Bottom shelf, the bottle with the blue cap placed on top as a marker to show where. Apparently in that spot, when left long enough, it freezes so absolutely slowly that it manages to produce almost perfectly clear ice.

The fridge was given to me from a hotel I used to work for. The fridge works perfectly, I’m not even sure why he bothered to replaced them all, but I ain’t about to argue with a free mini fridge ya know.

I’m sure people are gonna wonder what’s on the top shelf, those are repurposed Ensure protein shake bottles, washed out and refilled with V8 juice. Its a shame those bottles are typically disposed of, they’re mighty rugged, but it’s difficult to get the Ensure smell totally out of them, so I figured tomato juice/V8 ought to do the trick, which it does 👍

Edit: The door hinge is on the right side on this one, for anyone extra curious. And of course, your clear ice mileage may vary wildly from one mini fridge to the next. This one apparently has no temperature setting, it just happens to be preset right at freezing temperature, just barely though. The other bottles around that spot are still liquid, those don’t tend to freeze often.

  • CaliforniaSober@lemmy.caEnglish
    9·
    4 days ago

    I had a mini fridge that somehow zeroed in that perfect temp where your average water bottle got perfectly cold but take it out and hit it against an edge and the thing would shift into crystals the whole bottle through. It was so cold and drinking it was glorious.

    • glimse@lemmy.world
      3·
      4 days ago

      I’ve always wanted to see that happen in person but never had the motivation to set it up. Lucky you getting to see it every time!

  • real_squids@sopuli.xyzEnglish
    91·
    4 days ago

    If i remember right clear ice forms when you freeze it bottom to top, sounds about right for that spot

    edit: i was wrong, it’s top to bottom

    • over_clox@lemmy.worldOP
      3·
      4 days ago

      Strangely, when I first noticed this the other day, the top half of the bottle was frozen, while the bottom half was still liquid. It was an almost perfect 50/50 split. The one in the photo is a different bottle as I drank the first one and watched as the ice melted, but this one now seems to be almost completely frozen, but not quite yet, but still damn near perfectly clear.

      Edit: Sometimes the V8 bottles on the top shelf even half freeze, but not often. I guess it partly just depends on the weather and how long the fridge has remained closed. 🤷

        • Windex007@lemmy.world
          3·
          4 days ago

          Commenting to find this later, need to understand how water could ever freeze in any way besides top to bottom given maximum density at 4C

          • Scubus@sh.itjust.works
            2·
            4 days ago

            Insulate the top so the heat is wicked from the bottom. Its actually the more intuitive way for it to freeze for me, since the slightly warmer molecules would tend to rise to the top

            • Windex007@lemmy.world
              2·
              3 days ago

              And that’s the counter-intuitive thing about water. Whereas “hot things rise” is true for almost everything, it isn’t for water… at least not in the area around freezing.

              Hot things rise because they are less dense than cold. Typically things get more dense the colder they get. Water actually breaks this rule between 4 and 0 degrees C. As you approach freezing, the “slightly warmer” molecules actually sink to the bottom.

        • over_clox@lemmy.worldOP
          3·
          4 days ago

          I saw that video before too, awesome video as always from NileRed, I love his channel 👍

          I thought about mentioning it, but it slipped my mind. If I had to guess, water tends to freeze top down because ice floats on water.

    • Sphks@jlai.lu
      1·
      4 days ago

      I once read that you could get clear ice by boiling the water first to let the dissolved gaz out. Is that a different solution or a legend?

      • GreenKnight23@lemmy.world
        6·
        4 days ago

        that does nothing except changes the starting temperature of the water. it might also precipitate any impurities like salts, calcium, chlorines, etc out if you’re using tap water.

        if you want clear ice use distilled water, slow chilled from top to bottom. you can usually achieve this by using a plastic igloo lunchbox with the lid taken off.

        1000003285

      • real_squids@sopuli.xyzEnglish
        2·
        4 days ago

        anything to get the bubbles out works, boiling would make the water more pure but air would still be there i think