# Shrinking Ice Cubes **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 14, 2003, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shrinking-ice-cubes/148543 "2003-01-14T17:34:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Tia3child](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/54ee81/32.png) [@Tia3child](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tia3child)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2003, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shrinking-ice-cubes/148543/1 "2003-01-14T17:34:05Z")
Real simple question. Why do ice cubes shrink after time? Is it possible even at freezing temperatures for water to evaporate so the cube loses surface area of something like that? Just curious since I filled up my ice cube box last week and its not full to the top anymore. They look all shriveled if ice cubes can do that. ---
**Author:** ![dorkusmalorkusmafia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dorkusmalorkusmafia/32/7266_2.png) [@dorkusmalorkusmafia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dorkusmalorkusmafia)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2003, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shrinking-ice-cubes/148543/2 "2003-01-14T17:38:04Z")
Ice cubes shrink in your refridgerator because you have a frost free refridgerator. They take out excess moisture (even from the frozen things) and move it somewhere else. Supposedly you don’t get this effect in frosted freezers but then again you probably can’t make snowballs out of your freezer either. ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2003, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shrinking-ice-cubes/148543/3 "2003-01-14T17:43:38Z")
That’s why my ice cream always dries out before I can eat it all, dammit. ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2003, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shrinking-ice-cubes/148543/4 "2003-01-14T17:45:22Z")
Yes, ice can go directly to vapor without being liquid first, even in freezing temperatures. I forget the name of this process but I’m sure someone will jump in with it. ---
**Author:** ![Nuke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ea666f/32.png) [@Nuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nuke)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2003, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shrinking-ice-cubes/148543/5 "2003-01-14T17:47:55Z")
Sublimation - my first post!!! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Ivar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/51bf81/32.png) [@Ivar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ivar)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2003, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shrinking-ice-cubes/148543/6 "2003-01-14T22:13:36Z")
I was just coming with that, Nuke! Welcome to the boards, beer’s in the fridge, grab a seat, hang out awhile. ---
**Author:** ![phlebert](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c5a1d2/32.png) [@phlebert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phlebert)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2003, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shrinking-ice-cubes/148543/7 "2003-01-14T22:42:52Z")
dammit! already the 3rd one to sublimate… and that was the _only_ thing I remembered from 8th grade chemistry! ---
**Author:** ![William\_Ashbless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a87d85/32.png) [@William\_Ashbless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/William_Ashbless)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2003, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shrinking-ice-cubes/148543/8 "2003-01-15T00:03:52Z")
Mm hmm, anybody remember the name for the reverse process, going directly from gas to frozen solid bypassing liquid? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Nuke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ea666f/32.png) [@Nuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nuke)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2003, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shrinking-ice-cubes/148543/9 "2003-01-15T00:11:42Z")
Deposition - my second post!!! ---
**Author:** ![Wearia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/13edae/32.png) [@Wearia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wearia)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2003, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shrinking-ice-cubes/148543/10 "2003-01-15T00:52:35Z")
I thought it was just sublimation too… Anyway, my science teacher described the process as this: The ice particles aren’t staying still. They bounce around, but the air particles and pressure bounce them back. However, sometime the particles bounce off and nothing stops them so they leave the ice and fly off elsewhere, and eventually over time more and more escape until you’ve got nothing. Just remember this is high school sciences I’m recalling here so its not to scientific. ---
**Author:** ![betenoir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/258eb7/32.png) [@betenoir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/betenoir)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2003, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shrinking-ice-cubes/148543/11 "2003-01-15T01:00:15Z")
And with his first two post, Nuke delivers a stunning upercut and a devestating shot to the groin of Ingnorance!! Impressive. Wie Kommen. Bein Venue. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2003, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shrinking-ice-cubes/148543/12 "2003-01-15T01:18:34Z")
This, by the way, is how _freeze-drying_ works, folks. You freeze the item in question – coffee, ice cream, apples (yum!), dead animals (freeze-dying has become a new method of taxidermy), then pull a vacuum on it whole still frozen. You keep pulling off he water vapor that subimes, so more can come off (le Chatelier’s Principle), until eventually you remove essentially all of it. You’re left with a dessicated piece of whatever you statrted out with, and generally it keeps a pretty long time. ---
**Author:** ![TBone2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6a8cbe/32.png) [@TBone2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBone2)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2003, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shrinking-ice-cubes/148543/13 "2003-01-15T01:50:41Z")
Um, sorry to “unsublimate” y’all, but we did this one before a while back… Here’s the dope– “Frost-free” refrigerators (actually, the term applies to the freezer section) work, not through sublimation or freeze-drying, but through this CRAZY process called “heat.” Yep, your fridge either has a heater in it or uses outside air to simply _melt_ the frost off stuff and whisk it away by another bit o’ magic called “evaporation.” The folks that designed your icebox included a timer that periodically (a) activates an electric heater or (b) stops the compressor and allows room air to be introduced. Either way, the frost on your stuff melts, and the li’l bit of water that results either evaporates or freezes into ice when the temp drops down again. Thus, in the case of ice cubes that don’t get used right away, the cyclic heating causes them to melt and evaporate a little at a time – the mystical “shrinking” effect. Those of you old enough to remember before the days of frost-free will testify that THOSE puppies NEVER shrank! They just got bigger as the frost grew on 'em! ---
**Author:** ![SandWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8491ac/32.png) [@SandWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SandWriter)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2003, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shrinking-ice-cubes/148543/14 "2003-01-15T04:59:34Z")
The ‘crazy aluminum ice tray covered in aluminum foil’ guy, beside not suffering from stinky ice, also doesn’t suffer from shrinking ice cubes! Not so crazy after all eh? Okay, so using 47 year old technology in the year 2003, hey that’s not effective enough, TWO THOUSAND AND THREEEEEEEEE!!!, might seem odd, but delicious tasting ice is worth it. -Sandwriter \<- works in a building where cow-orkers leave rotting food in the fridge that makes the ice from the ice machine taste like cr\*p. Nothing you notice right away, but when the drink is gone and you take that last sip…EWWW! ---
**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2003, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shrinking-ice-cubes/148543/15 "2003-01-15T13:45:09Z")
People leave ice-cream exposed to open air? eww… ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2003, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shrinking-ice-cubes/148543/16 "2003-01-15T14:18:13Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by betenoir \* > \*\*Wie Kommen. Bein Venue. \*\* Welcome, c’mon in! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![mmm.forbidden\_doughnut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e68b1a/32.png) [@mmm.forbidden\_doughnut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mmm.forbidden_doughnut)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2003, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shrinking-ice-cubes/148543/17 "2003-01-15T16:13:33Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Skammer \* > \*\*That’s why my ice cream always dries out before I can eat it all, dammit. \*\* Never, ever, in all my life, has this happened to me. 😛 mmm… ---
**Author:** ![Belrix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed655f/32.png) [@Belrix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Belrix)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2003, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shrinking-ice-cubes/148543/18 "2003-01-15T19:41:12Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Skammer \* > \*\*That’s why my ice cream always dries out before I can eat it all, dammit. \*\* FWIW: You can get a container for ice cream now from Tupperware. The ice cream container fits right inside. They come in rectangular and cylindrical.