Scenario: I’m in college. Our fridge, even when set to a warmer temperature, is still ridiculously cold. So I open the fridge to grab an A&W tonight, and the damn thing’s frozen! I check all the other cans, and they’re all fine. Coke, Mountain Dew, Country Time Lemonade, Dr. Pepper, everything’s fine except for my 3 solid root beers. Why are these the only ones that froze? Does it have something to do with carbonation? Thinner cans perhaps?
Was the root beer in the back of the fridge? I know in my fridge, if I put the milk on the back of the top shelf, it’ll freeze, but if its up front near the door, it won’t. Maybe it’s just location?
Bummer Man! Wish I had what’s in your cooler.
I’m with Commander Fortune – most fridges have cold spots and warmer spots.
Root beer popsicles, BTW, are delicious. Brings back those childhood memories…
Yay! A refrigeration question. Yippee!
Let’s see, frozen rootbeer in an aluminum can in a small 'fridge. I would bet it is either very near or in contact with the coils if it one of those dorm 'fridges that don’t even have internal fans, or right in the way of the cold air vents if it is a normal residential 'fridge.
If you move your sodas away from the coils and vents, and they still freeze, then probably the problem is related to the controls. The temperature sensor that cycles the compressor on and off might be ice covered (if it is in the freezer section, out of calibration, or in the wrong place. Find it and clean it off, or move it a little away from the coils or out of the air stream, but not too close to anything related to the defrost cycle or it will just make it colder.
If it’s a normal residential fridge then usually the temp controls for the 'fridge part and the freezer part are not really different. The freezer controls actually cycle the compressor on an off at different temp set points, and the 'fridge contols just change the portion of the air that goes to the fridge. To control the temp in the fridge you might have to turn up the temp in the freezer. Try that before you make the adjustments above. And unplug the damn thing before you take it apart if you work on it!
I thought about location, but that can’t be it. I also had Country Time and Mountain Dew cans in the back of the fridge surrounding the root beer. They would have had an equal chance to freeze if location were the determining factor, but they didn’t. And even the root beer can that was the third one from the back of the fridge froze (this was actually the one I grabbed to drink), while the Coke cans all the way in the back didn’t freeze.
I doubt anything is ice covered, the fridge was brand new 4 weeks ago. It’s a 3.6 cubic foot fridge, if anyone needs to know. This root beer/root beer can has special properties I tell ya!
Based on that, you are probably right. If the rootbeer has a lower heat of fusion than the other sodas than it could freeze while they stay liquid. Maybe the others had more salt in them, or some sort of glycol (Dr. Pepper?) While it is weird in some ways, you would have to expect that sodas would be at least slightly different from each other, otherwise they would all taste the same and we couldn’t have cola wars.
Makes sense Engineer Don. Is there anyone who did a science experiment on this back in the day and could tell me what’s in the root beer that makes it freeze more quickly?
Is can thickness a possible explanation? Anyone know how thick the average soda can is? Maybe the A&W people are cutting corners by using thinner metal?