Ice Trays - What do you use?

[KaleMama]

Hello! I am hoping that I posted this in the right place to get advice from you all.

We have gotten rid of all our plastic and have switched over to glass. We want to stay as far away as possible from plastic, chemicals, etc. As much as we would like to have a glass Ice tray, it is not a good idea. :p

Any suggestions? What do you use? Does anyone use silicone Ice trays? Do you taste anything? How about Stainless steel trays? I have had a couple of stainless steel bottles and am not fond of the after taste.

Thanks in advance for your advice!

*hugs*

[DebB]

I'm dating myself - but I remember as a young girl, we had metal ice cube trays with metal dividers that had a pull-up handle (like an emergency brake on the car). You'd pull that handle up and it would dislodge all the cubes. I wonder if you could still find those on eBay or perhaps a site like Lehman's.

We've got an automatic ice cube maker in the house - but in our 5th wheel, I use plastic. *Ü*

[Mindy Sue]

hahahaha! I remember those! They didn't work very well as I recall, but if you are trying to avoid plastic they will do.

[DebB]

You're right Minday Sue - I remember lots of ice chips a-flyin'! *Ü*

Edit to add this eBay link (http://shop.ebay.com/?_from=R40&_trksid=p3984.m570.l1313&_nkw=metal+ice+cube+trays&_sacat=See-All-Categories). I couldn't resist, I had to see if there were some for sale and there are. $$ though! Personally if I went this route, I'd get the ones with that handle vs. the ones with no handle. But that's just me - maybe someone knows of a way to get the handle-less models to work better other than running them under water and literally melting the cubes away from the divider.

If that link doesn't work - I just went to eBay and searched for "metal ice cube trays".

More information than you probably wanted!

[KaleMama]

I'm dating myself - but I remember as a young girl, we had metal ice cube trays with metal dividers that had a pull-up handle (like an emergency brake on the car). You'd pull that handle up and it would dislodge all the cubes. I wonder if you could still find those on eBay or perhaps a site like Lehman's.

We've got an automatic ice cube maker in the house - but in our 5th wheel, I use plastic. *Ü*

Thank you, Sweet Debb!!! :) We will definitely look into this.
Our fridge has a built-in ice maker but we drink Natural Spring Water (as in... we go to a spring to pick up our water) :). We want to disconnect it because it runs and we never use the ice and could use the space for frozen fruit.

Thank you! Thank you for your advice!

[Lavendula]

I think the trays you are talking about were aluminum or tin, I shudder to think of using the ones we had, "back in those days" as kids. We have an icemaker also in the bottom freezer, but we just keep it turned of, and use the space for our othopedic ice pacs. You should be able to switch it off rather than disconnecting it. What about shallow stanless steel bowls or small measuring cups. You could whack on the bowl on the counter or run the cup under water for a nice big cube. In the summer you could freeze flowers, fresh berries, lemon slices, or even cucumber slices in them for that extra fun.
I don't use ice at all myself, but we have the slim line water dispenser for guests who need ice cold water, and then we have to plan ahead if we want to have ice for them. It is a dilemna if ice is a must.

[DebB]

My husband was able to route our reverse osmosis water to our ice maker - quite handy! Just tossing this in for those that may have this set up. *Ü*

[Lavendula]

http://www.healthegoods.com/stainless-steel-ice-cube-tray-onyx.html
DebB's ebay link took me to this one also.

[Lavendula]

Yeah I thought of that, before, but i don't drink ice/cold water at all. I carried even the 5 gallon glass jugs for at least 20 years, then plastic gallons, we installled The RO in our last two houses, I will never be without it again. Do you leave the filter in the fridge? We also installed a whole house filter this time, now that we are on city water, it is much easier to deal with filtering out the chlorine, than the our iron/sulphur rotten egg well water. I still feel the need for a water softener, I think I''ll see what anyone else uses. I think there is something besides salt, maybe chlorine in the water softener.

[DebB]

Yeah I thought of that, before, but i don't drink ice/cold water at all. I carried even the 5 gallon glass jugs for at least 20 years, then plastic gallons, we installled The RO in our last two houses, I will never be without it again. Do you leave the filter in the fridge? We also installed a whole house filter this time, now that we are on city water, it is much easier to deal with filtering out the chlorine, than the our iron/sulphur rotten egg well water. I still feel the need for a water softener, I think I''ll see what anyone else uses. I think there is something besides salt, maybe chlorine in the water softener.

I'm not sure what you mean about leaving the filter in the fridge? Our RO tanks (we have 2) and filter are in our basement and then my husband ran the water tubes from there to our kitchen sink and the ice maker :)

I would *love* to have the whole house filter! That would be fantastic!

But, for now we have the RO and have shower filters for the chlorine and such in our showers. We also use a water softener. I believe for our RO unit, it pretty much as to go through a water softener first... *Ü*

[KaleMama]

Thank you, ladies!!!

A filter would be a great addition. We're working on a shower and sink filter now. So much to do! LOL

Lavendula That link is PERFECT! Thank you for sharing that. That may be the winner! :)

[OnMyJourney]

I'm dating myself - but I remember as a young girl, we had metal ice cube trays with metal dividers that had a pull-up handle (like an emergency brake on the car). You'd pull that handle up and it would dislodge all the cubes. I wonder if you could still find those on eBay or perhaps a site like Lehman's.

We've got an automatic ice cube maker in the house - but in our 5th wheel, I use plastic. *Ü*

I remember those as well! I have an automatic ice machine now as well, but I used to use the plastic ones years ago. :o

[Lavendula]

if your fridge has water or ice, it should have a filter, unles it is a much older model, I don't know if they have always had filters. It is usually at the top near the back. it is a cartridge about the size of a coffe mug. I just wondered if you could just take the filter out, or that filter would mess up the already RO water. the whole house filter is probably easier than the RO to install, especially in a basement, we had our RO system under the kitchen sink in our last house. You just have to make sure it is installed after the pressure regulator (and the outside faucets, we forgot about those so our outside water is filtered, great for the vegetables and herbs, but not for the amount it takes for the lawn.) so our RO water is double filtered. The cold water usually bypasses the softener, because it is considered not good to drink softened water, due to the salt.

[DebB]

Thanks Lavendula ~ I appreciate the info!

Hi Delise ~ I just came across this set of 2 silicone ice cube trays at QVC. I don't know that the official story is on silicone? But anywho - here they are (http://www.qvc.com/qic/qvcapp.aspx/view.2/app.detail/params.item.K15203.desc.Prepology-Set-of-2-Silicone-Ice-Cube-Trays-withLids) :)