Testing Out IceOlogy Clear Ice Cube Trays

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I was recently contacted by Dexas, a company that makes ice*ology ice cube trays, to give them a trial run.

The company makes three versions:

The cubes are about 1.75 inches on each side, I believe the spheres are also 1.75" diameter.

They cost $40 for 2 cube/sphere trays and $50 for the 8 cube trays

I tried them out twice, and they're good. Like all clear ice cube trays, they take advantage of directional freezing, the process I uncovered nearly 10 years ago on Alcademics.

Like most clear ice trays, they employ an insulated container, a big tray that holds a water reservoir, and a smaller tray in the shape of the desired ice cubes.

The main difference between these trays and others is that the cube/sphere trays separate sideways, which makes them easier to remove from the silicone container than others that must be pried apart.

They recommend that the reservoir trays be microwaved to release the cloudy part of the water so that they can be reused quickly for the next batch. I didn't try that but just ran hot water over them and this was effective, but I appreciate the easy turn-around time.

Pros:

easy to use
easy to remove cubes/spheres from trays
make very good clear and solid shaped ice
seem sturdy and long-lasting after a few trials

Cons:

a bit small – 2" cubes would be better
a bit pricey at $40 per two-cube tray
2 cubes at a time isn't many

Comments

18 responses to “Testing Out IceOlogy Clear Ice Cube Trays”

August 27, 2019

John Robinson

Not considering price and just based purely on the ice produced; compared to the Clearly Frozen trays, which do you like better? In photos, the ice from the Clearly Frozen tray looks very short and usually lopsided. They just don’t look like large, even cubes. Is this something I’m just seeing incorrectly in photos?

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August 27, 2019

Camper English

The Clearly Frozen cubes are tapered on one side so they’re not perfectly square- probably makes them easier to remove from the tray this way. That would be a better purchase for bulk clear ice, while this iceology tray makes 2 nice square cubes (that are a little smaller).

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August 27, 2019

T.E. Awls

Pricey. I’ll wait until there is a clear ice machine.

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September 9, 2019

ApplejackTAC

$50 for 8 cubes (albeit a bit smaller) seems like a pretty good price compared to something like the Wintersmiths Ice Chest ($120 for either 4 cubes or spheres) and Phantom ($140 for 6 cubes or 7 spheres), of which I have several. Is there an option for 8 spheres?

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September 12, 2019

Camper English

Nope not yet.

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August 15, 2022

Alan

I’m enjoying this product, but it seems to have one problem. The ice is dirty. There’s a white substance that seems to collect on the outside of the ice cubes. It doesn’t melt, and it’s only on the outside, so you can rinse them off. It floats in the water and collects on the cups. I tried using distilled water, but this didn’t help. I tried making ice blocks in the bins without the silicone molds, and there was no white debris, so that means this is something coming from the molds. Has anyone had this problem? Perfect product otherwise.

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August 15, 2022

Camper English

@Alan – I think I’ve had this issue with other silicone ice cube trays but it’s been a while – the floating substance is sort of luminescent white flakes? My friend Matt tackled this issue: https://matthew-rowley.blogspot.com/2011/02/what-is-that-white-film-on-my-silicone.html
I’d recommend trying the tricks in that post and if they don’t work contact the manufacturer. Have you been using the tray for a while? Does it have that white film on it too?

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September 30, 2022

Alan

I meant to get back to this sooner after experimenting, sorry. The white flakes turned out to be some kind of calcium precipitate as predicted by people here and Dexas support. Distilled water did solve this issue. I just needed to more thoroughly clean the molds to make sure the calcium was completely gone. I think it was Matt’s post there that suggested soaking in vinegar, which is what I needed to do to really clean them.
After using distilled water for the ice, I got the strange streaks that I’ve seen other people complain about that look kind of neat and all point toward the hole in the bottom. I assumed this was just because the freezing process required some impurities to still be in the water, so I put a pinch of salt in each cube before freezing. It works perfectly now.

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October 8, 2022

Camper English

Interesting – Glad that vinegar worked for cleaning. You can also buy a Zero Water filter that’s like a Britta but it gets out all dissolved solids; if you make a lot of ice it might end up being less expensive.
The salt is interesting – I find those streaks of bubbles often happen from motion/jostling the trays during freezing but I could be wrong.
Thanks for the update.

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