Neat Ice Kit (Single Mold) - Clear Ice Cube Mold

Great packaging and was excited to start using the ice molds. Everything came as advertised. Ice takes overnight to freeze sufficiently and like they advertise, the cloudy part of the ice does stay in the bottom half and the top half is beautiful and clear! Problem with this though starts when you try to unmold the ice. Unless I'm doing something wrong, it is a royal pain to push the orange silicon sleeve out of the molds once the ice is frozen. I'm a big guy and my thumbs are not small but with all my might I can only push the sleeves out from the bottom maybe an inch and it's not enough to easily pull the sleeve out from the top. After light usage I have already torn the corner on one of the molds in wrestling with the sleeve to get it out.Once the orange sleeve is out, everything works beautifully: the ice releases from the sleeve, the chisel cuts are perfect and makes sharp cuts the way you want. Tempted to return the product though, just because it is too difficult to get the frozen sleeve out of the mold. If anyone else has encountered this and has a solution please let me know.Update: went back and watched the video again to see if I was doing something wrong and they don't even show that part of the process. So maybe intentionally they leave that out, not sure.

I bought this product and ended up liking it very much, but makes things a bit over simplified if you don't know a bit about how to cut the ice properly and can make quite a few mistakes like i did when i started making ice with this.+Pro: The clear ice you get out of these is pretty big, and with the glasses i have at home i either use them as a large cube for an old fashioned or cut them smaller for other drinks. The cloudy part of the ice is useful for shaking and mixing if you tend to use different sized ice for different drinks.+Pro: The ice you get is big, nice, and square. I ended up using a 9 quart cooler filled with water and shoved into my freezer to get clear ice in a variety of sizes, but having the neat ice kit is still useful if i want to have a nice large perfect cube to carve into balls or different shapes.Middle: From reviews i saw of this and the "instructions" that come with it, they make it seem too easy and can lead to people complaining that the ice doesn't cut properly. It would be nice if the chisel came with a "saw" like side to score the ice and make it easier to cut as tempering to make sure its a perfect cube takes a while and not everyone is that patient when you're trying to prepare a drink.-Con: The chisel chipped on first use. This wasn't a huge problem as it worked fine, but I don't but products and expect them to get damaged when using it. It seemed to me they made the chisel too sharp and the edge of the chisel just couldn't handle being hammered against ice.-Con: The wooden muddle you get looks terrible after regular use as the chisel leaves dents on the wood. This isn't a problem for some, but mine looks pretty bad so I just use it as a muddler and use a rubber mallet to chip the ice as I don't have to hit down as hard and let gravity do the work for me.

If you're a cocktail purest and you're willing to go to great lengths to get clear ice cubes, this is probably going to be your easiest solution. There's no boiling water and there's no 10 step process. I've had this product for about a year and the mold has held up pretty well. The mallet has worn from use and you can just throw away the chisel as soon as you get it. It takes close to a day to freeze. As I said the chisel can be throw out, just use a meat cleaver to separate the clear part of the cube from the cloudy part. It may take some practice and a steady hand. Definitely chop the ice before you start enjoying cocktails. In hind sight I would have purchased 2 molds

honestly, I haven't gotten clear ice out of this yet, the tops are 'clearer' than the bottoms but they're not really clear, no one who i've served the top half to in a cocktail glass has been like 'wow nice clear ice' they just think 'wow big regular ice cube. I have tried a million different things to get clear ice ouit of this kit but can't. The ice bag and mallet and chisel are nice to have around so this gets my 3 star rating

I just bought this recently and made my first batch of ice, so I can't comment on longevity, but the ice came out pretty good. It's not entirely clear, there are a couple of streaks, but it's much clearer than regular ice, and the best clear ice solution I've tried so far. If you're like me and researched the kickstarter before making a decision on the kit you'll be happy to know that the "rubber band" people were referring to breaking is no longer part of the kit - the mallet used to have a black rubber band wrapped around the end used for tapping the chisel, but now the wood itself is knurled instead. I do think this kit is a bit overpriced, especially since the main components are some kind of molded foam and 20c of silicone rubber, but it certainly does the job, and would make a fine gift for someone who likes cocktails

I've tried 7 different experiments in attempts to getting perfectly clear ice. I have gotten close but not perfect. I will always get an errant stray air streak or bubble in the upper clearer section.If you are expecting perfect clear ice, expect to time quite a bit of time to figure out a perfect combination . I have yet to find the correct temperature, placement, and water type to be able to result in perfectly clear ice.

I got this as a gift for my boyfriend. The ice comes out exactly as described, one half of the block is clear, the other cloudy. It is easy to use, and the boyfriend loves it.

It works - makes large, crystal clear ice cubes...