Under $20 scores: This hassle-free ice box replaces your old, inconvenient ice trays

If you don’t have an ice maker built into your freezer, or lucky enough to have the coveted GE Profile Opal Countertop Nugget Ice Maker, then you’re probably familiar with the headache-inducing process of making ice. Hard plastic trays are unmalleable and often fail to easily dispense cubes when needed. Rubber ones are more expensive and you still have to freeze them batch by batch. No matter which route you choose, there’s never an unlimited supply of ice ready at your disposal.

The Ice Cube Tray may just be the antidote that resolves our ice-making dilemmas. The set contains two ice trays, one pillar plate, a lid, a storage bin and an ice scoop. With no more than a simple push of the lid, the ice trays release 32 perfectly square cubes into the bin. And with the bin’s capacity to hold more than 100 cubes, you’ll never be iceless again.

How I found the Phinox Ice Cube Tray

As a college student, wanting a freezer with an automatic ice dispenser is asking a lot. My dorm did not have one and now neither does my tiny New York apartment, so I’ve been banished to hard plastic ice trays for the past few years. Before finding ice-making set, I was using a cheap plastic tray set from Target. One particularly hot day, I grew so impatient with its inability to dispense ice into my lukewarm drink that I snapped the whole thing in half. The funniest part: The ice still did not budge from its mold, even as the tray lay broken on the floor. It was time for a change.

I also was tired of forgetting to refill the trays and having to wait about an hour for the cubes to freeze, so a bin of some sort to store ice as I made it was also a must. I was over the moon when I stumbled across this ice maker while searching through Amazon. It checked off all my requirements: a storage bin, two silicone trays and an easy-to-use design that allows for a seamless flow of ice. Curious to see if the rave reviews and enticing descriptions were too good to be true, I clicked order and purchased the ice maker.

Why it’s a score

This ice maker ended up being a breeze to use. After freezing some ice in the trays overnight in preparation for the cold brew I’d chug the next day, I woke up and followed the box’s instructions: flip the ice tray upside down on top of the box, press the pillar-plated lid down onto the silicone molds and watch as 32 ice cubes get expelled into the bin below.

The ice box also fits like a glove in my freezer. The trays stack on top of the bin and then the lid just gets placed on top of that. When you’re waiting for the ice to freeze, however, make sure the lid gets stacked below the box or with the pillar side up, as you don’t want your cubes to freeze with pillar-shaped holes in them. Nevertheless, this stackability makes for a compact design that saves tons of space and reduces the amount of loose objects in your freezer.

The only thing I’d recommend keeping in mind while using the ice maker is to flip the tray upside down over the bin as best as you can. I’m not sure if I let the ice maker sit too long that the cubes began to melt or I just hadn’t developed the sleight of hand required for a seamless ice-making experience yet, but a few cubes fell out onto my table when I flipped the tray around. It wasn’t necessarily an issue, and I guess that’s what the bin is there for anyways. I haven’t experienced this again since that first time, so I’m chalking it up to just a rookie mistake.

Overall, I’m stoked that I’ve finally found not just the perfect ice trays but also an entire ice-making set. Gone are the days of waiting for ice to freeze and manically banging plastic trays against kitchen countertops only to snap them clean in half. This six-piece set for just $14 is a steal that all traditional ice tray users should not miss out on.