The Cold Truth About Clear Ice Cubes
When water freezes, the impurities that were evenly distributed in the water, tend to congregate near the middle, making ice cubes the whitest at their center.
The ice maker in a typical home freezer has a water filter, but usually produces opaque ice. This is because the water doesn't cool at the right rate to produce clear ice or else there is a lot of air in the water. Clear ice is easily made using bottled water that has been purified using reverse osmosis or distillation, but the cooling rate is also important. If the ice freezes too slowly the result is milky on the bottom and clear on top. Unfortunately, you don’t have a lot of control over the freezer’s cooling rate. You can play with the starting temperature of the water until you get the results you desire.
Clear ice doesn’t just look better—it also works better!
It melts more slowly, which keeps drinks from getting watered down before you can enjoy it.
Can an Icemaker be Used with Reverse Osmosis (RO) Water?
This is a common question that we get asked by our customers. At first it may seem obvious; but actually, there are some things that you need to be aware of if you would like to use your reverse osmosis system with an ice maker.
Let’s dive deeper into this subject and clear up some misconceptions.
RO Ice Cubes
Firstly, it’s important to state that RO water actually makes excellent ice cubes for drinks. The ice cubes taste cleaner, and they look very clear apart from a small cloudy portion located at the center. This ice cube is also harder than you may be used to and it melts very slowly. Obviously, this makes an RO ice cube an ideal choice for a colder drink. This use also shows us that RO water can make high quality ice and the RO purification does not hinder the process at all. Now that we’ve cleared that up, we will look at why you may not be able to use your RO water with your ice maker.
There are two considerations you need to think about for ice making:
Water Volume: When RO water is supplied at an adequate pressure it will make excellent ice and ice cubes. If you have a cheaper entry level icemaker, it may not be able to use an adequate quantity of water, and you won’t be able to make ice. If you have a high volume RO system, you can compensate for this disparity and make all the ice you need.
Water Pressure: A newer ice maker will need 30-40 psi to work correctly. A typical RO system will drop the incoming water pressure by 30-35% as it passes the water through the membrane for cleaning. If your water pressure is 70 psi or more to start with this will be fine; but, if you have a lower incoming water pressure of less than 60 psi, there may be a problem.
These are both different problems; you could have a sufficient volume of water and not enough pressure and vice versa. For this reason, it’s extremely important to get the right size of RO system for your home, especially if you need multiple outlets. An entry level RO system for a home would normally provide between 25-50 gallons of water per day, which would not be enough for an ice maker.