Ice is a fan favorite among many people, especially if they live in warmer climates. It can be used to chill drinks, as an icepack to keep you cool when ill, to cool your pets down, and more. There are many uses for ice, and it is universally loved by many people.
Yet, ice has only become more accessible in the last sixty or so years. Before freezers were a household item, people had to get ice delivered to their house, making it harder to come by and get. Now, most houses have a freezer with a built-in ice maker, ice trays to make their ice or commercial ice machines that produce a huge number of ice in just a few minutes.
So how do icemakers work? How can the average machine produce upwards of twenty pounds of ice a day?
Different Types of Ice Dispensers
Similar to other inventions there are a few different ways in which ice can be made. Some require more effort than others, yet they yield more ice as well. We are going to cover the different types of icemakers and how exactly they make ice.
Ice Cube Trays
These trays are universally known and a staple in many households nowadays. An ice tray is easy to use as you just fill the ice tray with water and place it in your freezer. After some time, around six to twelve hours, you will have about a dozen ice cubes.
While this type of ice-making process does not exactly yield great results, ice trays are space-friendly and can typically be stacked upon one another. Thus, allowing you to make a few dozen ice cubes at once if you have multiple trays.
Electric Ice Makers
Now our second type of ice maker, the automatic ice maker. Automatic ice makers have become exceedingly more popular within recent years. Whether you have an ice dispenser built into your fridge or a portable version, they operate similarly.
If they have an electric motor, there is a water valve that is electrically operated and a unit that heats it. Typically, these require an outlet with electricity running through them preferably near your fridge. As the necessary power lines and plumbing are already present.
To be able to acquire freshwater without needing to manually refill the system every so often, it needs to be connected to said plumbing. The lines and cables needed can be found near the back of your fridge and the back of your ice machine if they are two separate entities.
The Ice Maker Cycle
So how is the ice made and how does the process work? A popular question that anyone with an electric ice maker wonders about. Let’s break down the process so we understand how it works.
To begin the cycle of making ice, a switch that is put on a timer sends a current that allows the water valve to open. The current moves through the wires and an electromagnet gets moved to open the valve. It only remains open for a few seconds, long enough for the ice mold in the machine to fill.
These plastic molds inside the ice maker or freezer are similar to the ones you can fill yourself at home. They are all connected to one another enabling more of them to get filled at once which is why ice cubes tend to be connected after they freeze.
Once the molds are full of water the machine allows them to freeze. This action is performed by a cooling unit in the device, which means in most cases the fridge will be the one to freeze the water rather than the actual icemaker. It has an internal thermometer that keeps track of the temperature and once it reaches a specific level, a switch is triggered.
The switch triggered sends currents to the heating coil located below the ice maker. It allows the ice cubes to warm up and loosen from the molds. After this is done, a motor is activated to extend the ejector blades. While the term sounds horrifying, the blades simply grab the ice from the molds and push them down as a unit into the ice chest below.
As the cubes are dropped into the ice bin located below the ice maker, one last current is sent to end the cycle. This current is only able to be activated if the shut-off arm can reach the lowest position in the chest. If it can’t then the cycle is stopped so that it does not overflow. If the arm can reach the lowest point, then the cycle is started again.
Believe it or not, that is the process of how ice is made. It is a series of currents, blades, switches, and arms. They determine if the cycle needs to happen again and when each component is triggered.