Poll: Ice

[Pegasus]

The topic of ice came up in another thread so I was curious how common the different methods are today.  The poll should allow multiple choices but my intent is for how you USUALLY get your ice. So, if you buy ice a couple times a year for large gatherings, don't include that one.

 

Thanks!

[Mama Geek]

I choose ice maker and buying ice.  We buy lots of ice for family gatherings and for going out on the boat.

[Jan in SC]

We have an automatic ice maker, but purchase extra ice for parties, going on the boat, or baseball tournaments.

[marbel]

Our fridge has an automatic ice maker but it is not hooked up. The fridge is not in the place near the hookup so major work to do that.  Plus, our water is NASTY so we must filter it.  So, lots of ice trays.  If we're having a big thing (rare) we will buy ice.

[kewb]

I don't do ice at home. Our ice maker in the freezer broke over a decade ago and I never repaired it. I was never a huge ice person anyway so I didn't miss it. If someone really wants ice I have a couple of trays. If we are having guests I buy a bag of ice. Unless it is my in-laws because I know it bugs my MIL that I don't have any ice. Yes, I can be that petty and passive aggressive. Not proud of it but it brings me some enjoyment.

[HomeAgain]

We don't usually do ice at home, but for the rare occasion it is called for I have some reusable ice cubes.  :laugh: I also use them to tell cups apart when I give a gaggle of children drinks.  They're all different colors so each kid picks a color and gets two cubes.

 

When we need ice in quantities I buy it at the store.

[Matryoshka]

We barely use ice.  I only use it sometimes in the summer for iced coffee, otherwise my drinks are more than cold enough just from being in the fridge, although honestly except in the summer I mostly drink hot coffee and water from the tap (no ice).

 

So all we have is a couple of ice cube trays that barely get touched.  If I do want an iced coffee for the first time of the season, I usually have to make new ice, as the old stuff has gotten a bit... old.

[alisoncooks]

We have ice cube trays but don't use them. We don't use ice in drinks...unless my parents are coming for the weekend -- then I buy a bag of ice for them.

[MEmama]

We don't use ice in our drinks. Most of the year it's barely warmer than that straight from the tap.

 

Our freezer has an automatic ice maker, but I don't use it. I would never have bought one--it came with the house. To me, it just takes up valuable real estate.

 

On the rare occasion we make ice, I use an ice cube tray. But again, wasted real estate...

[73349]

We chose not to get the ice maker hooked up and seldom use ice cube trays. We chill our water in glass pitchers in the fridge.

[jrn]

automatic ice maker. We use ice daily in our drinks year round. I just can't drink room temp water :laugh:

[Miss Tick]

We don't use much ice either. I gave up ice cold water when I lived in Phoenix. We use some in the summer for iced coffee, but outside of that season i usually turn off the ice maker.

 

We have an automatic ice maker because it can be tricky to buy a refrigerator without one. Thus was my compromise since it doesn't have any in-door dispensers. I shouldn't have gotten rid of all my old trays, though!

[regentrude]

Ice maker in the fridge, but we very rarely use ice at all. Growing up in Europe, we never developed the need for ice cubes in our drink, fridge temp is sufficiently cold to us.

[J&JMom]

We rarely use ice but do have an ice maker in our fridge.  Three out of four family members drink water at room temp while the other cools his water bottles in the fridge as well as our soda.

Edited June 13, 2016 by J&JMom

[elegantlion]

Automatic ice maker. Love it. 

[purpleowl]

We have an ice maker in our freezer, but the ice it makes tastes funny (our water does not taste funny otherwise), so we never use it. I have ice cube trays that I got for science experiments, but in general we just don't use ice. On the rare occasions when we need some, we go out and buy a bag.

[Matryoshka]

We have an automatic ice maker because it can be tricky to buy a refrigerator without one. Thus was my compromise since it doesn't have any in-door dispensers. I shouldn't have gotten rid of all my old trays, though!

 

I jumped through the tricky hoops to buy a fridge with NO ice maker.  They take up so much room!  For the exceedingly few times I even want ice all year, no way am I giving up half my fridge door!  

 

I think the thing still came with some kind of cold water dispenser (inside, doesn't take up room, it's just a tube with a button).  But we never hooked it up to the plumbing and I don't even remember where it is...

[Heatherwith4]

We have the automatic ice maker in our fridge. We don't use it super often. We buy ice when we make homemade ice cream or when we have a large group over for an outside cookout. (So not very often!)

[AmandaVT]

I use ice for iced tea and iced coffee, but that's about it. 

