The ice that I very rarely use in my freezer has been disappearing. I thought water had to go through the liquid state to evaporate. My water couldn’t be sublimating could it? AFAIK, the ice never gets below freezing at any point.
Totally forgot. There is no corn in the ice or the freezer. Something about the date of this post is making me very aware of the increasing level of corn talk in this place.
We all need to stand up against soft pore corn. I mean soft corny pores. I mean corny soft porn.
Corn.
Damnit!
Your ice is sublimating. Also, the temperature in your freezer is almost certainly below freezing. Most home freezers operate at a temperature of about 0 F (around -18 C).
The inside of a freezer is very dry - the refrigeration process removes moisture from the air. This increases the rate of sublimation.
I never knew that water could sublimate. Is that some common knowledge that I missed out on?
Also, there is NO way my freezer gets down to 0 Fahrenheit. I think that 30 would be pushing it.
Have you ever noticed food left in a freezer for a long time dries out? It seems odd but below zero (Celsius) is a dry environment. Your water is being removed.
I remember back in the early Pleistocene when the freezer part of refrigerators used to build up a lot of ice. We had to take all the frozen stuff out, and heat up the freezer part using stone age technology – e.g., a hair dryer or a bowl of boiling water – to dislodge that build-up of ice. Now these fancy fridges keep the humidity down in the freezer section, which means that the ice in your ice-trays does indeed sublimate. (And, of course, that means extra energy is used, which probably isn’t good for the environment or for your electricity bill.)
This is a common side effect of frost-free freezers. The defrost cycle slightly warms the freezer for a short while and this accelerates the sublimation of ice in the freezer. Which is a goal of defrosting. (Note that most ice buildup in a freezer happens on the coils at the back of the freezer compartment, the coils are warmed by reversing the refrigeration cycle. The ice on the coils melts and drips out thru drain tubes. But this alone won’t get rid of the ice elsewhere.)
Ice cubes (and other things) last a lot longer in a non-frost-free freezer.
If this is true you need to have your freezer looked at.
Water ice definitely sublimates. I don’t know if I could say it’s common knowledge IRL but it is on SDMB :). Of note is that your OP said you rarely use the ice, so you have plenty of time to observe the phenomenon.
A home freezer should be down to at least 10F to be effective (0 is better). Health codes generally require freezers in a food service business to be at 0 or below. I would be very surprised if your freezer temp is really just barely below freezing. If that is the case you need to adjust the setting.
It must take forever to make ice cubes.
At 30F your ice cream wouldn’t be frozen. In fact I suspect, most things in your freezer would just barely be frozen at all. Also one of the reasons your freezer is so far below 30 is to give it a buffer so that everything doesn’t melt each time you open the door and the warm air rushes in.
The digital readout on my freezer is currently set at -3F.
Also, as others have said, ice cubes will evaporate over time, what’s left tends to turn yellow and, well, sort of gross looking. I normally tell people to dump their ice hoppers every few months to discard all the unused ice that gets caught in areas where it doesn’t get cycled out.
your ice not getting below freezing is the problem.
maybe tomorrow things will be colder.
It’s also the reason freezer burn happens. And most people know about that, at least.
Water does all of the basic state changes:
[ul]
[li]Gas -> liquid (condensation)[/li][li]Liquid -> solid (freezing)[/li][li]Gas -> solid (deposition)[/li][li]Solid -> liquid (melting)[/li][li]Liquid -> gas (evaporation)[/li][li]Solid -> gas (sublimation)[/li][/ul]
if you use ice cube trays then get covered ones.
laundry can be dried in below freezing temperatures through the process of sublimation.
Everything sublimes, some things faster than others. Water is not an exception. The evaporation rate of water does not change dramatically when passing through the freezing point.
I guess you’ve never lived in a cold climate and had to shovel the driveway. You can never do a perfect job, but the last remaining snow and ice will eventually evaporate away.