Have you ever known someone who didn't have any ice in their house?

I don’t know anybody that has.

What do you need ice for?

I think I have an ice tray I filled up last summer. But I cannot remember the last time I needed any ice.

<= This guy.

Like @zenvelo, I can’t recall the last time I used ice.

I also can’t remember when I last had ice in the house. I haven’t put any water in the ice tray for years. The water here comes out of the tap here at a pleasantly cool temperature.

Every day – all day – ice water, iced tea.

How can you live without ice?

@elbanditoroso Ditto.

No, it’s weird to me that people don’t use ice?!
I have an ice-maker and four-six trays of ice at all times.

The best is Sonic ice though!

What do you guys do drink lukewarm drinks or use tiny bottles so they stay cold? I don’t get it.

Me, often. If I know people are coming over I might prep by filling ice trays and sticking them in the freezer, but mostly I don’t.

@KNOWITALL: “What do you guys do drink lukewarm drinks or use tiny bottles so they stay cold?”

I drink tap water, and it comes out of the tap fairly cold. When I am out, I have an insulated water bottle filled with tap, so it’s still cool. Occasionally during the summer I’ll drink some flavored seltzer (like LaCroix), and I refrigerate those cans.

Also, when I drink, I do so in order to hydrate. I fill my glass from the sink and drink it fairly quickly. Ice would only get in the way of drinking.

@KNOWITALL I keep filtered water in the fridge and drink that. It’s cold enough and my teeth are sensitive so ice can be unpleasant.

@product Interesting! We fill water bottles full of water and freeze them, so they slowly thaw when we’re running errands or for outdoor events, so it stays cold.

@canidmajor That makes sense, I have heard that one.

Like @canidmajor, I fill my ice trays if I think of it when people are coming over. Otherwise, it’s tap water that’s in a Brita in the fridge.

Wow. I use ice in Diet Coke and cranberry juice and orange juice and what ever I have.

@Dutchess_III Me, too. Maybe it’s a Midwest thing.
My mother in law puts ice in her wine, which I admit is weird, but it tastes good. haha!

I hate ice cold drinks. If I buy a bottle of water at a convenience store, they often don’t have any at room temperature. So I must buy it cold, and leave it until it warms up so I can drink it.

No surprise: I don’t have ice in my house, unless we have guests, and we might buy a bag. Hubby keeps a bottle of water or two in the fridge for his drinking.

Me.

I don’t always have ice in my house. I make ice when I know people are coming, or when I’ve been drinking something lately that I put ice in, but both my husband and I rarely put ice in our drinks. I do use ice to blanch vegetables, so I need it for that at times.

Edit: we do usually drink our beverages cold, we just don’t want them watered down. Mostly we drink water, so obviously I don’t have to worry about that being watered down.

My husband and I both ordered Coke with no ice on our first date. Meant to be.

Another “Me…” No ice here unless we buy a bag. Quite a few reasons- one being dirty kid hands pawing in an ice box isn’t my idea of palatable. Another is- a previous fridge water line broke and the damage was enough for us to not want to have an icemaker in our refurbished fridge.

But I do love my ice when I do get it!

@elbanditoroso @Dutchess I guess we’re weirdo’s. :D

Funny story, one of the dogs I walk kept getting in my tea glass, which is gross, and I finally figured out she just wanted my ice cubes. Now I put extra in so she can have a few to crunch.

Also, did you know that you can use chicken bouillon in your ice cubes for chicken treats when it’s hot, and dogs love the beef bouillon ice cubes in summer.

I don’t have ice. I have no need for it.

I have a 32 Oz Styrofoam cup that I keep full of ice and water while I sip on it through the day.

My freezer is too small to have seldom used ice trays in there, so I don’t have any.

I have ice trays but don’t use them.

@KNOWITALL In my experience Southerners use a lot of ice (not that I classify MO as the South) because the South drinks a lot of ice tea. I put a lot of ice in my ice tea because I usually make it on the spot just a glass at a time. Years ago we used to keep iced tea in the house all the time and then I didn’t need ice for it, because it was prepared with the strength we wanted and kept in the fridge.

My exboyfriend’s family drank a lot of koolaid and never used ice, I guess because they could add more or less water to taste.

It’s hard to drink with ice in a glass unless you use a straw. The ice slides suddenly and splashes drink on your mouth, or the liquid doesn’t flow quickly like when there is no ice.

Not that I know of. Better go get a few bags from 7/11.

