The main tank, brimful with ideas. Enjoy them, discuss them, take them. - Of course, this is also the #1 place for new submissions!
By Cort Cook
#86
Imagine this. A refrigerator/freezer that has no doors, but works just like a regular one. This way you could stand there forever browsing the contents without wasting energy, and you could grab things at your leisure! I'm sure it's technologically possible to do this now, with, I don't know, electro-magnetic fields and whatnot.

Reward: A free one of these things.
By whitebreadmarleyhead
#329
Heya- I know some guys who salvaged one of those glass-front freezers from a conevience store and they use it for a fridge with the temp low. It's kinda cool being able to browse without standing there with the door open, but it's a bunch of young guys so the only thing to browse is usually beer and take-out boxes. ::shrug::
By Craig
#330
Nice idea! You would also need a sensor to turn the light on an off as well as some extra storage space for bottles (as these are normally the duties of refrigerator doors).
By Takoma Park
#331
Nice idea. I still think electro-magnetic fields have a much higher coolness factor than glass doors, though. I mean, what is this, the middle ages?

But all that aside, I think it's a great idea, although it would only work for neat people. But maybe that's a side benefit: if my fridge had a glass door, I probably would haqve dumped that antique mustard a long time ago...
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By Steve
#1459
I think this is like going out naked and having thermo-rays keeping you warm instead of clothes. Nobody would want it, the refrigerator contents are just too intimate.

Also, isn't the main purpose of refrigerator doors to keep the smells inside? :-P
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By Michael D. Grissom
#2145
Steve: Streakers invented your idea way back in the 60's. What are you thinking??? 8-o

Aside from that, an electro-magnetic field to contain a non-ferris media would take about the same power as a large city.

I think only Felix Unger would go for this one and only to *beep* off Oscar.
By gzusfr33k
#4258
And I'm pretty sure electromagnetism doesnt restrict the flow of heat at all...sorry to burst the bubble...
By ssumair
#4264
I have seen this type of freezers fil;led with ices creams in Select aoutlets of Shell petrol pumps in our city Karachi.

I dont have much details about the manufacturer and Technology of the freezer.. But next i will visit to that petrol puppm i will check that out( insha'Allah ) .
By berns99
#4327
Cort Cook wrote:Imagine this. A refrigerator/freezer that has no doors, but works just like a regular one. This way you could stand there forever browsing the contents without wasting energy, and you could grab things at your leisure! I'm sure it's technologically possible to do this now, with, I don't know, electro-magnetic fields and whatnot.

Reward: A free one of these things.
view the contents via a monitor screen
User avatar
By Michael D. Grissom
#4359
gzusfr33k
And I'm pretty sure electromagnetism doesnt restrict the flow of heat at all...sorry to burst the bubble...
Intense electromagnetic fields have been used to suspend non-metalic objects such as wooden toothpicks, plastic parts, and insects in mid air. Google search keywords: "intense magnetic field" levitation frog

http://www.americanscientist.org/templa ... etid/26612
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/connected/ma ... qed123.xml
http://www.ictp.trieste.it/~sci_info/Ne ... chor344228

Very interesting stuff!
By Rishi
#4398
If the intention is to see what is inside the fridge without losing the cool(User's as well as the fridge's) all that is needed is an existing invention of an electronic shutter that works by making glass opaque or transparent by applying a voltage(Rather like an LCD screen) to be adapted to a fridge door. This consumes negligible power and is an existing technology.

If it is an LCD screen one can watch TV on it as a bonus. In my opinion this will
a)keep smells in, b)Keep prying eyes out, and c)let you gaze in peace at your mess.

Rishi
By MissPlayful
#4399
First, I am probably not telling you anything you don’t already know here, but for anyone not versed in the physics of fridges, cold air in fridges and freezers is heavier than the relatively warmer air in the surrounding room, so if the fridge is a vertical one with no door, under normal circumstances you will have a continuous current of cold air flowing out the bottom of the fridge and of warmer room air flowing into the fridge higher up to replace it. Whereas if your fridge is lying horizontal with no lid - many supermarket freezers are of this type at least in Australia - the cold air will simply sit in the fridge and you can perhaps get away with no lid. So if you crave a domestic fridge with no door, I suggest lying an ordinary fridge on its back and taking the door off. (You may need to adjust some of the cooling mechanism if it is not designed to work on its back and the shelving would need to be reorganised). I know of no physical process yet invented that could confine the cold air in a vertical fridge missing its door without some physical barrier, so such a process would need to be invented. But lying the thing on its back, or else designing a domestic fridge that opens at the top and has no lid, would at least contrain the cold air, providing you didn’t have eg a ceiling fan going. It’s either that or you are going to have to invent a new mechanism for constraining cold air without a physical barrier.

Then there is the problem of dust including fungal spores and bacteria, not to mention flies. These things might not be a problem for an open-top freezer because the temperature inside is below freezing so bacteria and fungi will be very slow growing and the extreme cold might deter all but the most determined flies. But for a domestic fridge you want to keep dust etc to a minimum because some fungi and bacteria will grow happily in food stored above zero. Dogs and cats certainly wouldn’t be deterred by cold air if there was a chicken there for the taking. And how would you keep little children out? Maybe a good old-fashioned door is not such a bad idea after all!

I do like Steve’s analogy - “I think this is like going out naked and having thermo-rays keeping you warm instead of clothes. Nobody would want it, the refrigerator contents are just too intimate.” It conjures up images of people going about naked except for wide-brimmed hats which have thermal heat generators radiating heat down onto their bodies. And I puzzle over what it is in Steve’s fridge that is so intimate - I’m not sure I want to know frankly - does he store sxx-aids in there, and keep them cold for some obscure reason (which I definitely don’t want to know about!). But I think Steve’s analogy is a good one - I doubt if the benefits of a doorless domestic fridge would outweigh the costs and the problems.
By Doug_F
#6635
what if you just made either the entire door, or a small block from the door out of glass? It would look really cool first of all, and you could see the contents of your frig/freezes without opening the door every time. It would probably also remind you to get rid of some of the rotten fruit and other disgusting things in your fridge if they were always on display
By Doug_F
#6636
im gonna guess an all glass door would be a waste of energy since the cold would espace through the glass. but if you kept the idea maybe a viewable glass window for both the fridge and the freezer it would suffice. you could even go so far as to have designer doors with designs that match the rest of your kitchen
By prolax23
#10702
Ever seen the fridge-like areas and bunkers in supermarkets?! will work but will be VERY inneficient.

-prolax23
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