Ice has always been a useful commodity in our lives. Consequently, we had to find a way to obtain it for our daily use. It’s no surprise our ancestors cut it from lakes and rivers a century ago. These days with the use of refrigeration, getting ice has become much easier but there are still people in remote hot climates who still pay large sums to import ice from an industrial plants. An ice maker has become an important machine for various reasons.
In 1850 John Gorrie, made public his invention – an ice maker. The design was patented the next year but he never brought it to commercial production. This invention made getting ice so much easier. By the 1920’s many homes, especially in the West, started to acquire fridges. Freezers along with trays for ice cubes were made as part of the normal fridges used in households. Inevitably the convenience offered by this facility was something that was considered wonderful by many at that time. However, prices were obviously a bit high at first.
In the year 1953 the Servel company put on the market the first refrigerator with an ice maker feature built in it. The technology started to evolve. At first people had to fill the water themselves. But then the system evolved so that the ice maker was connected to the tap line of the building.
Ice makers are often found inside modern freezers and produce ice. There are also the Portable ice makers which are considered to be very convenient. The first batch of ice can be made within ten minutes of turning it on and adding some water.
Built in icemakers improve the quality of ice by using moving water. The water runs down a surface that’s constantly at zero degrees because only purified water will freeze at this temperature on a surface. If the water was not purified it would need to be at a lower temperature for it to freeze.
When the sheet of ice on the cold surface reaches the right thickness, the sheet slides down onto a grid of wires where the weight causes it to be cut into the desired shape. Cube ice machines are classified as small ice machines. Usually the capacity ranges from sixty five pounds to thirty nine hundred pounds.
Cube ice machines are mostly seen as vertical devices. The upper part is the evaporator and the lower part is the ice bin. The refrigerant circulates inside the pipes where it conducts the heat exchange with water, and freezes the water into ice cubes. When the water is completely frozen it will be released automatically and fall into the bin underneath.
In 1965, Frigidaire introduced on the market the very first refrigerator which included an ice maker. This was placed on the door of the fridge, along with a water dispenser, so that ice and water could come out without having to open the appliance. By the year 1985, ice cube maker storage had improved to greater capacities. It is amazing how this all evolved to make getting ice so much easier for us.
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