The Top 10 Ice Cube Trays in 2022

Things to Consider Before Buying an Ice Cube Tray

When deciding on an ice cube tray, the major two considerations are probably how simple it will be to remove the cubes and how low the danger of the cubes and tray collecting scents from your freezer.

The volume and design of the trays will also be important considerations. Bigger ice cubes are generally favored for beverages because they melt more slowly, allowing liquids to dilute more slowly. If you wish to utilize trays for other things, such as creating little desserts, stock cubes, or popsicles, adjust the size accordingly.

After you decant your cubes, you may see white residue left in the tray depending on the hardness of your water. This is harmless; it is just mineral deposits from the water. You may avoid this by using filtered water instead of tap water.

Evolution of the Ice Cube Tray

Ice was used to keep icehouses cool, and part of it was chipped off the blocks to be used in beverages and cold desserts. While it is unknown when the first ice cube tray was produced, in 1844, John Gorrie, an American scientist, constructed a refrigerator to generate ice to chill the air for his Yellow Fever patients. Since his patients were also given ice beverages, it is assumed that Gorrie invented the first ice cube tray.

The DOMELRE refrigerator was introduced in 1914. While it was a commercial failure, it did contain an ice cube tray, and other refrigerator makers followed suit. Electric refrigerators with a freezer component that incorporated ice cube trays first appeared in the 1920s.

In 1933, the McCord ice tray, a metal ice cube tray, was designed. This flexed to facilitate the discharge of ice crystals.

Throughout the 1960s, the composition of trays moved to plastics, and in the 1980s, lids started to emerge on ice trays, making them simple to stack. The most recent move in ice cube tray manufacture has been to silicone trays, which are available in a variety of colors and ice cube forms.

Safety of Plastic Ice Cube Trays

If you have any old plastic trays, they may contain bisphenol A. (BPA). BPA is utilized in the production of polycarbonate hard transparent plastic and certain resins used as linings in metal food cans. Most of us have BPA traces in our systems.

BPA was shown to be transferred from pregnant moms to their children in rat tests, although additional study found that primates and humans digest and excrete BPA far better than rodents. The FDA prohibited the use of BPA-based compounds in baby bottles and sippy cups in 2012, and BPA epoxy resins in infant formula packaging in 2013.

The FDA is continually researching BPA and believes it is safe in the uses for which it is presently allowed. Food packaging is included.

If your plastic ice cube tray has numbers on the bottom to indicate you what sort of plastic it is and if it is recyclable, if you want to prevent BPA, avoid trays with numbers 3 or 7 on them. If your tray is older and does not have any information on it, it is likely that it was created with BPA.

Pros and Cons of Stainless Steel Ice Cube Trays

Traditional stainless steel trays make it simple to extract cubes since the built-in grid pulls the cubes out when the lever is pressed. The stainless steel in these trays is typically food grade and does not contain any BPA, PTFEs, PFOAs, or phthalates.

Apart from the fact that it is more expensive than other kinds of ice cube trays, another downside of using a steel tray is that your fingers will momentarily adhere to it due to how cold it is right out of the freezer.

If you use a stainless steel tray, maintain the water level below the rivets on the lever and put it on the tabletop for a few minutes before removing the cubes to prevent overfilling.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Silicone Ice Cube Trays

Since silicone is extremely flexible, transferring the tray of water into the freezer might create small issues. This is where silicone trays with lids come in handy, since they may assist to minimize spillage. Because of the flexibility of silicone, you can produce a variety of various shaped ice cubes from the numerous novelty shaped kinds of trays available.

It may be more difficult to remove cubes from a silicone tray than from a plastic tray. To remove the cube from silicone, you may need to press and twist it, or even flip it upside down. You may alternatively wait a few minutes before releasing the cubes by leaving the tray on the counter.

Silicone is preferable if you want to use your tray to freeze other foods such as baby puree since its flexibility makes it simpler to remove food from the tray and it is BPA-free. Warm puree on an older plastic tray or a new plastic tray containing BPA increases the danger of BPA leaking into the infant food.

All about Silicone

Silicone is a synthetic rubber or flexible resin created from bonded silicon, a natural ingredient found in sand and rock, and oxygen. It’s a chemically inert and stable substance.

This colorful cookware is freezer to oven (up to 428F), stain resistant, nonstick, and free of BPA, BPS, phthalates, lead, and other potentially harmful poisons or chemicals.

Silicon dioxides were widely accepted as harmless in 1979, and the FDA has yet to do significant follow-up research to determine whether or not silicone reacts with food. According to Health Canada, food-grade silicone is safe up to approved temperatures and does not react with food or beverages or emit dangerous odors.

Bad Smelling and Tasting Ice Cubes

The majority of foul odors and flavors in your ice cubes are caused by food kept in your freezer, particularly spilt food or open packaging. If you take the time to clean up spills and decant open goods into airtight containers, you may help prevent odor throughout the freezer; nothing is worse than unintentionally garlic-flavored ice cream!

Little open boxes of baking soda in the freezer may also aid with odor removal.

You should also taste-test your water source. If you’re using tap water, which doesn’t taste fantastic, your ice cubes won’t either. Using filtered water may assist in resolving this.

In addition to the ice itself smelling and tasting bad, if you use a silicone ice cube tray, the silicone may collect aromas from your freezer.

Reducing Poor Odor and Taste from Silicone Tray Ice Cubes

If you only fill silicone trays as required and avoid using ice cubes that have been in the freezer for more than a week, you may find that the danger of odor is reduced. After you’re done utilizing the tray, wash and dry it before storing it in a cabinet until you need it again.

To eliminate odor hazards, remove all of your cubes from the tray and place them in an airtight container in the freezer.

Defrosting and cleaning the freezer on a regular basis may also assist to reduce odor.

Instead, immerse your silicone tray in a solution of vinegar or lemon juice and water, or in a baking soda solution. If they fail, place the trays in the oven for an hour at 350F the next time it is turned on. If you are unable to eliminate the stench, the only option is to replace the silicone tray.

Conclusion

This article has gone through the three basic varieties of ice cube trays: silicone, plastic, and stainless steel. Many of them have advantages and disadvantages, and there are certain safety concerns about the usage of BPA in particular.

We hope that the information we’ve provided, as well as our review of some of the best ice cube trays on the market, has been useful to you, whether you’re looking for a new tray just for ice cubes, to store baby food puree, to make popsicles, or to do anything else that a versatile ice cube tray will allow you to do.