Ice. Why does the ice in my fridge stick together, but the ice in the McDonald’s sodas and Starbucks drinks does not? Also am I the only one who thinks old ice from the automatic ice maker smells like a weird off-garlic? If not, why does it smell this way?
Ice in freezer (especially in units with automatic defrost cycles) sticks together because some of the ice on the surface of the cubes melts and then refreezes. Ice in drinks is in an environment whose ambient temperature is above the freezing point, so the cubes or chips can’t freeze together.
Ice in your freezer will pick up odors over time. Keeping a fresh box of baking soda in there weill help keep smells down.
Ice in drinks wasn’t what i meant… my bad… when you open an ice machine… like the ones in the Barnes & Noble cafe… none of the ice cubes stick together… and those machines don’t have doors that seal like on the fridge…
My WAG: In a automated ice maker, the ice is heated slightly to unstick it, which leaves the surface wet. (If you’ve ever tried sucking a dry (but water) ice cube, you know it sticks to stuff).
In a commercial ice maker, where large volume is required and there’s fast turnover, the bin seems to be unrefrigerated, which leaves the wet ice cubes no reason to re-freeze to each other.
I don’t know whether your own fridge has a built-in icemaker or not, so I’m not sure what’s sticking for you. Most fridge ice-makers have a stirring motor to unstick the stored ice from each other.
Well, that’s mostly because those ice cubes/chips aren’t in there long enough to freeze together. If it was untouched for a couple days, I suspect they would start to freeze together. Ice has another property at temperatures just below freezing: it sublimes, that is it turns form a solid directly to a vapor. When two pieces of ice touch, some water molecules might sublime from one piece and refreeze on the other. Over time, this action can also weld two pieces of ice together.