Comment on The end of civilization costs $5
Kolanaki@pawb.social 3 weeks agoYou just need to keep the water agitated and they sell machines specifically for this that would pay for themselves in no time over buying pre-made fancy ice cubes.
No this is bunk.
The answer is directional freezing. Put the mold for the thing you want to be clear in a small cooler (or buy an insulated mold thing), be sure there is a hole in the bottom, fill it with water and put it in your deep freezer. Voilà clear ice for whatever purpose.
You don’t need to agitate it or boil it or use special water, just use physics and you’re all set.
You don’t need to agitate it or boil it or use special water, just use physics and you’re all set.
Each of those things uses physics.
Isn’t this the reason for using hot water to make ice?
That may help slightly, as it lowers the water’s ability to hold dissolved gasses. So boiling it beforehand will force out a lot of the gas that would have become air bubbles. But it’s not perfect, and results vary a lot. There are two main ways to get clear ice:
Basically, the air bubbles cause foggy ice. And air bubbles tend to get trapped because water freezes from the outside (where the cold air is touching it) first. This forms a hard shell, which then traps the gas and causes foggy ice. By agitating the water, you ensure that it doesn’t start freezing until all of the water is ready to freeze. It prevents the shell from forming first, meaning gas can escape the center of the cubes as it freezes.
For the second method, by insulating it, you ensure that the water freezes from one direction. For instance, if you fill an ice chest/cooler with water (effectively insulating it from the sides and bottom) and throw it in the freezer without a lid, the top half of the cooler will be clear ice and the bottom will be foggy. Because as the top freezes, the gas is able to escape down towards the bottom of the cooler. So your ice doesn’t get murky until the gas runs out of room at the bottom of the cooler.
That does exactly what I said in the second method. It insulates everything except the top, so it freezes in one direction. So I guess thanks for proving my point?
Sounds like work. People buy this ice likely either don’t care or don’t want to spend the time.
I’d never buy this, because I don’t even use ice, and if I did, I wouldn’t care about its shape. Seems silly to me.
But I can’t disparage anyone who sees that market, and that means it’s worth doing as a business, to some degree, probably.
lime@feddit.nu 3 weeks ago
you can also freeze the ice in an insulated container with no lid. that makes air bubbles and impurities collect at the bottom, after which you can cut that part off.
dream_weasel@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
You are the only person in the thread to get this right. Nobody else actually has done it and it shows.
Fmstrat@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Or be lazy and put that side on the bottom of the glass.
lime@feddit.nu 2 weeks ago
yeah but then your drink will taste like silt