 

Also, I frequently will pop an ice cube into soup for DS, so he doesn't have to wait forever to eat it. :-)

 

We have an ice maker in the freezer.

[6packofun]

We purchase ice, mainly because we have well water and so we have to buy our water, too!  It's kind of annoying, BUT I really like crunchy ice--and lots of it--in my beverages, so I have a feeling that I've gotten used to bought ice and will continue even if we move to a house with decent water.  lol  (Although, if we ever get a fridge that makes ice, that may spoil me.)

[Callie]

Our fridge has an automatic ice maker but it is not hooked up. The fridge is not in the place near the hookup so major work to do that.  Plus, our water is NASTY so we must filter it.  So, lots of ice trays.  If we're having a big thing (rare) we will buy ice.

We also unhooked our ice maker and use trays.  The noise from the ice maker would wake me up at night so I just dump about 16 trays every couple of days.  

[Tap]

Our refrigerator had an ice maker but it stopped working 3 years ago or so.  We kept thinking that due to age,  he fridge was going to die sometime soon anyways, so we never replaced the unit.  The fridge is 21 years old and still going strong.

 

We use ice daily, so we have 2 ice cube trays.

 

[Cinder]

Our ice maker broke years ago so we use ice cube trays and supplement with buying during the warm months.

[Pawz4me]

Another one whose ice maker broke who decided to use trays instead of having it fixed. We also took out all the "guts" of it that we could to free up space. For our next purchase I'd like to find a fridge w/o an ice maker. IME and IMO they're nothing but trouble and definitely not worth the space they take up.

[SparklyUnicorn]

My husband literally hates ice. LOL

 

We don't use ice.  I used to because I was used to it, but I've gotten used to not using it.  Years ago we had an ice maker in our fridge and that made it easy so I did use it.  But now we don't have that and I could not be bothered to make ice in trays.  Also the freezer is so small that buying ice wouldn't be practical either.

 

 

[Lady Marmalade]

Ice trays.

 

We hardly ever use ice though.  Occasionally I will make an instant iced coffee by brewing a k-cup over ice, and that takes one full tray to get cold enough.  But in general we are not ice people.  I hate ice in my drinks.  The kids have water bottles with big openings, and I have 2 dozen re-usable ice cubes that they will add to their water bottles when they are headed out for a while.  

[Renthead Mommy]

Every house has always had an ice maker, but we don't use much ice. Here, while we like the water, the ice tastes funny, so we use it even less. But I like my water not cold.

 

We do make ice cube trays of coffee or lemonade and keep those in ziplocks till needed.

[TravelingChris]

We don't use ice.  We only buy ice for parties so very unfrequently.

[Arcadia]

We have four ice trays which are in use only during the hot summer months. So the rest of the year I can just keep the ice trays out of the freezer and use that space for food.

 

All the parties we went to serve cold drinks chilled but not iced so we have not had a need to buy ice.

 

I did buy a big pack of ice as parental donation when my oldest was in kindergarten for the rock salt - ice cream science experiment. That experiment required plenty of ice and I had a double stroller so it was easy for me to get ice to their classroom door.

 

My kids love filling tbe ice bucket using the icemaker machine at hotels. A friend's ice maker on his fridge door broke and his kitchen flooded. He decided ice trays were easier than worrying about that happening again.

[dirty ethel rackham]

We have an automatic ice maker. It has a filter on it so the ice tastes fine.  Plus, we have good water.  I like ice in my water or my non-hot drinks.  I also put an ice cube in my hot tea after it has steeped because I am too impatient to wait for it to come to drinking temperature.   A couple of times a year, when we are having a larger gathering (and I don't remember to start stockpiling ice), we buy ice.  Usually, this is for big coolers full of drinks or something like that. 

[Granny_Weatherwax]

We have an automatic ice maker but it's only used when we have company or if we need something for a small cooler.  The ice sits there for so long I usually dump it in a big bowl to melt and then use it for watering plants or something.  I buy bagged ice for coolers for camping, etc.

[Outdoorsy Type]

I use automatic, and at times I have used so much it has run out of ice. I put ice in my drinks, and I use ice to make protein shakes after I run, and I will often make the kids a smoothie with ice in it.

[frugalmamatx]

Our fridge has an ice maker, but it's broken AND also not hooked up since there is no water line by my fridge and no way to put one without major renovations. 

 

So I use ice trays most of the year, but in summer I buy ice. Ice trays can't keep up with 100+ degree temps and no a/c. 

[KungFuPanda]

I've had more than one child over at my house who had never seen an ice cube tray before.

