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kmetzger

Jul 22, 2010, 3:36 PM

Post #1 of 9 (3003 views)

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No ice cubes

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I bought a Whirlpool refrigerator here in Guadalajara about 2 years ago. It works fine except for one strange phenomenon: when I check the ice cube trays a week or so after filling them with water the trays are empty. Otherwise the freezer compartment does its job fine. Does anyone have any idea what's going on?

Casa

Jul 22, 2010, 4:01 PM

Post #2 of 9 (2992 views)

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Re: [kmetzger] No ice cubes

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when I check the ice cube trays a week or so after filling them with water the trays are empty. Otherwise the freezer compartment does its job fine. Does anyone have any idea what's going on?

You used the ice cubes and forget to refill the trays with water.......

kmetzger

Jul 22, 2010, 4:04 PM

Post #3 of 9 (2989 views)

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Re: [Casa] No ice cubes

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Hi Casa - I'm getting old, but things aren't that bad yet.

Casa

Jul 22, 2010, 4:26 PM

Post #4 of 9 (2983 views)

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Re: [kmetzger] No ice cubes

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I'm getting old, but things aren't that bad yet.

OK in that case….
"The water hasn’t really disappeared; it has just turned from a liquid into a gas. We call this evaporation. Water molecules evaporate when they have enough energy to break free from other water molecules.
Water molecules can also evaporate from ice. We call this sublimation. A water molecule with lots of energy can break free from the frozen molecules and become a gas. When water molecules sublime, they escape from the ice. There are fewer molecules left in the ice, so it seems that your ice is shrinking."
http://www.csiro.au/resources/ice-cube-activity.html

Rolly

Jul 22, 2010, 4:48 PM

Post #5 of 9 (2976 views)

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Re: [Casa] No ice cubes

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Casa is right. Ice has a shelf life even in the freezer. That's a problem with ice makers that dump into a box. If you don't use much ice, the older ones get smaller and smaller until the disappear.

Rolly Pirate

YucaLandia

Jul 22, 2010, 6:15 PM

Post #6 of 9 (2965 views)

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Re: [Casa] No ice cubes

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The ice cubes are disappearing due to sublimation: the direct transition/conversion of a solid to a gas.

The ice cubes are disappearing just like dry ice sublimes to form carbon dioxide.

Evaporation is a transition of a liquid to a gas. (A minor matter of semantics.)
-
Read-on MacDuff
E-visit at http://yucalandia.com

johanson / Moderator

Jul 22, 2010, 7:20 PM

Post #7 of 9 (2951 views)

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Re: [YucaLandia] No ice cubes

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My undergraduate was physics which meant I had to take chemistry too. So I understand what you are saying. But over what period of time are you talking?

I have a condo in Seattle. When I leave I have to turn off the water, which means no more water to the automatic ice maker in my refrigerator. Sometimes I'm gone for four months at a time. When I get back the plastic ice bucket is still pretty full. Perhaps the level is a little lower than when I turned the water off and headed for Mexico, but never have I noticed much difference. Oh, and the humidity isn't that high in the heated unit.

No I don't run the heat, but the folks above, below and to the left and right of me do and my unit doesn't get that cool or that humid.

So I don't understand why you have no ice unless your humidity is terribly terribly low and the period of time was terribly great. But what do I know? I am not an expert on the subject.

kmetzger

Jul 22, 2010, 8:08 PM

Post #8 of 9 (2948 views)

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Re: [johanson] No ice cubes

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Thanks for the physics/chemistry lesson, guys. This is the first time in my life that I've experienced empty ice cube trays after a few weeks. I think I know the problem: my trays are very small.

raferguson

Jul 22, 2010, 10:42 PM

Post #9 of 9 (2938 views)

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Re: [kmetzger] No ice cubes

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Have you checked the freezer temperature? The warmer the freezer, the faster the sublimation will occur. Freezers are generally supposed to be around 0F, around -17C. Refrigerators are supposed to be 38F (3C), no more than 40F.

Most modern freezers have defrost cycles, so the freezer coils are heated periodically to melt off collected frost/ice. Maybe it is defrosting too much?

Check the temperatures, I would bet that they are off.

Richard

http://www.fergusonsculpture.com