Some refrigerators have built-in water and ice dispensers in the door. Convenience stores have slushy frozen drinks ready to be dispensed at any time. This idea combines the two.
The idea is to add a third dispenser nozzle, with a mechanism that leads to a removable canister in the freezer. Various food companies can sell disposable attachments filled with your favorite frozen goodies: soft-serve ice-cream, fruit smoothies, slurpees, frozen margarita mix, etc.
Ideally, the canister part of the dispenser would have its own individual temperature control (possibly using a mixture of air from the freezer and the refrigerator to keep the canister at the ideal temperature for the particular contents). For some drinks, an agitator mechanism (like those rotating blades in Slurpee machines) may be necessary.
I'm imagining a design that would be self-cleaning, using water diverted from the water dispenser, so there would be no need to take apart the third dispenser mechanism to clean it. The user could just twist off the old flavor, press a button to run some water through the pipes, and twist on a new flavor.
Even more fun would be if there was a reusable canister you could use to make your own home-brew frozen drinks, attach to the dispenser, and have at-hand for several days.
So, teens can have grape juice slurpees for after-school treats, college kids could twist on a "jungle juice" attachment for a party, health nuts can use it to dispense protein shakes each morning, pregnant ladies can create their own wacky flavor of soft-serve ice cream to auto-dispense for midnight snacks, and I could have frozen lemondade, vanilla milkshakes, and berry smoothies handy all summer. Yum!
I've been commenting on halfbakery for a while, and reading for even longer, and I thought it was time for me to write up one of my ideas! First post!-- paix120, Mar 10 2009 Non-Frozen version Dispenser_20FridgeJust saw this - mine could of course also achieve regular drink dispensing if temp was adjusted low enough not to freeze. [paix120, Mar 10 2009] Dispenses milk and juice from airless disposable cartons http://www.quantexp...s/fridge-dispenser/ [goldbb, Jul 07 2009] congrats on your first post. as a pregnant lady, i would like to thank you for targeting my demographic. although i resent you mentioning jungle juice when i'm not allowed to have any.-- k_sra, Mar 10 2009 Shoulda thought of that before you got freaky. [+]-- shapu, Mar 10 2009 i could really go for a cold daiquiri...-- k_sra, Mar 10 2009 ...with delicious rum and bananas in it, sucked through a straw.... ;ox---------- gnomethang, Mar 10 2009 I guess two questions would be (1) how long a product could remain in ready-to-dispense condition, and (2) how much maintenance would be required. Having to clean a machine a minimum of once every few days and discarding all remaining product (if the machine runs out of product slightly before cleaning is required, clean it before refilling) would probably not be a problem for a convenience store, but would be objectionable for many home users. Likewise, an ice machine which required maintenance every few months wouldn't be a problem for a business, but would be objectionable in the home.-- supercat, Mar 10 2009 Haha thanks k_sra!
supercat - 1. I will leave the food product development up to the food companies. I'm sure there is a way to keep the stuff ready-to-dispense condition long enough for it to be eaten up. 2. I didn't think through the entire design in detail, but like I mentioned in the idea, I imagine the combination of disposable canisters, and the ability to flush the pipes using the built-in water dispenser would minimize cleaning difficulty. I know it is an important factor.-- paix120, Mar 10 2009 Agreed!-- paix120, Apr 20 2009 I'm liking this idea, however for me its the pure convenience of not having to get glass, open fridge door, take out smoothie bottle, open bottle, pour smoothie, close bottle, return bottle to fridge -I'm exhausted! My suggestion would be therefore to have an accessory that allows pumping straight from the bottle to the external dispenser. You could have various attachments to suit differing bottles with a pump line to the dispenser. Place smoothie bottle or chosen beverage into fridge connect pump line -hey presto your favourite on tap!-- SrTronosco, May 25 2009 Great Idea!-- danman, May 25 2009 Thanks, danman!
Also thanks for your input Sr Tronosco - I think you misunderstood a bit, though. The canister/bottle I mentioned was to store the smoothie mix inside, and it would be dispensed through the door - hence the name "Fridge Door Smoothie Dispenser" :)-- paix120, Jun 03 2009 random, halfbakery