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?
Sublimation. Evaporation from the dryer air around it. Happens to snow also.
Sublimation
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.
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
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
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"Famous" is right! I saw some dry ice on Letterman's show last year.
S. wrote on Tue, 18 Mar 2008 06:12:23 -0500:
SB>
??>> 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
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.
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.
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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.
The same process keeps your freezer "frost free".
It's either due to sublimation or the cube is resting near an area that heats up in the self-defrosting cycle.
gloria p
"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
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
What's an 'ice cube tray' ?
s
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.
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
Oops. I answered before I read your post, Peter.
nb
ACTUALLY, in at least SOME models, there is an actual heating element in the bottom floor of the freezer. I only know this because we bought a refrigerator at an auction for next to nothing, and it continued to frost up. We took it and had it repaired, the defrost element was bad. It works fine now. The man told me it comes on every 18 hours, and the resulting liquid runs down the tube to the evaporation pan underneath the refrigerator.
s
S. wrote on Tue, 18 Mar 2008 12:20:09 -0500:
SB>What's an 'ice cube tray' ?
Huh! Are you implying that your fridge has a cube maker and people who use trays are old-fashioned? I made a conscious decision to get what I thought I needed.
James Silverton Potomac, Maryland
E-mail, with obvious alterations: not.jim.silverton.at.verizon.not
Or, freeze each item solidly, then dip them in ice water to coat them well. Repeat as needed. Then re-freeze them and put them in zip lock bags. This makes it easier to get out one or two pieces.
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