Clear Ice Cube Maker, 2.5" Stainless Steel Ice Ball Maker Mold for Whiskey & Cocktails, Non-BPA Premium Silicone Ice Cube Molds, Easy-Release Sphere Ice Maker, Bourbon Gifts for Men (2 PACK)

It does work, and the mold doesn’t crack like others

These are fantastic. I've bought a pack of 8 of these, and they make perfect large spheres of clear ice each and every time. Compared to an expensive ice-making machine, these will produce *quality* spheres of ice. Ice machines can make ice spheres in less than an hour. However, ice machines do not make high-quality spheres... These things, on the other hand, make significantly high-quality spheres. The major advantages of these are: —The quality of these are just so good. —No water is wasted! You use significantly less water compared to other methods (hand-making large blocks of ice in a cooler, for example), so this is more eco-friendly for those who want to be water-conscious. —Very small in the freezer. They do not take up much space at all. I put my 8 sphere makers in the freezer daily. —There's no silicone smell or taste. —You don't need to use distilled water! In fact, tap water works best! Even then, distilled water or tap water doesn't really cause that many problems. You may have small bubbles in the sphere, but the bubbles can actually make for interesting visual effects if you care about purified or distilled water for your drinks. —The system is *extremely* simple. The disadvantages (compared to an expensive ice machine): —Compared to an expensive ice-making machine, the process takes significantly longer. It takes a full day with these inside a freezer. If you don't care about that, then this product is 100% worth it. If you care about producing large amounts of ice quickly and rapidly, an ice sphere machine would be better. —Removing the silicone molds from the cups does require a small amount of work (if the water at the bottom of the cup, not the sphere, gets frozen). A gentle twisting motion sometimes helps to remove the silicone mold with any ice attached. After removing the silicone mold, the next step is to remove the ice spheres from the mold. It's generally easy to remove the ice spheres from the molds. Sometimes, running the silicone molds under a gentle stream of water will help ease the process (and remove any frozen discs attached to the bottoms of the molds). —As a general remark, the bottom of the cups have these... seemingly little glued-on discs that have some reminders on them. They say things like, "do not put in the dishwasher," et cetera. These little... plastic or rubber or whatever disks come off of the bottom of the cups extremely easily. I've tested them after the fact, and the cups will still work, so there's no harm if those little things come off later. —EDIT: After having these for a few weeks, I will say that some degree of water quality matters if you want 100% clear ice. I've tried these in different locations. How clear the spheres end up depends on how many minerals / etc ... your tap water has. Sometimes the spheres have small impurities or cloudiness towards the bottom. The small impurities are easy to ignore, however, because these spheres end up large (2.5 inches). All in all, I strongly recommend these for ice sphere enthusiasts. They work extremely well, and compared to expensive ice machines, these produce *better* spheres of ice. If you want high quality and you don't mind taking the time to make and remove them, these are for you. If you would rather mass-produce ice spheres extremely rapidly and don't mind the spheres having holes in the bottom, an ice making machine would be better. All in all, even over a month after my purchase, I'm extremely satisfied with this product.

Absolutely useless purchase, it’s extremely difficult difficult to take ice out of the cup, myself and my husband really struggled every time when we had whiskey- I decided to throw it away, just pain in the as.

I have a 2" 2 ball maker that is a bit of a chore to use compared to these. These are bigger which is nice, really easy to remove, clear out the bottom ice and re-fill... quick and easy. Perfectly clear using RO water in freezer set at 0° in 36 hours. And they don't take up a great deal of space. Couldn't find anything better.

This is the best solution for DIY large clear balls of ice. There are a lot of products for 2" ice balls, but few for 2.5" - and the ones that are available aren't very space efficient, and tend to be more difficult to use. These are small, and dead simple to use. I use cold tap water. (If my tap water wasn't good, I'd probably use spring water, like Deer Park.) Fill the container to the fill line on the inside, marked MIN. Over the sink, slowly insert the silicone mold into the vessel allowing the water to flood the mold slowly. Once it's in, I like to place my finger over the top hole in the silicone, and push it down firmly - this will cause a little bit of water to spill over the side - just dry it off with a towel, and set this into your freezer. Freeze it for 20 hours. Take it out of the freezer. The silicone mold should have pushed itself up as the water froze. Grab the silicone firmly, and give it a little twist while twisting the metal container the opposite direction. Once it breaks free (and it doesn't require much force), you can pluck the silicone mold out, separate the two halves, and you'll have a perfectly clear ice ball. The surface may not look clear, but that's just frost. If you set it in a rocks glass, and give it a couple minutes to temper, you'll see just how clear it is when you pour your drink over it. (Important to let the ice ball sit for a couple minutes at room temperature - if you immediately pour over it, the ball will probably crack. It needs to acclimate to the room ambient temperature.) The first time I saw molds like these, they were almost $50 each. From this vendor, $15 a piece, or $12 a piece if you buy the 8 pack (October '25). These are a great value. I may buy another set for my own use, and I can definitely see giving them away as gifts. Each individual unit comes in a nicely printed box, and has a decent set of printed instructions.