A Peltier system can be retrofit to a standard cooler. A thermal conductive material passes between the cooler lip and the lid to provide a heat pipe communicating between opposed Peltier devices, a first device positioned within the cooler and pumping heat into the heat pipe and a second device positioned outside the cooler and removing heat from the heat pipe.

Methods and apparatuses are provided for cooling of beverages containers, such as cans or bottles, quickly, or on demand. An apparatus may provide for quickly cooling a number of beverage containers when power is available and for storing them, once they have been cooled. The apparatus may include a thermoelectric cooler configured to rapidly cool a beverage container in a cooling cell. The methods may include detecting the presence of a beverage container in a cooling cell and cooling the beverage container to a selected temperature. The availability of external power may be detected and a rapid cooling of a beverage container may begin when power becomes available.

The invention relates to an intelligent energy-saving freezing device with air-assisted cooling which includes a housing, a holding mechanism, and a cooling mechanism. The housing includes a lower housing and an upper housing. The lower housing is provided with an air filter, an air pump, a controller, a plurality of buffer bracket, and a venting port. The upper housing is hinged with the lower housing. The holding mechanism includes a refrigerating compartment and a plurality of inner tanks. The holding mechanism is provided with a plurality of locking piles, a lower connecting seat, and a sump. The inner tank is provided with an upper connecting seat. The cooling mechanism includes an electric cooling plate, a cooling fan and a heat dissipating disc. The intelligent energy-saving freezing device with air-assisted cooling of the invention has advantages of having reasonable and simple structure, easy to use, energy-efficient, and even cooling, etc. which effectively solves the problem of low efficiency of existing refrigeration devices.

Exemplary embodiments include a device that may serve as a drink dispenser for beverage cans. The device may be shaped like a keg. The device may include a portion to contain, cool, and dispense the beverage cans and a portion to contain ice to provide cooling, as well as contain additional beverage containers. The device may include up to five tubes with each tube capable of containing up to four beverage containers in the form of cans. A dispensing mechanism may be located at the lower end of each tube to dispense the beverage cans form the device. The tube structure may provide for cooling of the beverage containers within each tube. The device may be portable and may have a cart that can be used for transportation of the device. The device may be detachable from the cart.

A beverage dispenser for dispensing beverage containers includes an outer shell with an internal track that dispenses rolling beverage containers from the track and one or more internal ice liners that retain ice to keep the beverage containers chilled.

A refrigerator includes a cabinet defining an exterior configured for resting on a surface and an interior and a plurality of feet coupled with the cabinet along a bottom surface thereof. The refrigerator also includes a plurality of load transducers disposed between and in opposing contact with the cabinet and respective ones of the feet. The refrigerator further includes electronic circuitry including a non-transitory computer-readable medium configured to receive a signal corresponding with a gross weight of the cabinet from the plurality of load transducers and to determine the quantity of articles retained within the interior of the cabinet.

A container with active temperature control system is provided. The active temperature control system is operated to heat or cool a chamber sized to receive a beverage therein. The container includes an insulated vessel that has the chamber and a cooling or heating unit. The cooling or heating unit includes a thermoelectric element in thermal communication with the chamber, phase change material in thermal communication with the thermoelectric element, a power storage device, and circuitry to control the operation of the thermoelectric element. The cooling or heating unit is operable to increase or decrease or maintain a temperature of the beverage in the chamber by operating the thermoelectric element to draw heat from the chamber and transfer it to the module of phase change material.

Beverage chillers are disclosed. A beverage chiller may include a container platform that receives a beverage container and a chiller tank. The chiller tank may have a central axis and may have an agitator. The chiller tank may be filled with water. A conveyor may move the container platform and beverage container into the chiller tank. The container platform and beverage container may rotate in a first direction in the chiller tank and the agitator may rotate the water in a second direction.

An apparatus for cooling a fluid includes a cooling medium (32) and a drive mechanism (37). The cooling medium (32) is arranged to accept, in use, an insert (36) comprising a fluid contained by a wall such that the cooling medium is in thermal contact with a first side of the wall and causes heat from the fluid in contact with a second side of the wall to flow through the wall to the first side to cool the fluid. The drive mechanism (37) is arranged to apply a series of shock accelerations to the wall of the insert for a period of time during cooling of the fluid.

Methods and apparatuses for transferring heat to and from multiple objects. Such a method entails placing objects in a vessel that contains a heat transfer fluid so that the objects contact the heat transfer fluid. The heat transfer fluid is at a temperature that is different from the temperature of the object, and is induced to circulate along a continuous flowpath. Each object is at least partially disposed in the flowpath of the heat transfer fluid, and each object is individually rotated about an axis of rotation thereof. The heat transfer fluid continues to circulate and the objects continue to rotate for a time sufficient to cause the temperatures of the objects to become closer to the heat transfer fluid temperature.