) surfaces. If enough gas has accumulated on the vessel walls, then there is enough dP between vessel interior and atmospheric to allow the trapped gas to escape…entraining the liquid along with it. Working in it’s favor, the bubbles on the walls displace liquid upwards to the vessel mouth. (This is known as liquid swell.) This effect only serves to increase the amount of liquid displaced out of the vessel during “explosion”.
Shaking, dropping, etc will cause CO2 to come out of solution. However, it’s a reversable process. Within about 20 seconds, it’s back to the way it started.
I saw Penn and Teller do a trick based on this. They had 2 cans of soda. One got severly shaken up, then they spent a while magically transferring the fizz to the other can. When they opened the first can, sure enough, no fizz, since they did “magic stuff” for over 20 sec. Then they opened up the second (unshaken) can, and the fizz came flying out. I leave the explanation for that as an exercise for the reader.
Out here in Missouri, the pop in soda machine DOES freeze in the winter.
That oughta piss off all you pop/soda people. Heh. We use them interchangeably here! The heathens!
–Tim
p.s. Before you ask, yes, we only have one machine.
And down here where mankind first brought forth cola upon the earth, we call it only by it’s proper trade name or, in rare cases ‘a cold drink’ (with the emphasis heavily on cold)
Well, we have the 20oz bottle vending machines around here, and they most certainly do fizz when they are dropped. In fact, you have to wait at least 20 seconds post-vend before opening them or you get fizz all over the place. As for the occasional 12oz can machine, they don’t seem to fizz.