Without saying 'use clear water', how do you make clear ice at home? The kind you'd find at a fast food place?

Question

I've heard people say, use clear water (let it sit and settle); or use warm water, I've heard that too. Neither works. The ice-maker machines, what goes on so that the ice comes out crystal-clear?

Answer 1

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.



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.

Answer 2

Sorry - but it seems using very warm or hot water IS the trick. Also, make sure the water goes right into the freezer while warm/hot and is not shaken or disturbed. The gas/air bubbles in the water are what make the ice cloudy.

The problem is, you need the air/gasses from the tap water to be eliminated BEFORE the ice freezes... but if the water is already cold, there's not enough time for the water to settle and the gas to escape before it freezes.

If you still have problems, try a bottled water to make sure its not the minerals in your tap water. (There should also be less air than had it run from the tap). If you have hard water there might be calcium or well water there might be salts.

Good luck!

Answer 3

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Answer 4

I don't know, but they have done studies on the ice at fast food places that show it has more bacteria than the water in the toilets, so I wouldn't worry about it too much. Maybe you should just buy bagged ice from the grocery store.

Answer 5

you need purified water. I have a whole house water purification system, and the ice that comes out of my ice maker in my fridge is clear.....it wasn't before we had the system....

Answer 6

distilled water and the water needs to be in constant movement when it is being frozen so you can get the air bubbles out.