I don’t know about you but when I’m working I’ll get a can of pop or soda out of the fridge and usually it sits there and gets warm, kinda sucks to drink warm soda doesn’t it? Well USBGeek sent me over a product that can help us out with that, it’s a USB powered refrigerator, and it resembles an old fashioned refrigerator, imagine that right? Anyway, it’s kinda cool and it really does work to keep your soda from getting warm and yucky….
USB Fridge from USBGeek
Reviewed by: Kristofer Brozio AkA Dracos
Sponsor: USBGeek
Tech Specs,Features or the Basic Info:
USB Fridge
Description:
This USB Fridge is the only way to keep your drink cold while you’re at your computer and it looks cool on any desktop.
You can keep your beverage chilled and stay at your computer longer.
Just minutes after plugging in the USB Fridge the cold plater chills to the perfect temperature for helping keep your beverage cool.
Takes 5 minutes to bring the fridge down to 8 degrees centigrade (47 degrees Fahrenheit).
Blue LED lighting effects.
Easy installation, no driver required, plug & play.
Powered by USB with 4 feet of cable.
Compatible with all platforms.
Dimensions: 19.5 x 9 x 8cm
Weight: 365gm
Price: US$ 30.00
A Better Look at Things
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It turns out the USB Fridge is actually made by Dream Cheeky, I’ve reviewed several of their products and found them to be interesting at least…
As I mentioned in the intro it looks just like an old fashioned refrigerator, it kinda reminds me of the old style Coke machines actually…
It has a door that opens so you can put your beverage in to keep cold, on the bottom is essentially a peltier cooler that is powered by your computers USB port, you can see the cold plate inside the fridge.
Taking a closer look we can see that most of the base is heatsink and fan, a peltier basically works by having one side cold and the other hot. Having the heatsink and fan there is to keep the hot side from overheating, which will make the cold side warm…
Installation, Testing and Comparison
Installation is very easy, plug it into your computer and put a beverage in it.
Just like a real refrigerator the USB Fridge even has a little light in it, it’s an LED but it’s still a light, a nice little added touch I think, even if it’s not bright at all.
The first thing I did was to check the claims of the specs that it takes only 5 minutes for the fridge to get to 8C. The ambient temperature in the room was 25C / 77F during testing
Temps:
-2 minutes : 14C / 57.2F
-3 minutes: 13.8C / 56.8F
-5 minutes : 9.6C / 49.3F
and that’s as cold as it got, even after 10 minutes it was still hovering around 9.5C. Not 8C but close enough to be considered accurate, it all depends on how they measured it and how I measured it and of course the accuracies of the thermometers involved.
Ok, so I took a can of Coke out of my fridge, hit it with my infrared non-contact thermometer and it read 8.3C, or about 47F. I took readings from the top and bottom of the can until the readings stopped changing, or about 7 minutes. The can of Coke inside the fridge stabilized at 20.6 / 69F at the top and 13.2 / 55.8F at the bottom.
I’m sure the readings could be a bit lower actually, considering I had to keep opening and closing the fridge to get the temps, so theoretically it should keep your soda a couple degrees cooler if oyu keep it closed, just like real fridge would.
Summary:
While it’s not ice cold as it would be coming directly from your refrigerator, it does keep your beverage chilled and it does save you from having to walk to get another drink.
It will also keep your beverage from getting warm if your are busy and don’t drink it fast enough, overall it’s an interesting gadget that does have some uses…
DragonSteelMods gives the USB Fridge from USBGeek a 4 out of 5 score.
Pros:
-Cool looking
-Works
-Quiet
Cons:
-Doesn’t keep your beverage all that cold really
I would like to thank USBGeek for the chance to review the USB Fridge and for their support of DSM.
dracos
review# 253