ice cube madness

I have a fridge\\freezer with an ice maker. The automatic ice maker storage got high and a single ice cube got placed behind the large storage tray, it has sat there for a while, but started getting smaller, now it is almost nothing.

What causes this cube to get smaller in an environment that appears to stay the same?

Reply to
monkey_cartman
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Sublimation. Evaporation from the dryer air around it. Happens to snow also.

Reply to
Edwin Pawlowski

Sublimation

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s

Reply to
S. Barker

In addition to sublimation as mentioned in other replies, the environment is not 'stay the same'. The defrost cycle, done on a daily basis raises the temperature of the freezer some and things in certain locations where not well cooled can approach freezing temperatures.

Reply to
PeterD

Same reason water evaporates in an environment that appears to stay the same. Solids can evaporate into gas. Dry ice is famous for doing that.

PD

Reply to
PD

Same reason water evaporates in an environment that appears to stay the same. Solids can evaporate into gas. Dry ice is famous for doing that.

PD

==============

"Famous" is right! I saw some dry ice on Letterman's show last year.

Reply to
JoeSpareBedroom

S. wrote on Tue, 18 Mar 2008 06:12:23 -0500:

SB>

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SB> sublimation

??>> What causes this cube to get smaller in an environment ??>> that appears to stay the same?

As many people have said the cause is sublimation. Have you ever examined the ice-cube tray after a vacation? It will probably be quite apparent that the cubes are smaller than when you went away.

James Silverton Potomac, Maryland

E-mail, with obvious alterations: not.jim.silverton.at.verizon.not

Reply to
James Silverton

re: What causes this cube to get smaller in an environment that appears to stay the same?

Ice Mites - Small, almost invisible creatures with constant teething problems. By eating the stray ice cubes that end up outside of the storage bin, they keep their gums numb. It's a survival instinct - if they didn't numb their gums, there would be this constant moaning from your freezer, resulting in detection and probable elimination.

In desparate cases, when the ice cubes are removed by the human on a regular basis (resulting in few, if any, strays) the mites have been known to use their ice grabbing tenticles to create a small hole in freezer bags, allowing in just enough moisture for frost to form on the stored object. This gives them another source of ice to numb their gums.

Reply to
DerbyDad03

re: What causes this cube to get smaller in an environment that appears to stay the same?

Ice Mites - Small, almost invisible creatures with constant teething problems. By eating the stray ice cubes that end up outside of the storage bin, they keep their gums numb. It's a survival instinct - if they didn't numb their gums, there would be this constant moaning from your freezer, resulting in detection and probable elimination.

In desparate cases, when the ice cubes are removed by the human on a regular basis (resulting in few, if any, strays) the mites have been known to use their ice grabbing tenticles to create a small hole in freezer bags, allowing in just enough moisture for frost to form on the stored object. This gives them another source of ice to numb their gums.

===================

They don't want us to know about this mite issue.

They. You know who they are. Them. The same "they" who own the patent for an engine that develops 400 horsepower and gets 85 mpg.

Reply to
JoeSpareBedroom

o.

The same process keeps your freezer "frost free".

Reply to
Brawny

It's either due to sublimation or the cube is resting near an area that heats up in the self-defrosting cycle.

gloria p

Reply to
Puester

"James Silverton" wrote

My inlaws didn't use ice cubes. Before going over there for whatever occasion, I'd remind them to refill the trays. It would be very disappointing to go for dinner and find tiny little dehydrated cubes.

nancy

Reply to
Nancy Young

Other's have addressed your concern, but since you brought up ice cubes, maybe I can hijack the thread for a moment and invite speculation on an odd experience I had many years ago.

In a standard plastic ice cube tray in my freezer, one of the cubes grew a vertical icicle. Probably 1/2" to 3/4" long, and perfectly icicle shaped, i.e., a long, narrow, pointed shape, roughly symmetrical but with typical irregularities.

I did keep it, but sublimation apparently ate it up after about a week. Never seen it happen again, and never heard of it happening to anyone else.

Reply to
Smitty Two

On this note, it's been observed that if you want to freeze meat or fish or shrimp and have it be just as good months later, a good technique is to put the food in a ziplock bag and then fill the bag full of water before zipping the bag shut. Freezer burn is due to sublimation of the water in the food, and by the method just described, the added water does the sublimating rather than the food.

I tried this trick with same-day shrimp acquired in South Carolina in June, and I thawed the last 2-lb bag for dinner in January, and it tasted just like the shrimp cooked the first day.

PD

Reply to
PD

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Reply to
PD

What's an 'ice cube tray' ?

s

Reply to
S. Barker

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Reply to
Dan Espen

***{The same questi> > > My brother was making ice cubes in my fridge for 1792 (Whiskey). One
***{I've seen those spikes myself. They rise up out of the centers of ice cubes. The likely reason is that the cube freezes from the outside in. That means there is a reservoir of liquid in the center of the cube as the outside freezes. Since water expands as it freezes, the liquid in the center gets squeezed tighter and tighter, and eventually pushes out through the point of least resistance. That point is usually at the top of the cube in the center. Only in that way can the pressure be relieved. Naturally, as water oozes out, it freezes around the edges of the opening so formed. Result: a little volcano type of structure arises there. That's how the spikes are formed. --MJ}*** ***************************************************************** If I seem to be ignoring you, consider the possibility that you are in my killfile. --MJ
Reply to
Mitchell Jones

Eco-terrorist. Each of your ice cubes obtained through the death of a Third World baby.

Baggie your weed adn wrap in aluminum foil before freezing.

Frost-free freezer. Look it up. Never store peroxydicarbonate free radical initiators in a certified chemical refigerator frost-free freezer - they explode.

--
Uncle Al 
http://www.mazepath.com/uncleal/ 
 Click to see the full signature
Reply to
Uncle Al

Not really.

Your freezer remains frost free due to a mechanical process. The defrost timer completely cuts off the refrigeration unit at regular intervals and then a fan comes on and blows above-freezing-air from the refrigerator compartment across the freezer coil vanes which melts the accumulated frost. This happens for about a 15-30 min period every 12-24 hrs (depending on make/model). Defroster timer failure is the most common cause of refrigerator malfunctions. It's an easy fix. Just replace the timer, which is usually a plug-in module for easy swap out.

nb

Reply to
notbob

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