What is the smallest freezer that money can buy?

paddyrg

The lower the temperature inside the steeper the temperature gradient through the walls requiring either a better insulator or thicker walls. One of the best insulators is air held still (so rockwool, real wool, bubble wrap, expanded polystyrene), however to go from -18 to ambient (on top of a cupboard will be the warmest spot in the room, too) will require since miracle material! And front opening will lose all the cold each time, so need a powerful motor. Plus it would require superb circulation for the fins to dump the heat, unlikely in a 7 inch slot trapped against the ceiling.

A better plan would be to reprioritise the room fittings, maybe get rid of the TV too fit in a compact freezer?

John_Gray

But for the fact that many people are fatter than 18cm, I could have made my "Freeze a jolly good fellow!" pun...

keith1950

What's the smallest you can find?

Most of what I can find seem to be c. 50cm tall - bl**dy hopeless!

Manufacturing is all about economies of scale, the more they make of one particular model the cheaper it can be produced

Why would any manufacturer make such an item when you are the only person that 'might' buy one.

I can't work out whether this is just a wind-up or a very naive individual.

shiphen

paddyrg wrote: »

The lower the temperature inside the steeper the temperature gradient through the walls requiring either a better insulator or thicker walls. One of the best insulators is air held still

I said "VACUUM".

With all due respect why have you failed to respond to what I have actually written instead of pontificating? I was talking about vacuum flask technology. By definition a vacuum does not transmit by conduction nor convection, no, not at all. As a result it insulates VERY much more effectively than does air held as still as you like. So that just leaves radiation. And if you use a layer of reflective silver you can reflect that too.

Okay so a building a vacuum is clearly going to be more expensive than an air gap. But how much does a vacuum flask cost - not much.

No, this is not a wind-up.

I claim that there would be a really good market for people who really value their 3D space. With an extremely well designed system using several thin layers of reflectors (if necessary) and all held under a pretty good vacuum, you could build a system with extremely thin walls that would could with the extreme temperature gradient that I am talking about. The door would be the biggest heat-transfer problem, but this could have a vacuum inside it too so that would help.

With such super-efficient insulation, you wouldnt then need very much power to run the thing. It could probably be done with solid state heat pump and thus be silent.

My gut feeling is that such a freezer would have huge markets in places where space really is at a premium (e.g. caravans, yachts, house-boats, lorry cabins, aircraft and yes... student bedrooms).

So I just find is surprising that nobody seems to have build such a thing.

John_Gray

shiphen wrote: »

My gut feeling is that such a freezer would have huge markets in places where space really is at a premium (e.g. caravans, yachts, house-boats, lorry cabins, aircraft and yes... student bedrooms).
So I just find is surprising that nobody seems to have build such a thing.

Perhaps manufacturers work on market research rather than gut feeling, for they wish to stay in business...

shiphen

John_Gray wrote: »

Perhaps manufacturers work on market research rather than gut feeling, for they wish to stay in business...

Why are you telling me the blindingly obvious?

Of course manufacturers do their market research!! However any decent Entrepreneur will also tell you that in business at you need to have a deep intuitive understanding of how things really work and how people really work in order to make the best judgements.

Larry Ellison: “When you innovate, you’ve got to be prepared for everyone telling you you’re nuts.”

"People are unlikely to know that they need a product which does not exist and the basis of market research in new and innovative products is limited in this regard" – John Harvey-Jones, former chairman, ICI

“There’s nothing wrong with market research as long as you remember that marketing is a game of the future. Most market research is a report on the past.” Ries and Trout Bottom-Up Marketing1999

Walt Disney:
“It’s kind of fun to do the impossible.”

Richard Branson:
“My interest in life comes from setting myself huge, apparently unachievable challenges and trying to rise above them.”

Sam Walton:
“High expectations are the key to everything.”

J

paddyrg

shiphen wrote: »

Okay so a building a vacuum is clearly going to be more expensive than an air gap. But how much does a vacuum flask cost - not much.

Well, sounds like you have the answer, apparently it will be quick and easy, fill yer boots.

How do you plan on getting the cold in there? You need to run tubes for the heat exchange through your complex and fragile vacuum system and have a hinged vacuum door? I assume you have a perfect vacuum, or yes you still have a temperature gradient to deal with, plus fragility plus all the other things I explained before you called me a pointless pontificator.

artbaron

This has got to be a wind-up. I was taken in for a while, I admit it. Doh...

Norman_Castle

Removing one of the cupboards makes more sense.

shiphen

paddyrg wrote: »

Well, sounds like you have the answer, apparently it will be quick and easy, fill yer boots.

How do you plan on getting the cold in there? You need to run tubes for the heat exchange through your complex and fragile vacuum system and have a hinged vacuum door? I assume you have a perfect vacuum, or yes you still have a temperature gradient to deal with, plus fragility plus all the other things I explained before you called me a pointless pontificator.

I never said it was trivially easy. But neither was completely redesigning a tablet computer to build an iPad - but it works and works well enough to sell into the billions.

Vacuum no more perfect than an ordinary vacuum flask.
Yes you need a heat exchanger wires or tubes depending on cooling technology. Fragility not a problem - use solid stainless steel if necessary (as do some vacuum flasks).

I never used the word "pointless".

Anyhow considering all the weird and genuinely pointless things that do get built, given modern advances in insulation technology, I still find is surprising that nobody seems to have built any really small/compact freezers.

But the bottom line is - aside of any tedious name-calling you may choose to indulge in - that you are unable to be of assistance being as you believe that no really small/compact freezers are on the market.

And no, for the record this not a wind-up.