[jewellsmommy]

We have have an icemaker, and I use it all the time. I use my keurig to brew a container of tea. I let the bags (2 red rose bags with the largest water setting)  steep a few minutes, and then I pour the tea over ice. You see how the ice part is crucial to the iced-tea equation.  :tongue_smilie:

I usually have 1 hot tea with a smidge of sweetener and then 2 or 3 unsweet iced teas a day. I also add ice to my water.  

[ktgrok]

Florida girl here, and we use lots of ice. Automatic ice maker, thankfully, but I've lived without before. I keep my fridge stuffed full of stuff, so often don't have room for cold drinks in there anyway. And our tap water is lukewarm, not cold, so if you want cold water you use ice. I use it in ice water for the kids, lemonade, iced tea, iced coffee, smoothies, etc etc. 

[Ellie]

We have never bought a fridge with an automatic, in-the-door ice maker. We have no interest in having one, especially given the number of stories we've heard about water leakage under the fridge and ruined floors. :-) We're happy with filling ice trays.

[SKL]

I don't use ice.

 

My kid gets ice from the fridge door when she wants it.

[Baseball mom]

Gotta have ice :thumbup:

 

I voted ice maker and trays.  We had an ice maker and I loved it.  The fridge is trying to go out (not ice maker).  Ice maker works great but when the fridge starts acting up the ice starts melting.  Decided to turn ice maker off and just use trays that I empty into a bucket.  That way if it does start melting it isn't a mess everywhere. 

 

[zoobie]

Ice maker in the fridge and trays. The ice maker can't keep up. When the money tree blooms, I want one of those fancy ice makers that makes rabbit pellet ice.

[Guest]

We have an icemaker but I think it is a big space-waster.  I would rather not have it and have a tray instead.  That's about all the ice we use, and when we need a LOT, we have to go buy it anyway.  I would rather have the freezer space.

 

[katilac]

Automatic ice maker. We would be doing quite a bit of filling/emptying ice trays otherwise! 

 

The space it takes up is worth it to me, but that may be influenced by the fact that I own a full-sized side-by-side, a full-sized freezer, and a full-sized fridge only. And a mini-fridge outside. Why, no, we are not a large family, lol, but we do cook a lot and I don't see how you do that with one fridge without going to the store constantly. 

 

We also buy ice for larger gatherings. Apparently people use a lot of ice around here. It would be very weird for someone to be surprised at guests wanting multiple glasses full of ice over the afternoon or evening - a couple of ice trays wouldn't cut it even for just a few people. Bigger gatherings general feature at least one ice chest full of nothing but ice. 

 

Chilled beverages with no ice available would get you talked about for days, lol. 

[theelfqueen]

I selected all three -- ice trays, ice maker and purchase ice.

 

We have an ice maker that we mostly use for making drinks.

We have ice trays that we use exclusively for the making of iced tea (DH lives on the stuff).

We always have a bag of ice in our freezer because if we have ANY company at all - our ice maker can't keep up. (Especially my mother who must have COMPLETELY FULL glasses of ice at all times).

[BooksandBoys]

The last few houses we've lived in have had ice makers, so I chose that option. In the absence of an ice maker, I use ice cube trays. Usually,, if I am having a party or traveling/camping, I bag ice from our icemaker for several days so that I don't have to buy ice.

[Ausmumof3]

Ice is the common name for a drug around here (not sure if it's just a local thing) so seeing a poll asking how we get our ice on Wtm was quite a surprise.

 

We opted for the non ice maker fridge as I'd heard they were prone to failure and took up space. If we need heaps we buy from the servo. For a small amount we use cube trays.

[Cindy in FL.]

Ice maker w/dispenser and we buy a 20 lb bag once a week.

[EMS83]

DH is the only person who uses ice 98% of the time.  DD will occasionally get ice, as well.  The water line was nicked to our ice maker and w never replaced it, so it's just cubes right out of a tray (we have four).  

[purplejackmama]

This is unrelated to your poll. But ice is one of my top 5 favorite things. In the world. The ice chips at the hospital may be a tie to actually holding my newborn. Kidding. Maybe.

[Seasider]

I checked automatic ice maker but I might have checked other. The gas station I frequent sells iced tea with the most perfect crushed ice - wish I could have ice like that at home all the time.

[Guest]

We had an automatic ice maker in our fridge but it kept malfunctioning and didn't keep up well anyway. Now we have four ice trays and those, rotated throughout the day, keep up with our demand. I am eager for the day I have another automatic ice maker but I'd still have to buy ice for some things. I couldn't justify a standalone one, even though I'd love the soft small ice. We just don't have the space in this small house for any other appliances.

Edited June 14, 2016 by Arctic Mama