OnTheRocks - Crystal-Clear Ice Cube & Ball Maker, Make Big, 2 Inch Clear Cubes & Spheres at Home (Sphere & Cubes)

It works great! The OnTheRocks "kit" makes big, beautiful, clear ice cubes or spheres. The spheres are a smaller volume than the cubes, so it's less efficient to make them, and they melt a bit quicker, but spheres fit better in some glasses. The form for spheres is a little trickier to assemble than the cube form which is just an open-top tray, but the spheres are very pretty. A sphere on the bottom and a cube on top works nicely in a pint glass. Still, I generally stick with the cubes for efficiency. It is easier to get the ice out if you freeze for less than 24 hours, per the instructions, so there's still an ice-encased pocket of liquid water in the reservoir under the silicone cube (or sphere) form. The ice & water underneath gets tossed when you recover the clear ice above. If you need a lot of ice you need to plan ahead since you can only make 6 cubes, or 5 spheres per day. You can store the ice in gallon ziplock bags or tuperware containers so you're ready to rock when the time comes for some fancy-looking cocktails.I also got a True Cubes clear ice kit, a slightly cheaper competitor, and it also works nicely, but it's a 4 cube at a time (i.e. per day) affair. I keep both kits in rotation almost daily 'cause the ice looks so cool and it stores so well. Plus it's very satisfyingly solid as it melts if you're an ice sucker.

FINALLY I FOUND THIS!!! Clear ice. It may seem like a simple thing but between boiling, distilled water, tips and tricks, I have found a solution that really works.The best part is that this works with regular hot tap water, no boiling, or special tricks. You can make these in about 18 to 24 hours and make 5 round or 6 cubes. They melt evenly and are easy to make. When I have guests coming, I make several batches and store them in a freezer bag.I’ve made over 100 cubes at this point and definitely prefer the cube to the sphere. The spheres are a little small and I only get 5 in a batch.If you are really reading these reviews to decide on how to make clear ice, just buy this. It’s the right product. You just need to decide where to make space for it in your freezer. It just works.

In our freezer, it takes about 48 hours to freeze completely but ice does turn out clear! We use hot tap water. Square ice cubes are larger than the round ice sheets and the square molds are easier to remove from "bin". Round molds are a bit harder to remove but haven't had any noteworthy complications. Both square and round molds produce beautiful clear ice! This is a must for any home bar!

First attempt was the spheres. For a first try not bad. The line across the middle was distinct but still so much better with the bourbon than regular ice cubes. Second attempt was the large cubes using hot tap water. They turned out perfect!!! Basically no air bubbles. Perfectly slow to melt.

I bought this for my step dad for Christmas and just wow! From the first batch these ice cubes have been PERFECT! Like glass!The overall product is of good quality, we had to get a little rough with it to get the sphere ice out and it held up just fine!Overall glad I did all my research and bought this clear ice maker! It doing 6 ice cubes at once was a big factor and we’re glad we went with that.It’s been so fun for all of us and for him to make drinks with these, really recommend for anyone wanting nice cocktails at home.Side note: we recommend taking them out of the freezer at around 24 hours, otherwise all the waste ice freezes and it’s harder to get the mold off. Not impossible, just easier if you take it off before it all freezes on the bottom.

Given last year's (2020) events around the world, like many others around the country I became an at-home cocktail aficionado. One of the more critical elements for any cocktail is the ice, almost on even footing as the spirit/liquid you pour in your drink, and so for a while I have been on the lookout for a way to create my own crystal clear ice in the comfort of my house.After doing some online research, I found out that the best at-home method for creating clear ice is something called directional freezing. Many youtube videos recommend using a small portable chest freezer (which ironically you would also be able to purchase here in Amazon), fill it with water, put it in the freezer and then wait. I am here to tell you that, while you can still do that, the OnTheRocks ice maker takes that method and improves it tenfold.First of all, this ice maker uses that exact same method of directional freezing, but thanks to the use of silicon molds to create shaped ice you have zero steps afterward to cut ice to shape and/or carve it to any desired size. The molds are very easy to work with and the ice pieces come right off without any need for scrapping, stabbing or otherwise prying the ice shapes out of the molds.The clear plastic basin is so easy to insert and extract from the thick rubber enclosure that this allows you to check progress at any point during the freezing period. You can pull out the plastic basin, check how much of the base has been frozen, and if not ready yet you can put it back in without any headaches. You simply cannot do that with the pure chest freezer method which will give you inconsistent results.Once the Ice is ready, to take it out is as simple as taking the plastic insert out, put it upside down in the sink and run water directly over it. In a very short while the ice molds will be out with the formed ice cubes or spheres ready. A small bonus that anyone can consider and the company has not advertised is that not only you will have those formed ice shapes ready, but also you will have a lot of ice "shards" and pieces from the formed ice that sits below the molds that are also crystal clear. I can see myself saving these for having fancy clear crushed ice down the road.As for the finished ice shapes, the cubes are near perfect, the only face that will not be 100% flat is the one that is exposed to the air on the surface. For the spheres, since they are made by snapping two mold pieces together, the balls will have a small seam around them and also tiny prongs from the holes the mold uses to fill the cavities with water. But those tiny imperfections can be either left alone or can be easily removed with at home tools such as a small knife, a small metal file (clean and intended for food use only of course!), etc. BTW the shapes in my picture show some natural frost from the freezer after I put them in plastic bags for storage. Once you pour the liquid/water on them or let them temper they will be back to crystal clear.Overall, if I could give this product 6 starts I would. Cheers/Slainte!