It's hard to resist posting a link to some bachelorette party ice cube trays. But I don't want to be banned from gardenweb!

Too funny. How about these:

I have never cared one bit about what my ice cubes look like. My grandson was quite impressed with the ice cubes with the hole in the middle that we used last weekend to make ice cream. I think "cute" ice cubes are for kids. It's water, for heaven sakes.

I could care less about ice cube shape. In fact, our icemaker doesn't work and we haven't bothered to fix it. Before a party we buy a couple bags of ice and dump the excess into the ice maker tray. Of course, I drink my scotch neat.

OK, I just couldn't resist this one. My DH could care less about the shape of the ice; just that we have some. Same with my Papa. My Mama never, ever uses ice in her beverages. I most prefer crushed ice because it chomps the best; I am an ice cruncher. Since our frig does not make crushed ice, rather, the biscuit shape, I just have to wait until it melts down little enough to get it between my teeth without gagging. Yes, crushed ice is best. My husband hates it when I crunch next to him so if I know I'm going to be crunching, I don't sit next to him on the couch. We're both happy.

Our freezer has an ice cube maker but I have no idea what shape they are because the ice cube maker has never been used in almost 5 years. I use the ice storage drawer for fish. We use trays. If we have a party we buy a bag of ice. Clearly we are not big ice users. If the shape was important to me I would buy trays that shape, I wouldn't pick an appliance based on cube shape.

plllog, sorry if you are wanting to hear from those whose DHs do care (maybe it will help with your survey though)... mine doesn't care but agrees with cienza's DH... just give him some. Actually, his favorite is the kind that used to be available at Hardee's (for you Southerners), the little fluffy oblong balls that are easy on the teeth -- they seem to have air blown into them because they are lighter and softer (he's a dentist, says don't chew ice... though he does sometimes without thinking). Neither of us being a hard liquor drinker, I can't answer your question specifically.

I would give almost anything to not have the crescent ice shape. I can't stand when it gets caught in the top edge of my yummy glass of iced tea. You have to do battle with it to get the tea out!! It can really ruin a lovely glass of lemonade too!!

It is all about refreshments on the hot Texas afternoons.

I guess some men are crescent men and some are cube men.

Oh thank goodness Becky Jo! I thought I was going to be the only dissenting female voice of the awful crescent ice shape! My current ice maker has little square pillow shape, and yes I was hoping the new one would not be the dreaded shape. Alas, it's not to be, so I am left with using crushed or dreaded crescent in the future. Neither makes a good drink, one is too large, making it difficult to enjoy the drink, the other too fine and waters down the drink too quickly. Except of course, the shaved ice in the margarita maker...now *that* is wonderful! Beer drinkers must be the designers on the ice makers. Now I'm bummed about my appliance choice....better go make myself a drink with my wonderful little pillow cubes.

I must add that the crescent ice "cubes" slides easily into my Rubbermaid water bottles, the square cubes are usually too big.

Not a guy, but I agree with becky_jo and puppeez. Crescent cubes make me crazy! Makes it impossible to drink from a traditional round glass - those cubes block liquid flowing into the mouth.

my dh doesn't care about ice at ALL. but i myself am guilty of discussing at length ice cube shape. i HATE HATE HATE crescent shaped! add me to the iced tea battlers ...so annoying!

i didn't even think about this until now (thanks, plllog!) since i have TWO ice cube TRAYS in our temporary house. obviously i'll be happy with anything as long as i don't need to fill up a tray, but does anyone know what shape ice the thermador columns are putting out??

Wow. I never thought much about all of this until this thread. We are using our new fridge but it wont be hooked up for water and ice until the remodel. Gosh I hope it isn't crescents... I have noticed that the liquid cant get under them as easily when they form to the curve of the glass. Guess I will have to get really tall slender glasses so they are forced to be vertical?? Hmmm...

I've never minded crescents--have lived with them from childhood--but I realize that I usually stack them in vertically, just by habit. Thank-you all for explaining the ragging on crescents!! A reason I can understand!!! (Much better than the grunted, "Uh. Cubes are better."

I've never seen pillows!

The pillbugs, I guess, are the new version of crescents that have the easy to dispense curvature, but the compactness and lack of tea-blockage of cubes.

BTW, I was reading something about the ones with the holes have them so that the air in the center can escape so they'll be clear. I think those are only commercially made.

This is just another example of TKO. One of thousands. I am not exempt. I am totally tko.

I rest my case.

I dislike crescents. So I use a straw in my glass.

As for liquor, I remove the crescents after the drink is sufficiently cooled. Or I use a shaker. "Shaken, not stirred."

I am a guy and I was going to write in about hating the crescents because I felt like I constantly had to fight against them to get at whatever I was intending to drink, but I assumed I was possibly drinking challenged and didn't want to confuse the issue. Glad that others find this same issue. Cubed, crushed, cylinder (from the bag) are all preferred to the confounding crescent.

I was scared to open this thread.

I wasn't going to open this thread - thought it was about kinda rude shapes, but I'm glad I did.

I didn't know there was any discussions anywhere going on about the shapes ice-cube shapes.

