I use directional freezing with a small, cheap 6-pack Igloo cooler that fits easily in my kitchen freezer. But I quickly got tired of carving ice.

To save time and effort, I picked up a couple cheap silicon ice cube molds that fit snuggly in the top of the cooler. I drilled 5 holes (~1mm each) in the bottom of each cube so that the gasses and minerals could drain through the bottom of the mold as the water freezes. Now I can simply drain the water, remove the molds, break away the excess ice, and pop out perfect cubes without having to do any carving.

It’s a very cheap and effective solution. And I regularly use the cooler as a regular cooler. It makes 12 cubes at a time and takes 16-24 hours to freeze. That’s plenty fast enough for me.

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