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Our top pick is Tovolo's silicone Perfect Ice Cube Tray. Plastic Household Mould
On the surface, ice is pretty simple. It's just frozen water, right? Well, clocking in at 1.3 billion views, #IceTok is trending on TikTok, with entire channels devoted to ice drawer restocks that feature infused ice, iced coffee cubes, shaped cubes and more. While we aren't suggesting tossing out the contents of your freezer to dedicate the space to only ice (unless you want to), a tray or two of ice that's ready to go is always a good idea.
In the Good Housekeeping Institute Kitchen Appliances & Innovation Lab, we test hundreds of cooking products every year to find the best of the best, from drinking glasses to meal prep containers to cocktail shakers. Our picks for the best ice cube trays are based on testing as well as our kitchen experts' extensive product knowledge and research.
Keep reading to the end of this article to learn more about what to look for when shopping for ice cube trays. Looking for more ways to make ice? Check out our guide to best nugget ice makers.
For fancy ice with fruit, vegetables or anything else you want suspended in your ice, we recommend this silicone ice cube tray from Tovolo. The cubes are big enough to put in pieces of fruit so you can get that perfectly Instagram-worthy shot of your drink. We found the silicone to be sturdier and thicker than other silicone trays we've tested. Ice cubes slide out easily with a push.
While this option doesn't include a lid, the brand does sell the same Perfect Ice Cube Tray with a lid on its site. It comes in nine different colors, too, so you can buy a few and color code them, if you're looking to infuse your ice with multiple different ingredients.
If you're looking for just a quality ice cube tray at a good price, you're not going to do much better than this tray from OXO. The features it has are thoughtful, like the cover that clicks into place and channels between cubes to allow water to overflow into other spaces.
There are large handles on each side for easy carrying and if you get multiple, they're designed to stack in the freezer. We did find in testing that the cover sticks a little and you have to push to get it to click into place, though.
GH Institute Kitchen Appliances & Innovation Lab Director Nicole Papantoniou has been using this ice cube tray from Lekue for years, since she doesn't have an ice cube maker built into her freezer at home. She loves how easy it is to fill the tray. The fun shapes look good in drinks and the included storage bin fits up to three trays of ice.
The ice cube tray itself acts as the lid to the container, so note that you can't place anything on top of it. Papantoniou says the cubes are easy to pop out and after years of owning this tray, she hasn't noticed any odors.
We discovered this tray from Dexas while testing how to make clear ice, and we've loved it ever since. It's a more cumbersome process than just pouring water in a tray and putting it in the freezer, but we found that it produces clear cubes that are perfect for the aesthetic cocktail.
There aren't any handles but the tray is wide and thick so it's easy to grip and very sturdy. Inside of the plastic insert there are lines so you can judge how much the silicone molds will displace the water so you don't run into an overflow situation. When you want to clean the tray, the plastic insert pops out easily, and we haven't noticed any odors.
Papantoniou notes that even after years of use, the quality silicone on these Tovolo molds haven't worn down. The hole in the center allows you to fill it up to the perfect capacity, and then overflow in case you add too much water. Handles on the sides make them easier to carry and help pop the ice out of the mold too. These come in a bunch of other shapes like lime wedges and a faceted heart. If you get two in the same shape, they stack on top of each other.
To find the best ice cube trays, we started by researching and evaluating dozens of best-selling and highly rated trays. We then tested several of them in our Kitchen Appliances Lab in New York City. We also considered models that our staffers have personally tried and loved through the years. When then narrowed our list down to our best-of-the-best picks.
✔️ Size: If it can't fit in your freezer, it's not going to do you much good. It's a good idea to see how much extra space you have (or how much extra space you can make) to fit in an ice cube tray without cramming your freezer full and creating a Tetris situation every time you want to chill your drink.
✔️ Lid: Not only can a lid allow you to stack things on top of the ice cube trays, like other ice cube trays, but it also keeps other stuff out of your water while it's freezing.
✔️ Material: The most common materials for ice cube trays are silicone and plastic, but you can also find stainless steel ice cube trays. Plastic is more rigid and won't flop over the edge of a box, but it can be harder to get the ice out because it doesn't have the flex silicone does to push your fingers into. Silicone is great for uniquely shaped ice because you can more easily maneuver it around, but it doesn't stay flat when full and can become brittle over time.
During her time working at the Good Housekeeping Institute, Abigail Bailey has tested, researched and written about everything from Japanese knives to hammocks. She loves a perfectly chilled glass of iced tea or cold brew coffee any day of the year, and is known to enjoy iced drinks even in the dead of winter.
Abigail (she/her) covers everything from kitchen gear to mattresses and smart blinds for the Institute, as well as assisting the General Manager in any number of projects. She graduated from Louisiana State University with a B.A. in creative writing, as well as earning her M.S. in publishing digital and print media from New York University. Before GH, she worked at LSU Press and The Southern Review literary magazine. In her free time you can find her quilting, cross-stitching or trying to figure out how to squeeze one more bookshelf in her tiny apartment.
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