But it's good to talk about these things, get things out into the open, clear the air about issues that bug us. So to that end I'll add my two cents and assert that I HATE crescent cubes. I'm a Diet Coke drinker and when it's hot and my glass is filled with cubes and all I want is a nice long deep swig and all I get is an ice cube, I'll admit I've sworn at my glass more than once!

My DH has taken to using a straw - ridiculous on a middle-aged man, but I see his point.

TKO indeed!!!!

Unless I am in a restaurant, I drink diet green tea that is almost room temperature because I drink so much if it, it never stays in the fridge. (and often doesnt get a glass)

The only ice cubes I ever really hated were the ones my parents 1969 GE made. The shape of a large marshmallow with sharp edges, and usually two stuck together so a big 8
Cloudy and melted like permafrost, not crunchy at all. Awful.

I thought I liked crescents but you know I have been splashed in the face numerous times when the clump of crescents lets loose and hits me when I drink. So maybe not.

Fun topic, but as someone who has lived in a trailer for 3 years while we build our house, I will be soooo thrilled to have a fridge big enough to actually have ice. We have a brand new fridge with icemaker and I have no idea what shape the cubes/ice will be when it is installed. I will be grateful no matter the shape.

I don't mind crescents -- unless they block the drink or cause the splash in the face -- usually when wearing a clean white or light colored top and about to go somewhere. This thread reminds me of one about crushed ice a while back. My kids would have wanted THAT fridge. I have crescents in both fridges, and most of the time it s fine. I'm just so happy to have 2 ice makers now that I have 2 boys in marching band. They will be filling up gallon jugs with ice and then pouring cold water over them so they have cold water all day. And they will drain them and want more. No one else would get any ice if we didn't have two. But the soft crushed ice like they have at Sonic and Cane's would be good.

i don't really "get" crushed ice. what if you pour a room temperature beverage over it? doesn't it melt pretty quickly and dilute the drink? it may sound crazy, but there's really no place around here that serves crushed ice...

I prefer cubes, but our ice maker makes crescents. They always seem to fit exactly to the shape of the side of the glass, so when I tip the glass to drink... nothing... nothing... tip alittle more... SPLASH! Maybe it's me, but the crescents have to be haphazardly stacked rather than perfectly lined up against the side of the glass, otherwise they're a pain.

It doesn't bother me too much because I hardly ever use ice, except in the blender. Our water cooler makes water the perfect temp without ice, I rarely drink soda or mixed drinks, and of course I wouldn't sully my red wine with ice.

I'm a crushed ice girl--especially with my water. Soooo refreshing.

I am fine with the crescent shaped cubes, as I am just happy to not have to fill ice cube trays! I had to do that for years, and I was always the one who did it, as DH would put it back with just one cube because *he* hated filling the trays. (He also put used sheet pans back in the oven because he didn't want to wash them, but that's another thread on its own-LOL.) Not only was the filling and emptying of the trays annoying, I never did like the taste of that ice--before filtered water, of course. It had that freezer burnt flavor. Yucky.

Just after I posted on this thread, DH brought me a glass of ice water with my favorite crushed ice--without prompting.

I think I'll keep him. Today. ;^)

Oooh! Shelayne!! What a guy!!!

I do agree with all who are glad just to have an icemaker. I used to long for an icemaker and had no water line. Then I had a waterline and they no longer made the icemaker for my fridge. Now I have pillbugs!

But for those of you who don't have icemakers, I recommend covered ice trays and distilled water. It took me awhile to really notice the new icemaker because I'd had four OXO trays and distilled or reverse osmosis water for so long. Great tasting ice, plentiful, and none of that smelly, evaporated or sticky that open ice trays get. I finally "noticed" the icemaker now that it's hot out and I can "waste" ice on water out of the fridge. :)

"I have never cared one bit about what my ice cubes look like."

me either. Until recent yrs I seldom used ice tho. I use trays to make ice and don't find it a problem. Maybe that's because it's only me using the ice.

We have two icemakers in our fridge. We use ALOT of ice; my husband and eldest son like crushed, so they primarily use the upper dispenser, and my youngest and I like cubed, so we use the scoop in the freezer drawer (faster). This question got me thinking, since i had never actually seen a cube out of the upper. Turns out we have crescents AND pillbugs! And... the upper crescents are clearer than the lower pillbugs. Same water, so it must have to do with the shape and the freezing process. Huh!

BTW, I was reading something about the ones with the holes have them so that the air in the center can escape so they'll be clear. I think those are only commercially made.

Actually, we almost bought an Electrolux fridge that made this type. But we ended up with one that makes small crescents, and I haven't noticed any problem with them.

Alright folks, I have a DH who is totally obsessed about his ice cubes. He refuses to use anything other than a square cube out of an ice tray. DH drinks bourbon and coke quite regularly. His explanation is that the square cube is larger and will not melt as fast. Obviously melting will cause the drink to get watered down which is undesirable. We use the ice from the icemaker to fill our cooler when we need to. For us it's cubes from the tray for all of our drinking refreshment. Unless we are making a frozen concoction. Then we usually use bagged ice. We slam the bag around and beat it up some with a mallet before putting it in the blender. We can't use the icemaker ice for this because it's usually "old tasting" since it sits there so long. I guess you'd say that we, well DH especially, are totally ice cube obsessed. Would you say TICO?