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Self-Heating Can

nickprecision writes "Ontro has been working for a while, and they are about ready to get to the public market. Quite a nifty little self-heating can... imagine the uses. Read up so you know about it when your friends pull one out on the ski hill."

7 of 291 comments (clear)

  1. they trademarked two words. nice. by gTsiros · · Score: 4, Interesting

    "anytime, anywhere"

    and they trademarked it. am i the only one who thinks that this is stupid?

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  2. Already In Europe by Dave500 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Just a sidenote - in Europe (well - London) Nestle already sell similar cans of self heating coffee. Works quite well - shame about the taste of whats in the can though. I can't remember the reactants - but the oxidser is diluted hyrogen preoxide.

  3. I saw one of these at the weekend by Cyberdyne · · Score: 5, Informative
    Quite neat really: a cup of coffee (two versions: white, and white+sugar), with a little capsule on the bottom. Press the button (filled with red gel), wait a couple of minutes, then drink!

    It looked like a nice idea, but I didn't try it - mainly because of the price: £1.30 IIRC, which is about $2. It seems a bit much IMHO for a normal cup of takeaway coffee, even if it does have a neat self-heating function! Good for camping trips, perhaps, but not in the roadside service station where they were selling it: you can buy normal fresh coffee for the same price and get a seat and newspaper to go with it...

  4. Re:RTFA by pubjames · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Clearly neither you, nor the dumb-assed moderaters who modded you up, nor the other dumb-asses who posted the exact same thing as you, nor the dumb-asses who modded them up, bothered to follow the link.

    If you had, you would have seen:

    "While on a trip overseas in the early 1990s, Ontro's founders, Jim Scudder and Jim Berntsen, came upon an interesting product ... a beverage container that would heat its contents without the benefit of external energy sources (microwave, heating element, etc.). They soon found similar products in other parts of the world, but all had two very significant problems."

    Followed by information about what makes their product different.


    This is what is known as promoting your product. What do you think they would say? Our product is exactly the same as the others? It's more expensive?

    There is nothing revolutionary about this product. It works in pretty much the same way as the products available in Europe and other places.

    Don't be so critical of other posters and moderators. People might think you're a dumbass yourself.

  5. Re:RTFA by GilesP · · Score: 4, Informative

    As someone who did read the web site, I can say that the product they have produced, is virtually identical to the nescafe coffee cans other posters have mentioned.

    According to the Ontro web site, they got the idea from similar products released in the early 1990s. Those ealry products had flaws, such a bulkiness, which Ontro wished to overcome.

    Admitedly those early products (at least those released in the UK - there was a spate of self heating and self-cooling products released on a trial basis in the early 90s) did suffer from the flaws the Ontro founders identified. However, the product currently available from Nescafe, is a complete redesign of those early ideas, and has overcome the flaws in a very similar way to the Ontro product.

    Ontro state that their product is 16oz in size, holding 10oz of beverage, and that it heats up within 5 minutes after pressing a button on the base, and stays warm for around 20 minutes.

    The nescafe self-heating coffees are more or less the same size, stay warm for the same length of time, and heat up in around 3 minutes.

    Nescafe and Ontro have produced solutions to the same problem, and ended up with very similar products.

    I think that you should consider the fact that maybe, just maybe, some of the people who posted about the Nescafe products in the UK, actually did read the Ontro web site, and were commenting on the fact that the current UK product is virtually identical to the Ontro product and has been available for some time now, but is a different product to those available in the early nineties.

    Personally I wish Ontro every success, as I would love to see the technology become more widespread (and cheaper), and I doubt that Nestle will take their product much further.

    The one flaw that still remains (IMO), is the weight of the cans. They always feel as though there is some drink left, despite being empty.

  6. Since 1939 by Mop · · Score: 4, Informative

    The concept of a self-heating container is not new. Armed services personnel used a self-heating can introduced in 1939 that relied on the burning of cordite to provide the thermal energy.

  7. Re:Let me get this straight... by plastik55 · · Score: 5, Funny
    The huge flaw in their design is that it contains Calcium Oxide. AKA Lime. AKA Quicklime. AKA a substance used in manufacturing steel and paper, in glassmaking, in waste treatment, in insecticides, and as an industrial alkali

    Oh no! It's a chemical with various uses! It must be bad for you!

    You forgot to mention that it's a substance that has been integral to American cuisine for just about ever.

    Corn is steeped in lime, AKA quicklime, AKA Calcium Oxide, to form hominy (if you're in the South,) or posole (if you're in the Southwest.) It It is dried and ground to make masa, which is used to make corn tortillas (ordinary cornmeal won't work), and tamales. Treatment of corn with lime or other alkali unlocks essential nutrients such as niacin which our bodies cannot obtain from untreated corn.

    Sheesh. Next I'll be hearing people panic about the pollution of the oceans with Sodium Chloride and Dihydrogen Monoxide.

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