Today is Martin Luther King Jr day and technically, I have the day off. This is the first time I have had this as a holiday since I was in college. Nevertheless, the show must go on at AltF4.co.

We have had some cold weather recently. Not cold like upper mid-west, but colder than normal weather as in significantly below freezing at night. I have a refrigerator in the (detached) garage that barely hangs on through the cold of winter and the heat of summer. I will use it as long as it continues to run. This was the first time I have ever seen canned drinks freeze and distort the can.

So, what actually happens? Eventually the outside temperature gets colder than the inside temperature of the refrigerator (and freezer). The unit has no capacity to warm itself and therefore the entire becomes the temperature as ambient. So, expect your refrigerator to freeze and your freezer to thaw.

Now, most compounds when frozen actually shrink in volume. Not water which is 99% of what is in this can. That is the miracle of life. Without the fact that water actually expands when frozen allow life to exist on the planet. It is how the Arctic and Antarctic have ice over the ocean but liquid beneath.

Carbonation is the act of dissolving carbon dioxide into a liquid. Dissolved doesn’t mean that it disappears, it is dispersed throughout the solution. The freezing point of water is significantly higher than carbon dioxide and freezing turns the individual atoms into a crystal structure. What happened here is that the water formed ice and the majority of the carbon dioxide left the liquid and blew out the can.

Impressively, the can didn’t burst, but it expanded everywhere it was possible. When the ice melted, the volume contracted again and the can folded inward. There were some other cans of Sunkist in the refrigerator that showed no signs of damage at all. What happened there?

Something you may know is that antifreeze is significantly comprised of ethylene or propylene glycol. Well, chemically those are alcohols. Sugar is also classified as an alcohol. It is also why they say animals are attracted to antifreeze because it is sweet. This is my theory anyway, there is enough sugar in the Sunkist that prevented it from freezing.

There were some ‘Mexican’ Coca-Cola’s in the freezer that completely iced up and spilled over. The bottle didn’t break, that I can see. The weak point seems to be the bottlecap. I suspect that as the bottle iced up, it put enough pressure on the cap to create a gap and release unfrozen liquid and the carbon dioxide.

Why did the Cokes freeze but the Sunkist not? Good question, Is it because one uses corn syrup and one uses sugar? I think likely. I suspect that on a weight by weight volume, significantly more corn syrup is used in place of sugar. Lastly, there were two bottles of prepared margarita drink. Those appeared to not freeze either.

End Your Programming Routine: I opened the water and it was flat. That means that the waters are done, the cokes were done and I have a mess to clean in the refrigerator. Fortunately, it was only a few things and not stocked full. Although it is possible that if the refrigerator was full, this may not have happened because of having enough thermal mass to keep the internal temperature from getting so cold. My advice is to watch the weather and take appropriate actions to protect items from seasonal damage. I don’t know if I will have do anything different but it is a data point to watch in the future.