Dumb Question Department

[bixaorellana]

You know how when you say, "I have a dumb question", and someone will invariably say in a somehow annoyingly kind voice, "There is no such thing as a stupid question."?

And then you ask your question and the look of "Are you even human?" crosses the face of the formerly condescending yet kind person.

Well, you don't have to worry about that here, because we can't actually see each other!

Let's acknowledge that we have all have questions that we assume other functioning adults have the answer to, yet we continue to bumble in the darkness of ignorance. No more! Now we can call upon the wide life experiences and subsequent wisdom of our fellow anyporters in order to emerge into the light of new knowledge.

[bixaorellana]

Unsurprisingly, I'm going first ~~~

In March I moved to a new town, bringing most of my possessions with me. I brought my refrigerator and all my ice cube trays. These are a bunch of varied sizes, all made from that rubbery plastic that can be twisted to make the cubes pop out.

Now, the only difference between my previous life and now, in terms of ice cube making, is the water used. Just as in Oaxaca, I buy drinking water in 5 gallon/20 liter bottles. I really liked the taste of the water I got in Oaxaca but what I get here just tastes flat -- a house guest of mine even commented on it.

Anyway, now when I make ice cubes they don't pop out neatly as entire cubes. No, they stick to the trays and often break inro piecea before finally coming out. My favorite ice tray makes little half sized cubes, & it's the worst now. The cubes always break into pieces, sometimes into nothing but shards.

So my question is: what causes this & is there anything I can do about it?

Thanks in advance.

[Kimby]

I’m mystified, too. My ice cubes pop out of the trays perfectly at the lake cottage, but at home they stick like they were glued in! I’m too impatient to wait for them to melt free, so I pop the tray in the microwave for a few seconds to loosen them up. Can you try that, Bixa?

[onlyMark]

My theory because I've had this as well - it's to do with the different water and the hardness/impurity of it. The ice cubes stick more to the tray because they can't "slip" off because of because of microscopic impurities lodged or stuck to the side of the tray making the surface "rougher".
I'd try a bit of an experiment where I thoroughly clean the tray with vinegar or other product and try different bottled or tap water and see what happens then.
The more scratched or impurity covered the tray is, the harder to remove the ice cubes.

[kerouac2]

Even if you are using the same brand of bottled water, it does not necessarily come from the same source. I know that in France (a smaller country than Mexico), the main brand of bottled "spring water" gets the stuff from at least 1Z different places.

[Kimby]

I thought of that too, mark, but the water at the house where the ice won’t come out is naturally soft, and the cottage water was very hard at first, but has been softened for the last few years with no change in the easy way the cubes pop out of the trays.

Next step - swap trays between the lake and home.

[onlyMark]

Which place has the newer ice trays? Swap them over by all means and see what happens. Or at least clean the "sticky" ones to get rid of any mineral build up on the sides. Soft water will still have a certain level of calcium or whatever in it.

[bixaorellana]

I think you're right, Mark, about the different types of water. What gets me is that the water I bought in Oaxaca was rather delicious, as water goes, & what I get here tastes like distilled water, or whatever kind of water has had the character processed out of it.

As far as the ice trays ~~ Kimby has two sets of ice trays. I'm still using the same ones as I was using six months ago in Oaxaca, making me think it must be the water. I will replace the trays nonetheless, as a girl deserves nice things.

[onlyMark]

Give your old ones a spritz of vinegar and leave for an hour, then rinse off. Maybe even doing that will temporarily cure the problem. However, new ice trays are always welcome and a nice indulgence.

[whatagain]

What is an ice cube ?
We use about 1 per month for the entire family…
We actually buy them in plastic bags at the supermarket.
Our fridge used to make them but the system got jammed long ago.

[Kimby]

You waste space in your freezer for a bag of ice when you use 1 cube per month? That’s CRAZY! Put a single ice cube tray in there and pop out just one at a time.