Clear ice cubes - Tiki Drinks and Food

H howlinowl Tiki Socialite Port Saint Lucie, FL Joined: Jul 20, 2008 Posts: 335	H howlinowl Posted posted on Tue, May 31, 2016 6:54 AM Similar process to the old whirlpool ice maker I used to have, like this one: http://www.truetex.com/icemachine.htm It has an evaporator plate which the machine pumps water over, slowly freezing a sheet of ice on the plate. When ready to harvest, it would go into harvest mode (using a timer, temp sensor and a bypass valve to let hot refrigerant into the evaporator) to melt the sheet until it let loose and slid onto a wire cutter grid (resistance wire grid that electricity was passed through) to cut the sheet into cubes. Made beautiful clear cubes, but they were hard as hell, couldn't use them in the blender for blender drinks because they would just jam the blades. No one has convinced me yet that the impurities are what cause cloudyness....I figure the cubes in the fridge freeze on all sides, and water contracts as it freezes. Therefore the liquid water inside the cube frozen in the freezer is trapped on all sides and as it freezes and contracts, it cracks up. That's why regular cubes break up easier in the blender. I think the "impurities" story was made up by the ice machine industry to sell more machines....my opinion, others may differ. howlinowl P.S. By the way, the reason I got rid of the thing was it made much more ice than I'd use. The bin is basically a big igloo cooler, the ice slowly melts and is remplaced with fresh on top. I just learned to get over it and use the ice in the fridge and save all that water I'd been wasting (electricity too). [ Edited by: howlinowl 2016-05-31 06:57 ]

Similar process to the old whirlpool ice maker I used to have, like this one:

http://www.truetex.com/icemachine.htm

It has an evaporator plate which the machine pumps water over, slowly freezing a sheet of ice on the plate. When ready to harvest, it would go into harvest mode (using a timer, temp sensor and a bypass valve to let hot refrigerant into the evaporator) to melt the sheet until it let loose and slid onto a wire cutter grid (resistance wire grid that electricity was passed through) to cut the sheet into cubes. Made beautiful clear cubes, but they were hard as hell, couldn't use them in the blender for blender drinks because they would just jam the blades. No one has convinced me yet that the impurities are what cause cloudyness....I figure the cubes in the fridge freeze on all sides, and water contracts as it freezes. Therefore the liquid water inside the cube frozen in the freezer is trapped on all sides and as it freezes and contracts, it cracks up. That's why regular cubes break up easier in the blender. I think the "impurities" story was made up by the ice machine industry to sell more machines....my opinion, others may differ.

howlinowl

P.S. By the way, the reason I got rid of the thing was it made much more ice than I'd use. The bin is basically a big igloo cooler, the ice slowly melts and is remplaced with fresh on top. I just learned to get over it and use the ice in the fridge and save all that water I'd been wasting (electricity too).

[ Edited by: howlinowl 2016-05-31 06:57 ]

Post #764446 by howlinowl on Tue, May 31, 2016 6:54 AM