As the designer himself stated, his creation was “inspired” by products (vegetables, fruits and bakery products) that are prone to premature deterioration due to improper storage.

How does it work

The design and operating principle of the cooler is extremely simple. It consists of several individual, stacked food containers with a water tank and lid. The chambers themselves are made of porous rock clay mined in the Westerwald region.

The clay absorbs water from the container and this evaporates from the walls of the container, cooling the contents to its temperature. 13 to 17 degrees Celsius.

TONY cooler / Photo: Lea Lorenz/Collage 24 Kanal

TONY cooler / Photo: Lea Lorenz/Collage 24 Kanal

The body of such refrigerators is quite durable, providing them with a long service life.

When a clay refrigerator is damaged or reaches the end of its useful life, it is destroyed by turning it into refractory clay, which can then be used to produce new refrigerators, creating an environmentally closed zero waste cycle.

TONY cooler / Photo: Lea Lorenz/Collage 24 Kanal

Individual clay coolers are available in three different stackable sizes. The advantage of this is that each jug operates separately and is supplied with a sufficient amount of water, rather than being connected to a single location.

The designer emphasizes that none of the stages of creating such a refrigerator are dangerous: Neither the production nor the extraction of raw materials nor the use of the product emits harmful substances into the environment..

• Intensive experiments with different types of clay during firing have shown that cancer clay best absorbs water in the water tank and provides optimum cooling effect.
• The crab clay used for production comes from the Westerwald region of Germany, which avoids long shipping routes and therefore reduces carbon dioxide emissions.
• Following production, clay coolers are fired at 1,000 degrees at the lowest possible temperature to consume minimum energy.
• The Clay Jug Cooler is built strong to last as long as possible.