The Case of the Funky Flakes

[CCoburn]

The Case of the Funky Flakes


I now consider this case closed, but it did remain a case of clueless concern off and on for a couple years anyway.

The first time I noticed it I was finishing a drink and saw something in the bottom of the glass. I held the glass up to the light so I could observe more clearly, and I could see what appeared to be these little white flaky things - it was disgusting.

What on Gods' green Earth are these little white flaky things, and what could be causing them? I believe my initial thought way back when was that someone drank milk from a glass and then that glass was not cleaned thoroughly, but that turned out not to be the "case".

My next conclusion was that it must have something to do with the water, but I'm using a Pur water filter, and the filter is still good. I did realize however that the common denominator here was the ice. This only occurred when I was using ice that I froze myself which again naturally points to a problem with the water.

So, to finally resolve this problem once and for all I just need to use store bought water? Not so fast. So, I did begin using the store-bought water but still checking for those pesky flakes just to be sure and then it happened, there they were, again!? WTF!?

Anyway, by process of elimination there was only one thing left, it must be the ice cube trays themselves. I don't know how old exactly those trays are, but they have to be at least a couple decades, and yes, they are also solid white.

I figure the trays must be breaking down in some way and the freezing/frozen ice is pulling up/off or attaching to minute but detectable amounts of the tray material.

I was also buying store bought ice for a while, but it can be a bit of a pain having to make a special trip back to the house just for the ice. I do still purchase the store bought water and the purified is my first choice, distilled second, and spring third, and for ice lately I just use a couple of freezer-safe cups and put a couple inches of water in them and freeze those; I call them ice cups and just pour my drink on top of the ice using them as is, and yes, those are also plastic but quite a bit newer.

THE END

[FlyingClayDisk]

Fairly straight forward explanation here.

When water freezes it will eventually 'freeze out' or extract the minerals from the water.  What you are seeing is just the minerals in solid form after they have come out of solution.  Because it is a lot more difficult for the minerals to dissolve back into solution they remain in a solid state, and this is what you are seeing.  As a general rule, the minerals are good for you, and your body needs them.

Sometimes water can be "too pure".

Edit -- What you are probably also seeing is a higher concentration of the minerals due to the minerals collecting on the ice trays over numerous freezing cycles.  Same principle, just a higher density.  It's highly unlikely that the particles you see are tiny pieces of the ice tray itself.

[CCoburn]

Fairly straight forward explanation here.

When water freezes it will eventually 'freeze out' or extract the minerals from the water.  What you are seeing is just the minerals in solid form after they have come out of solution.  Because it is a lot more difficult for the minerals to dissolve back into solution they remain in a solid state, and this is what you are seeing.  As a general rule, the minerals are good for you, and your body needs them.

Sometimes water can be "too pure".

Edit -- What you are probably also seeing is a higher concentration of the minerals due to the minerals collecting on the ice trays over numerous freezing cycles.  Same principle, just a higher density.  It's highly unlikely that the particles you see are tiny pieces of the ice tray itself.

The water is a bit on the 'hard' side here, but I also eliminated the water hardness factor by resorting to RO and distilled, so mineral accumulation and transference may have been a dynamic at one time, and I'm not sure exactly what that would look like, but this is pristine H2O we're talking about, so I don't think what I was seeing was any type of residual or composite mineral 'contamination' especially given the amount of time that had passed since using any type of water containing any minerals.

[Maxmars]

 

[CCoburn]

I actually think the answer is hidden somewhere deep inside that guys' hair.

[CCoburn]

Haven't noticed this problem recurring for at least several months now. I just stopped using those old ice cube trays and switched over to purified water, and if they're out of purified I get the distilled. Still doing the "ice cup" thing. Right now I'm reusing four small Talenti ice cream containers and a one red plastic cup.

I also noticed in the past with unfiltered and even filtered(Pur filtered) tap water that soda wouldn't taste very good once the ice melted, and I'm not noticing that anymore either.