The question I have relates to the ease at which ice cubes are released from their trays, and how the position of the tray in the freezer apparently plays a major role. I have noticed this phenomenon in different freezers, both the self-defrosting and the kind you have to turn off to defrost. It happens wether you use plastic trays, or the old aluminum handle-style. It happens no matter what the temperature of the freezer happens to be, as long as it’s cold enough to make them. For whatever reason, the ice cubes in the top tray release the easiest, with little or no ice splinters. The middle tray releases with a little more vigor, and a few cracked cubes. The bottom tray is the most difficult, usually requiring a soak under the faucet, or risk a tray of totally cracked ice. Does anyone for sure know why this happens??
Taking you at your word, my first guess would be that since hot air rises, the upper part of the freezer (while still cold of course) will be the warmest unless there’s fairly decent circulation.
If you have an “old fashioned” freezer compartment, the chiller coils run around the sides of the compartment, making the bottom tray colder than the other ones.
if the colder trays freeze faster it might trap air and allow poor crystals, these crack into chunks when the cube is dislodged. slower freezing makes a more solid cube.
Can I hijack with a related question? How do those little stalagmites form on an ice cube, like an inverted icicle? They can be taller than the cube is deep. This is in a fairly late model frost-free freezer, but the ice maker is frozen so we use trays.
It only seems to happen to my SO when he makes them, never to the ones I make.
Roddy
The surface of the ice cube starts to freeze and leaves a small hole of unfrozen water. As the water inside the cube freezes, it expands and forces the water inside the cube up through the hole, forming a mini ice volcano. This eventually also freezes solid, forming your little stalagmite.
ETA: They are more likely to form if you use distilled water.
Here is an interesting video of an ice spike forming:
Colder air inside the freezer also helps. Do you leave the door open longer when you make them?
Why does distilled water increase the chances of this happening?
Ice will form around the impurities in non-distilled water and will often plug the hole before the ice spikes can form.
I disagree that the speed of freezing has anything to do with the degree of difficulty of release.
My theory is that the ice cube trays on the bottom are harder to release because the ice trays on the bottom are slightly deformed by the pressure of the trays on top. When the ice freezes, it expands into the deformities. The problem is exacerbated when one overfills trays and the ice, as it expands, hits the next tray up and expands horizontally even more, or maybe even just because there is more horizontal expansion when the cube surface is pushed above the actual mold.
I’ve informally tested this by placing non-stacked trays at various levels in the freezer and they release the same. Trays with things sitting on them stick more. Overfilled trays stick more. Overfilled trays with things on them are the worst. Things include other trays, pizzas, hamburger, etc.
Thank you.
That sounds very possible. It might even be the opposite, where the expanding ice can deform the tray on top as it expands, creating a looser fit, while ice on the bottom is forced into a more fixed shape. Please continue your informal testing, this could get interestinger and interestinger. My fridge has a machine and dispenser. I don’t know where the icetrays are anymore.