Sphere Clear Ice Cube Tray - Silicone Ice Ball Maker Mold,Crystal Clear Round Ice for Whiskey and Cocktail

I have recently become a "clear ice" fanatic and have several cube and sphere makers. My wife is a "wineoissuer" and likes to put an ice cube in her glass to keep her chardonnay cool. My other molds make spheres/cubes that are too large for her liking, so I purchased this one. This mold produces perfect size, beautiful, slow melting, clear ice spheres for her wine glass. I was able to make my wife happy for less than $30 - woohoo!! The quality of the water reservoir is much lower than that of my other setups that cost significantly more. However, the silicon molds are of very good quality. With proper care, this setup should last for many years.

This does make small, clear ice spheres that look great in drinks. However, the outer closed cell foam body appears unfinished and is comprised of layers of foam that are glued together unevenly. It needs an outer plastic body to give it more rigidity and to give it a finished look. Looks cheap. The excessive flexibility of the unit over its length makes it more challenging to transfer this into the freezer without spilling water once it is filled. The individual molds are of silicone rubber but the space between molds is open air rather than solid silicone, like some other molds. This space tends to get filled with overflow water and creates a layer of ice that makes extraction of the top half of the mold more difficult.

I bought this after reading a Wirecutter blog post about the wonders of clear ice. A little more research quickly led me to decide to try out a clear ice tray that makes small ice spheres. The Wirecutter reviewer was making large clear ice cubes and cracking them with a bar spoon to put into her sodas. This sounded messy to me so I knew I wanted a clear ice tray that made smaller ice that didn't need to be cracked. And I read that spheres melt more slowly than cubes because they have less surface area. Thus, I started looking for clear ice trays that made smaller ice spheres. This was the only option I could find on Amazon that made a decent number of smaller ice spheres. It has worked decently so far and I haven't run into the issues that some other reviewers reported. My only significant complaint is that it uses an open foam insulation for the bottom container. (Some customers may mistakenly think the insulation is packaging material because it's made out of the same plastic open foam material.) This insulation doesn't work as well as the closed foam insulation that some other clear ice trays use so the quality of the clear ice isn't as consistent. I think the included instructions recommend using warm water in the bottom container to make up for the poorer-quality insulation. Overall, I recommend this clear ice sphere tray. However, if you find a similar clear ice sphere tray that has closed foam insulation, I would go for that instead.

I bought these because they make quite a few at once and the price was right. They do a terrific job as far as the balls being crystal clear, but it is a pain to use, even if you follow the instructions precisely. Here's what works best for me. 1) Put some strong rubber bands around the foam insulation to snug it up to the tub. 2) Fill the tub with warm tap water about halfway up. Insert the lower tray and you should see just a little of the warm water coming through the holes. 3) Fill the lower tray with cool tap or the water of your choice. 4) Insert the upper tray and make sure it seats well. You can attempt to fill the individual holes which takes a while, or just fill the upper tray until the water is above the level of the holes and let it run into each hole until full. You can siphon off the excess with a turkey baster, or just let it freeze on top then break it out later. When they say it needs 24 hours to freeze, they are not kidding! I usually wait double that. I then remove the entire block of ice from the tub, and let it sit in the sink for 30-60 minutes. It is very difficult to separate the trays if you try to do it quicker, and it still is not easy to separate them from the block of ice even after thawing a bit. A plastic spatula can help separate them when you're ready. It's a lot of work, but at least you get 10 crystal clear balls at a time for all of that trouble! I figure if I do it 2-3 times a week and zip lock them, it's worth it.

Ok, so this budget friendly mold was the only one with cubes which would fit in my glencairn glasses so I gave it a chance (I have a larger more expensive mold for my regular whiskey glasses) and am glad I did. Yes, the outer carton is a bit flimsy, but expected for the price versus other clear ice molds. The trick is to use hot tap water, not warm, not cold, not boiling - HOT tap water. Fill the bottom 1/2 way, insert bottom tray, fill with water to the top of the cube mold, then put the top tray on - next you can fill each ball a little until the water overflows from the top hole (use a food funnel) Put in the freezer with some weight on top (to keep top mold from drifting a bit as the water freezes and expands (I used an ice pack)). freeze 16 hours, take the tray out, leave on the counter for 3 mins, then they pop right out. Made 2 trays since getting with no issues. It works - just be realistic with quality of materials (you need to exercise care in your cleaning and handling) for the price. I do recommend

Kugeln waren halbwegs klar, sind aber größtenteils beim Rausnehmen zerbrochen und hatten in der Mitte einen häßlichen rand. Zudem durfte ich noch die Kosten der Rücksendung tragen, die von Unternehmen höher berechnet wurden als die tatsächlichen Kosten. NICHT BESTELLEN!!!!

Great size for a cocktail and crystal clear

Just put it in the freezer, but very dissapointed with the quality. A thin plastic tub, some insulation around it, and two silicone moulds. I'd have with a tenner myself. That said, no idea if it works yet, I'll update in 36hrs. If it doesn't work, it's going back because it certainly isn't worth the materials.

Buen producto. al momento de retirar el molde hay un poco de problema

Prends beaucoup de place dans le congélateur. Une fois prêt les glaçons sont très difficile à enlever. Beaucoup trop cher. À éviter.