I cannot conceive of a refrigerator without at least trays of ice in the freezer. Increasingly, I bump into people who want only liquids at room temperature. Our own freezer contains 6 trays of ice along with a plastic tub that will hold the cubes from all 6. My job is to crack the cubes into the tub and refill them. I have 2 32 ounce stainless steel vacuum “cans”, and one if them is ALWAYS with me. I fill one with ice once in the morning, add ice water from the britta to the top and slam on the plastic lid. If I drink it all, I simply add more cold water. There are still little cubes remaining the next morning when the ritual resumes. For warm days or excursions to the furnace lands surrounding us, I will shave ice in the snow cone machine and tightly pack the other can for limeade, lemonade, root beer or whatever. Both cans take the trip. The wife thinks it bizarre and excessive, until I catch her reaching for one of them after her little sissy thermos is exhausted.

@stanleybmanly haha! Welcome to the club!
I would gag drinking room temperature anything.

@JLeslie Some of us feel like it’s south enough since half our state fought on each side of the Civil War.

I guess I just don’t understand why you need ice for cold. I’m thirsty; I open the fridge, I take out a drink, I drink it. But each to his own…...

My ice fixation is without question a carryover from my childhood in the Midwest. The Summers in Omaha were brutal beyond description. It was like living on a griddle. But as kids, we wouldn’t be caught willingly indoors for love or money in the Summertime no matter how hot it got. I can remember the adults all being terrified that we would succumb to heat stroke, but we ran through ice water and pitchers of koolaid like nobody’s business. And we took our ice SERIOUSLY. We might sluff our other chores, but that ice was sacred.

This is a fascinating discussion. I’m completely baffled at the ice obsession, and the love of ice-cold water just seems odd to me.

Also, how do you actually drink (chug) water when there is all kinds of ice in there?

How about other beverages that are to be consumed at somewhat warmer temperatures, like beer? Do you prefer an IPA ice cold, or somewhat warmer? Don’t you find it bland when it’s so cold?

@product I learned to like beer in England so an amber or IPA should only be room temperature or slightly cool for me. If I have to drink a piss beer like Bud, that has to be cold.

I come from the tropics and in my country it is customary to have ice in everything we drink since we are little kids. Obviously, some people prefer not to have ice, but it would be unusual to ask if you want ice, I think it is assumed that you do.
@product Again, in my country you wouldn’t drink warm beer to save your life. But, you are right, not with ice because it waters it down, but very very cold.

For me, nothing meant to be chilled can be too cold with the exception of wine or champagne.

Risking completely derailing, but what about things like ice cream? Ice cream needs to warm up for full flavor and texture. Ice-cold beverage lovers – do you like your ice cream the same way?

@janbb – Yes! Good beer just doesn’t taste right when it’s right out of the fridge. It needs to warm up (unless it’s US-style “beer”).

@KNOWITALL I definitely consider southern MO part of the Bible Belt, which is also like saying it is part of the South, but I still would classify MO as Midwest if I had to choose one. When I drive up I55 there is definitely a point about an hour south of St. Louis where there is a shift and it starts to feel like I am leaving the South and entering the Midwest. More German names on stores and more redheads.

@Yeahright Which country? In most countries in Latin America my experience is they don’t give out a lot of ice, because the water is not potable from the tap, except in very specific areas of the countries. Obviously, you might not be in Latin America, I am not assuming.

Before I had my current refrigerator that has an ice maker, I would often not have ice in the house. The only time I really use ice is when I want soda.

I also have no ice in the house. I keep a Britta in the fridge for cold water and a pitcher full of ice tea next to it.

@JLeslie It’s hard to generalize to that extend. When you say they, you are talking about 33 countries and 652 million people. In my experience, but again I have not traveled extensively through Latin America, ice is easily accessible in most places, and people usually have water filters to make sure water is O.K. to drink. I’ve never been to a place there where they didn’t have ice. It depends to what sort of places or areas you go to. However, it is not a luxury item at all. I am not in Latin America, I live in SC.

@JLeslie Oh sorry, you asked where I was from. I was born and raised in Venezuela.

No one has mentioned cocktails —which I love to mix in the summertime. I can’t imagine having a London mule, Tom Collins, or mojito without ice.

@Yeahright I didn’t say they don’t have water and ice, I said they don’t easily get it from the pipes in their house. My husband is Mexican, all the water they drank and ice in the house was from bottled water. Parts of Mexico, like Cancun, where the tourists are, have potable tap water.

Having an abundance of potable tap water is different than relying on bottled water. People are more likely to conserve the water If it’s bottled. In restaurants in Mexico and Colombia my experience is they give you ice in your drink, but not a lot.

