This past summer was really hot her in Colorado. Just about every day in July & August I’d be out twistin’ by the pool at the apartment complex I live in. Grateful I was for the soda machine and it’s frosty cans of Diet Coke. And more than once I marvelled at the miracle of modern technology that keeps stuff cold even though the machine is in direct sunlight. Refrigeration I understand and respect.
But last night it was colder than a…well, a very cold thing. And as I emerged from a good 30-minute starlight soak in the hot tub I passed by the stout-hearted soda machine keeping silent vigil by the swimming pool. And I wondered to myself, “Self, what keeps the soda pop from freezing in the machine in the winter when it’s 0 degrees for two weeks on end?”
I had no answer. The machine, like a palace guard, ignored my enquiry. Anybody got an answer to this riddle?
Well, I kno wit’s insulated–basically it’s just a fridge. But to my knowledge it only has a refrigerating mechanism which serves to chill the contents against a higher exterior temperature. That the cooling system has to run at all suggests a less than perfect passive temperature maintenance construction. Heat passes between the two environments. What keeps the 40 degree interior from iving that heat away to a long-term colder exterior? Does the machine have a heater?
Carnac is correct, they actually add asbestos insulation to the ‘winter blend’ colas that are placed in the vending machines. Since no-one actually uses a vending machine when it’s that cold out no-one gets all that sick from it.
The other option, which the industry is just starting to incorporate into vending machines to comply with FDA regulations are electric heaters.
Fascinating. While perusing a technical monograph last night, I learned that MIT engineers have outlined a new generation of cola warmers based on cutting-edge plutonium technology. Just one pellet of plutonium could keep your favorite cola from freezing throughout even the harshest of ice ages.
You aren’t serious are you? My friend goes out of his way to find coke machines that are outside in the winter in Calgary. You know what, he has a point - true ice cold soda with no ice cubes is a wonderful thing.
Of course, a main factor is that canned cola drinks aren’t perishable. I wouldn’t want to buy a sandwich from an outdoor vending machine that may have been subject to temperature swings.
Then again, I’m kinda disinclined to buy a sandwich from an indoor vending machine.
Unrelated vending machine anecdote: somewhere in Dawson College (Montreal) is a freezer vending machine that I thought was downright clever. You can look through a window and watch as a small coffin freezer swings open and a robot arm with a vacuum hose moves into position, lowers, gloms onto your selected treat like the Claw seeking Buzz Lightyear and drops it down a chute. The first time I used this machine, my ice-cream sandwich’s wrapper stuck to its neighbor’s and I got a twofer. Never happened again, tragically.
The older rest stops on the Ohio Turnpike on I-80 have these too. The big fancy new rest stops don’t though, which is why I only stop at the older ones for ice cream. It’s worth the money for the show.
I decided to take the direct approach and go ask the proprietor of a local store that has an outdoor soda machine. The winter weather around here can hit -40 degrees, so freezing is obviously a concern (and yes, Uncommon Sense, people use it in the winter–it’s near a high school).
