bell notificationshomepageloginNewPostedit profiledmBox

Hoots : Why are there spikes growing out of my ice tray? This is sooo weird. As is my habit, I filled my ice trays with cold tap water and let them settle on the counter for 15 minutes or so. Then I put them in the freezer. A few - freshhoot.com

10% popularity   0 Reactions

Why are there spikes growing out of my ice tray?
This is sooo weird. As is my habit, I filled my ice trays with cold tap water and let them settle on the counter for 15 minutes or so. Then I put them in the freezer. A few hours later I opened the freezer and found that the ice had these nail-like projections. The longest was maybe 3 inches long. They weren't touching anything. What the heck happened? Notice the baby dude in the first picture? WTF?


Load Full (1)

Login to follow hoots

1 Comments

Sorted by latest first Latest Oldest Best

10% popularity   0 Reactions

They're often called ice spikes. Ten years ago these things were pretty mysterious, but now Wikipedia even has a video of them growing out of ice cube trays in a freezer.

Basically, the ice surface freezes first, which slightly pressurizes the water underneath. That water breaks through the crust, and continues to flow, and freeze to equalize pressure within the cooling cube. Temperature conditions have to be just right for it to happen, so you don't see them all the time.


Back to top Use Dark theme