Core77

Quirky's Cube Tube, for Spill-Free Icemaking

By Rain Noe - August 10, 2012

in Homeware

And you thought you'd seen it all in ice cube making. Currently under consideration at Quirky is the Cube Tube, an ice tray designed to solve a specific problem: That annoying moment after you fill the tray at the sink and slowwwwly walk it over to the freezer, trying not to spill the water.

You fill the Cube Tube up, and close it, at the sink. There's presumably a little Archimedes action when you slide the insert in, but once that's done with you toss it in the freezer, spill-free.

The base is made out of silicone, so after it's frozen you can hit it against the counter to loosen the cubes. Then you just pull the insert out—there's draft angle, naturally—to dispense.

From what I can see, there's nothing that would stop you from refilling it when partially empty, as well.

I realize those of you with 'fridges that make their own ice don't give a damn about objects like this, but it's something an ice-tray-using peon like me could really use.

o

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Bob

12 years ago

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What is the difference between Quirky and all the ID competitions?
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DB

12 years ago

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Funny thing about ice, and pretty unique to water, its density is less than the liquid form. Without that quirk, life on earth would never have started.

So you have a sealed system with a substance that expands in volume when frozen. No one else can see a potential problem? Then again, the design for planned obsolescence is awesome.
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Jerame

12 years ago

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I believe the bubbles are from dissolved gas in the water. So if you want perfectly clear ice hook up a vacuum pump (think air conditioning or laboratory pump) to a leak tight container with water in the bottom. when you reach a low enough pressure the water will appear to boil as the dissolved gasses come out. when you can no longer see this nearly all of the gasses will be gone. This should make crystal clear ice.
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Cameron

12 years ago

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I think there would be less snark if it weren't Quirky. I have nothing against it though. This is a 1st world 'problem' but so is sitting and the chair 'solution' but nobody's bashing Eames. Props to them.
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dimitrios

12 years ago

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What happened to carrying the ice tray on a plate while traveling from the sink to the freezer?

Anyway there are a some interesting tricks in this design like the tapered tube to avoid the "piston" action. I would suggest that the guy includes an indicator of the level up to witch it has to be filled so that the user won't have to guess/ repeat the process/ spill more water in the sink/ wipe it dry...

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Luke

12 years ago

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Should Quirky goods really be going up on Core77? Crowdsourcing is the Devil. It's mass spec work.
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Alex

12 years ago

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Small problem. Water expands when it freezes; hope they take that into account.
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Ronald Pottol

12 years ago

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I'd want an insulating sleeve so that it would freeze slowly from the bottom so that you would get clear ice cubes.
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Ryan

12 years ago

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I'm a bigger fan of a snarky comments than most people, but I believe that despite Davids negativity, this thing is pretty badass.
I'll be buying a couple when they're available as long as the price is reasonable.
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DavidH

12 years ago

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It really is a shame that Billy Mays isn't alive today to sell this stuff.
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