I don’t know the water situation in Venezuela. Do they fill the ice to almost the top of the glass before putting in the drink? I think of that as very American (USA). I don’t even remember that being done in the parts of Europe that I’ve been in.

@JLeslie I really never pay attention to how much ice they give you anywhere. If I want more, I just ask for more. Again, in my experience I have never had an issue with ice anywhere. But, now that you mention it, maybe in Europe, back in the 80’s, they were not in the habit of filling up the glass with ice. I know that putting a lot of ice in your drink is something that is done in restaurants and bars, not to keep the drinks cold, but to water them down and have people drink faster and order more…who knows!

If I get Diet Coke out of a self serve thing (like at Panera or Costco), I usually won’t add ice because I want to maximize the amount of soda and I am happy with it cold but not freezing.

When I’m home, tap water out of the faucet is good enough and cold enough for me. In NY, the water from the tap is pretty cold. In winter, it’s basically ice water and in summer, it’s fairly cold.

I’m having company on Sunday for the 4th and I’ll use the ice from my ice maker to fill up my cooler, and to make pina coladas.

@product Nothing is more dear to me than ice cream. And I do prefer it soft, but not runny (though the runny bits receive NO reprieve). My first really good job was at a huge ice cream plant, and nothing was better than those huge metal measuring cups of soft ice cream straight from the churning freezers. I didn’t understand at the time, but I was convinced I’d gone to heaven. We were a union shop, and I was paid a ridiculous wage, and earning more money than my mother. And get this, everyone in the plant encouraged me (usually with a treacherous grin) to eat as much ice cream as I could stand—unbelievable!! For about 2 weeks, and then—I remember the night the rest of the crew and I were sitting in the swing room eating lunch and the our foreman noticed I didn’t have my big cup of ice cream in front of me. His name was Keith, and he asked with a sly grin, “where’s your ice cream?” And the whole table stopped to look and grin at me waiting for my reply. And you know what? I didn’t eat ice for a full 2 years after leaving that plant.

I do prefer soda with ice in it when I am in a restaurant I will say. It’s not that I object to ice in drinks, just don’t find it necessary when at home ad drinking from the fridge. I also keep a water bottle in my car with no ice in it for sips along the road. I’m not someone who is constanlty hydrating in any case.

Just turned on my ice maker because of Elsa out in the Atlantic. I actually do have a bags worth sitting in my ice maker to get me started. I try to keep some ice in there during hurricane season just in case a thunderstorm knocks the power out. It’s rare the power goes out, but just in case.

@product I haven’t “chugged” water since I was a kid and came inside all hot and sweaty. We also drank it out of the hose.

Beer must be ice cold for me. Even icy.
Not a fan of runny or soft ice cream.
To chug ice water use a go mug with a drinking lid.

Even when I brush my teeth I use cold water, and I love cold showers in summer, too.

Maybe because of our humidity from all the water here makes it feel hotter?

“For me, nothing meant to be chilled can be too cold with the exception of wine or champagne”

Yes! @stanleybmanly

@Dutchess I would kill for a hose from a sweet, ice-cold well. That’s what I grew up on too.

That water quenched a burning in our soul!

I don’t believe I’ve ever questioned a host about their ice supply. I could have visited scores of people who had no ice and I wouldn’t have known it.

The “hostess” in this case is in a hospital in Jacksonville. I’ve been here for 3 weeks, housesitting and helping to care for her.
Jumping to the assumption that I would ever do anything so low class as to question my hostess about anything was just wrong @kneesox.

@Dutchess_III If it’s important to you, why not go to Target or Home Depot and buy a few ice trays to put in her freezer for your ice?

Anyway, it was an interesting discussion.

I’ve been without ice for quite a while, when the ice maker got blocked during the winter and I didn’t know how to clear it, and didn’t try very hard to figure it out. And I’ve often just not had ice when I only had ice trays and hadn’t used them.

I’ve only been to Florida twice, and often don’t have habits that include ice.

Oh we bought bagged ice. Yeah it was interesting. You just never know where a question is going to go!

Yes, yes I have

Looks like I may have accidentally fixed her ice maker! The bucket that catches the ice was all locked up with ice that had melted then refroze.
I put it in the sink and ran water in it and waited.
First thing I noticed was the screw thingy that rotates to push the ice out was suddenly rotating freely. So I got all that ice out, dried it out, and it suddenly wants to make ice.
Can someone explain this?

It’s a miracle! Enjoy the ice. Good timing too, with that storm moving in. Kudos!

I tried a whole day without ice since ya’ll made me feel like a weirdo. Not quite as refreshing in my opinion, but to each their own.