FROZUO F1

Desk cooling usually means juggling separate gadgets: a fan that only pushes dry air, a countertop ice maker too bulky for an office, or a portable cooler loud enough to break concentration. FROZUO F1 is a Kickstarter project that tries to fold those roles into a single small appliance, positioned for office desks, bedside shelves, kitchen counters and camping tables.

A narrow footprint

The maker lists the body at 10cm wide, 11cm deep and 21cm tall, slim enough, it says, to sit alongside a laptop without crowding out documents or a mouse. The design is described as simple and intended to blend into both office and home settings.

Honeycomb ice in minutes

The headline feature is rapid ice making: according to the maker, F1 produces 60g of 3D honeycomb-structured ice in 5 to 10 minutes. The company argues that this larger, denser ice melts more slowly than small cubes, so coffee, whisky or cocktails are less likely to turn watery. Removal uses what the maker calls a one-twist automatic ice-release mechanism: turning the top cover ejects the ice as a single block, with no shaking, tapping or touching the ice by hand.

Two airflow modes, quiet operation

• Fan mode: a soft airflow aimed at focused work, reading or gaming without disturbing papers.
• Cool mode: an evaporative water curtain that the maker says lowers airflow temperature to about 26℃, and which it claims also helps suppress dust and odors.
• Noise: the maker states 35dB, achieved by combining semiconductor cooling with a low-power quiet fan, and compares it to a library.
• Patented evaporative liquid-cooling technology, which the maker says improves heat dissipation to cut noise without reducing cooling performance.

Controls are described as intuitive one-touch operation for switching modes and starting ice production. The maker says the body uses durable materials and can be kept clean with an included cleaning brush, without complicated disassembly.