[ghoti]

After reading that vodka thread, I had to fix myself a Gin&Tonic (I hate vodka).

When getting some ice, I noticed that the ice cubes looked like they had melted. Parts of them were simply gone. They were in the fridge for about a month or so. Is that what happens to ice cubes in those American fridges that blow cold air in? I'm not used to those yet, I only know the European variant that simply cools the fridge walls. The only explanation I have is that somehow the cold air is extremely dry and causes the ice to sublimate. Does that make any sense? Are there other explanations? Are there invisible aliens in my fridge that feast on my ice cubes?

[Argento]

evaporation occurs with frozen water as well as liquid.

[ghoti]

But at that rate? I have never seen that before, and I have left ice cubes in the fridge for months.

[Brad]

So long as the relative humidity of the air is below 100%, yeah, they'll slowly evaporate/sublimate. The rate should be roughly inversely proportional to the humidity level in the icebox.

Yup. Aliens. You'd better contact the authorities!!

[billybobsky]

Does your freezer have a defrost cycle? If so that is your answer...

[ghoti]

But if the defrost had thawed the ice cubes, they would have simply refrozen. But the water's gone. Plus, I haven't defrosted it in some time.

I think Brad is right ...

[BlueRabbit]

Originally Posted by Argento evaporation occurs with frozen water as well as liquid.

...except when it's solid-to-gas without a liquid in between, it's Sublimation, not evaporation.

[billybobsky]

Originally Posted by ghoti But if the defrost had thawed the ice cubes, they would have simply refrozen. But the water's gone. Plus, I haven't defrosted it in some time. I think Brad is right ...

Yeah, Brad is mostly right... The defroster works by blowing relatively dry hotter than the melting temperature of water air through the freezer box. Both the dry and hotter air increases the sublimation rate of the ice.

[Windswept]

We have really hard water where I live, and those shrunken ice cubes would be filled with mineral deposits. Ugh.

Just in case, toss the shrunken cubes and make new fresh ice.

[Jerman]

Mmm, fresh ice! So I checked this thread out thinking it was about eating ice cubes, and I clicked thinking, "Yeah, I do that." Darn daylight savings time, I need to get some sleep!

[curiousuburb]

Some of the ice in each cube is sacrificed to the fridge light god at each closing of the door.
You just never see it happen.

[Bryson]

My fridge has instructions for when you assemble it saying "Check that the light extinguishes when the door is closed."

How?

[Brad]

There's a little button that the door presses against when it closes. You're supposed to press that button to check that it's operating correctly.

[Bryson]

Well, yes....but we're geeks. And how do you check if the door is pressing that lever properly...?

[Brad]

Gnomes. Cameras.

[ghoti]

If that doesn't call for a new iPod with Fridge Monitoring Capability, I don't know what does. It would tell you how dark or light it is right now on your Bluetooth headphones - while playing a video, though you wouldn't see that, of course. But why waste a perfectly good video screen? And it could also keep track of those damn invisible ice-eating aliens ...

[atomicbartbeans]

Originally Posted by Brad There's a little button that the door presses against when it closes. You're supposed to press that button to check that it's operating correctly.

Haha... for years, I thought that you needed a camera with self-timer to see if that worked properly; then one day somebody showed me the button.

[v.noir]

It could be a barguest. Watch out.

[ghoti]

Nah, that's impossible, I have a dog.

Wait ...