How can i make crystal clear ice?

Question

i want to make some cocktail ice with fruit slice in each cube. I tried using boiled water but it didnt work. Please can you help? thank you

Answer 1

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To find out what happened, you will need:

ice cube trays
a freezer
a water filter or distilled water
a pot to boil water in
water
If you already have a tray of ice cubes in the freezer, get one of the ice cubes and look at it carefully. We want to see the inside of the cube, so it may help if you get the cube wet first. What do you notice? The outside of the cube is made of clear ice, but the center of the cube is white. That white center is what I had left when I left the ice out. Why is it white?

To find out, fill one ice cube tray with distilled water or water that has been through a good water filter. Fill another tray with distilled water that has been heated to a full boil. Be very careful not to burn yourself with the boiling water. Mark both trays so you can tell which is which and put them in the freezer. If your freezer is like ours, then you may have to finish off a container of ice cream to make room for the extra ice trays.

One thing that can make the center of the ice cube cloudy is mineral content. Most water contains some dissolved minerals. As the water freezes, the water molecules fit together neatly into a pattern that does not leave room for the minerals. Since the ice begins freezing at the top, this ice will be clear, with the minerals forced out of it. As more and more of the water freezes, the minerals are concentrated in the remaining liquid at the center of the cube. Finally, the minerals are left as tiny pockets in the ice. These pockets of minerals give the ice a cloudy appearance. The ice cubes that were made with distilled water should have a thicker clear layer around the outside and a smaller, cloudy center.

Another thing which causes the cloudy appearance in the center of the cube is air. Most water contains dissolved air. As the water freezes, the same things happens with the dissolved air that happened with the dissolved minerals. You wind up with many small bubbles and often one large bubble trapped in the center of the ice.

As we have seen in the past (#184 Flat Water), boiling water will remove most of the gas dissolved in the water. The ice cubes made with boiled, distilled water should be even more clear, with an even smaller cloudy center.

The next time you are in a restaurant, look at the ice cubes. You will probably find that they do not have cloudy centers. How do they do that? They use special ice machines which freeze the ice in layers, starting from the inside out. This is very similar to the way that icicles form. An icicle starts with a hanging drop which freezes. Water flowing over the outside of the icicle freezes layer on top of layer. Any dissolved minerals are free to go directly into the air, so the icicle is nice and clear. The fancy ice machines in restaurants work the same way, giving them crystal clear ice for your iced tea.

Answer 2

"A large number of people have become interested in clear ice. The best way to answer the clear ice question is to think about icicles.
If you live in an area where icicles form in the winter, you know that icicles are normally clear and beautiful. There are two things that make icicles so perfect:

Icicles are made from pure water in the form of melted snow.
Icicles are created in layers. Water drips down the icicle and freezes in progressive layers rather than freezing all at once. This approach avoids entrapped bubbles.
If you ever look inside a restaurant ice maker, you will find that it makes ice in layers. Cold water runs continuously over a plate or a grid where the ice is forming, and the ice cubes (or ice disks in some machines) grow in layers.
If you would like to try creating clear ice at home, start with distilled water (to eliminate the minerals) and boil it (to eliminate air dissolved in the water). Make the cubes small or thin to get closer to the way that icicles are formed.

Robert Fulghum adds the following:

A technique used in most ice manufacturing plants that make large blocks of ice is to put a tube in the center of the container of water that is to be frozen. Through the tube they bubble a very low pressure stream of air. Before the tube becomes ice-bound, they remove it, and they pour or suction the water that is left in the center of the ice block away. All of the impurities -- dirt, dissolved air and minerals -- are forced into this water by the crystallizing ice. They fill the void with fresh water (or not) and continue freezing. The core of the block is clouded but the rest of the block is clear. If the core is not refilled and frozen, the entire block is clear. "

yes i know that it is telling you to boil the water, but it also tells you to use distilled water, that might be your problem

ALSO i read on another site (its a drawing so i couldnt copy paste) that you should put the ice cube tray in a SEALED ZIPLOCK BAG to stop condensation.

also it may be the fruit that is causing it to become impure. you could try purchasing an ice machine that makes ice in layers, like restaurants do, though those cost around 1000 dollars :D

Answer 3

The machines in lodges freeze the water in layers on a freezing shelf, it really is then released and it reduce by skill of twine with warmth, at domicile it really is elementary, the tap water is the project, so for clearer ice use filtered, bottled or distilled water, this may get you larger useful ice as there are fewer impurities to cloud up the ice. once you've an ice maker on the frig, as undemanding carbon filter out hooked as a lot because the water line may actually help.

Answer 4

The haze in ice is produced due to the formation of bubbles of the entrapped air. So, if you need to remove entrapped air from water, boil it for quite sometime. Then fill the hot water into the icetrays directly as the hot water is reluctant to entrap air in it. Then you put it to freeze.

Hope you'd get what you're looking for.

Answer 5

Pure Drinking Water is what I have found works.

Did you boil your water first THEN let it cool BEFORE freezing???