We prefer to avoid reviewing an item that we haven't actually owned, but when we read about a product called the Chin-Chiller, we couldn't resist.
The description of the chin-chiller indicates that it remains cooler than the ambient temperature and thus provides a way to keep your chinchilla cool. This is bogus! How can something without external power remain cooler than the air temperature around it?
What is more likely is that the material that these Chin-Chillers are made of is a good conductor. As such, it feels like it is cooler to the touch because it conducts the heat from whatever touches it. But if the air is warmer than the chinchilla then the Chin-Chiller isn't going to have any effect.
This product is akin to a fan. When a fan blows air on your face you feel cooler. But the air isn't any cooler because it is being blown around by a fan. At best you're feeling cooler because the moving air is pushing away the air close to your face that you've warmed up and replacing it with slightly cooler air in the room.
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September 15th, 2008 at 6:07 pm
I had the same problem in my house with keeping the tempature down on hot days, but I live neer the beach and didn't want to bring the humidity up any higher with ice in the cage or on top. What worked really nice for my chins was dry ice. I placed the block of dry ice in a collinder on top of the cage and then a bigger bowl (upside down) on top of that. The collinder holes let the cold ail flow down into thier cage. The bowl on top of the collinder was just to make sure the cold air didn't escape out of the collinder. I then plased a sheet over the cage, it kept all the cold air in the cage. My chins LOVED it. They sat directly under it on a ledge about a foot away. You can feel the cold air coming off the ice and it last a long time. The best part is that dry ice does not have water in it and does not increase humidity at all.
Some warnings!!!
Dry ice will burn if they come into contact with it. So make sure ice is kept in a collinder so that as the pieces shrink they don't fall into cage. Also keep an eye on the tempature as the ice works very well and you don't want them to get to cold. also make sure the highest leadge in the cage is at least a foot away from the ice. The chins will try to cuddle with the top of the cage and that will burn them.
July 18th, 2008 at 1:25 pm
these work well i put mine in the freezer and they get very cold in about 5 minutes i dont have the actual thing but my dad is a tile setter and we had some granite tiles in the garage i cut them up into blocks and we switch them out every 30-40 mins our chin pepper really likes it after playtime and i live in west Texas so it gets very hot even with central air.i saw these at the store you can get a large granite tile for about the same price as one of these small chin chillers but i would recommend it
July 17th, 2008 at 6:34 pm
A frozen anything is going result in a lot of condensation because of the high humidity. And wet fur is not good. In addition, a frozen jug will only cool a small area and will do nothing to reduce humidity. We don't think it's a good solution. Your best bet is to get a window unit for the room in which you're keeping your chinchilla.
July 17th, 2008 at 6:25 pm
It is a hot summer where we are and we have high humidity as well. My family works during the day which is great for sleep time for our chin Chili but it gets hot (close to 78) most places in our house. We have an a/c unit in our bedroom and have moved her cage in there but there really isn't enough room for the cage and she doesn't seem to like it as much. I was wondering about the frozen jug idea. What kind of jugs (plastic?)? How much water in them? How long does it last? I also have a chin chiller and she loves it but to keep it cold we have to put and ice pack on it and that doesn't last all day and it is only in one part of the cage. How long does that frozen sheet trick last??
Thank you in advance for any help that you could give us.
June 27th, 2006 at 2:52 pm
Alana,
That's a good tip. The thickness of the brick probably helps to keep the stone cooler too. For emergencies we have two frozen jugs of water ready. When needed, we'll place these on top of the cage so that cold air will drop down on the cage. We can knock the temperature down by 10 degrees with this method and came in very handy one summer when we lost power. We have another post about emergency cooling.