Why Cups Like Yeti® Work & Why This Matters When Buying Custom Bottles
Yeti® has certainly grabbed a healthy market share for custom insulated bottles and cups.
Have you ever wondered why they work? (PS You can't miss reading about the cat! Read on!)
Everyone appreciates a cold drink on a hot day, or a hot drink on a cold day. But, have you ever purchased a bottle of water from the store and left it out for a couple hours only to return and find it’s at room temperature? Or how about made yourself a cup of hot coffee only to return in 30 minutes and find it is no longer hot?
This is called heat transfer and although it is fascinating, it is not what you want to happen to your drinks.
Heat transfer is the exchange of thermal energy between physical systems. The rate of heat transfer depends on the temperatures of the systems and the properties of the intervening medium through which heat is transferred. Conduction, convection and radiation are the three fundamental modes of heat transfer.
- Conduction is when heat flows through a heated solid through a heat current moving through the material.
- Convection is when heated particles transfer heat to another substance, such as cooking something in boiling water.
- Radiation is when heat is transferred through electromagnetic waves, such as from the sun. Radiation can transfer heat through empty space, while the other two methods require some form of matter-on-matter contact for the transfer.
Heat transfer is the flow of energy in the form of heat. The process of transferring changes a system’s internal energy. The direction of heat transfer is from a region of higher temperature to another region of lower temperature. When both systems involved reach the same temperature, thermal equilibrium is reached. The two systems must be in thermal contact with each other to be affected by heat transfer. Boiling, melting and condensation are all results of heat transfer.
Why Does this Matter?
This is a great example of how heat transfer works.
Imagine you have a cat, Mr. Mistoffelees (anybody remember CATS?). You always have warm, fuzzy feelings for Mr. Mistoffelees and you want to transfer your feelings of love and warmth to him. Therefore, you pet him and after a little while his cold heart warms up and he decides he loves you back. Hot things rub up against cold things and warm them up until they’re both the same temperature.
Now, imagine you put on a glove and pet Mr. Mistoffelees. His brain is confused and it takes him a longer time to warm up to you. This is traditional insulation and the heat transfer takes a longer period of time to complete its process.
Finally, imagine you are trying to pet Mr. Mistoffelees by just waving your hand back and forth over the top of him. He will eventually walk away and wish you’d disappear, right, our cat loving friends?
This is how double walled insulated containers work. There is no contact between the outside and the inside, due to the vacuum, causing very little heat transfer.
A metal cup or bottle with single wall construction has a pretty efficient heat transfer rate and thermal conductivity. This single wall construction won’t keep hot drinks hot for very long and it will sweat. Boy, will it sweat! (Some call this condensation!)
A double wall insulated tumbler or mug minimizes the heat transfer using a vacuum between the layers. Having a vacuum between the two walls of metal slows down the heat transfer process. Why is this good? Your drinks, hot or cold, will maintain the appropriate temperature longer.
So why the layer of copper that is in some insulated tumblers and custom insulated bottles? What does it do?
Although copper conducts heat over 10 times faster than stainless steel, it’s a much better reflector of infrared radiation than stainless steel. This insulated custom coffee tumbler has the copper layer.
So, in the case of a cold drink, as the outer layer of your cup warms up, it radiates infrared energy toward the inside of the tumbler, even through the vacuum -- just like the sun warms you even on a cold day. While the vacuum provides a poor medium for heat transfer via conduction and convection, the copper layer slows heat transfer via radiation.
With a hot drink, the inside layer warms via conduction, along with the copper layer, but the copper layer also emits less infrared radiation than does stainless steel so it keeps your coffee or tea hotter, longer.
So That’s How it Works
Double Wall Insulated Tumblers have a vacuum and therefore, heat has a harder time passing through.
This means:
- Drinks stay colder longer
- Drinks stay hotter longer
- No condensation
- Ice melts at a minimum rate
- They just look cool like these custom insulated tumblers
So if your company is looking for cool company swag or executive gifts that will be used daily, consider custom insulated tumblers that will get the job done.
These custom tumblers, custom mugs and custom bottles are great marketing tools or gifts to keep your brand in the spotlight. Plus, as we mentioned, insulated tumblers like Yeti® and insulated bottles like s'well®, Hydroflask® and others are all the rage.
Insulated tumblers pretty much all work the same as we've showed you above.
If you're looking for a branding opportunity for your business, they are plenty of custom insulated cups and bottles that have the same insulation properties as the brand names. Why is that a good thing? Marketing budgets of course!
The other good thing about variety is you get more options when it comes to the design or shape of the cups, tumblers and bottles.
We love these custom insulated tumblers that are perfect for wine drinkers!
A great option for coffee lovers? This custom insulated tumbler is a recent selection by a TEDx program.
When pitted against top brands including Yeti® you may find yourself shocked at these results compiled by our summer intern, read about the results of her experiment.
If your budget works for the more expensive retail brands, like Yeti®, we can help. But if you need options a bit more budget friendly, we can recommend custom insulated bottles and cups that will work!
When details matter (and don't they always?), contact the professionals at PROMOrx Email TheMDs at PROMOrx.com to schedule a complimentary 15 minute consultation with an MD* Marketing Doctor.
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_transfer
http://physics.about.com/od/thermodynamics/f/heattransfer.htm
