Customer Reviews

OXO Good Grips Ice Cube Tray

5 star:		(29)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(16)
1 star:		(15)

 

 

Every other Good Grips product I own was designed thoughtfully: they're high quality, attractive, and very easy to use. Unfortunately, this ice cube tray is an exception on every count.

The single biggest problem with this product is the tray cover. OXO started with a good idea: use a cover to keep the cubes fresh and to make it easy to remove just the cubes you want. Unfortunately, this tray's cover is so poorly designed that it's not nearly worth the trouble.

First, it's very difficult to remove the cover to get your ice cubes out. The cover supposed to slide off easily, but it usually gets stuck, because it doesn't fit properly and because little bits of ice easily obstruct the path.

Getting cubes out is bad enough, but the cover is even worse when you're filling the tray. Again, because it doesn't fit very well, it requires a lot of force to push the cover on. Inevitably, you'll have to force it into place and end up splashing a lot of the water out of the cube compartments. This makes your cubes smaller, and the splashed water freezes into little bits of ice that make the cover harder to get off later.

As for asthetics, the tray isn't as good as other OXO products either. It's missing their signature black-rubber grips and offers little else in return.

So, my recommendation is to wait for version 2 before you leap for this product. But, in the meantime, check out other Good Grips products. Fortunately, this product's poor design is an exception for OXO.

I know these got poor reviews, as ice cube trays. But I used them to freeze my baby's homemade fruits and veggies and they worked great. The lids were a little tricky at first, but as long as you don't overfill them, you'll have no problems removing the lids. A couple twists of the tray, and the food cubes slid right out! They were much cheaper than trays marketed specifically for freezing baby food.

From the illustration and description I'd hoped that the seal between the tray and its cover would be waterproof.

This isn't the case, but that doesn't detract from the overall quality of the product. I like the crescent shaped ice cubes, it's easy to fill and hold thanks to its shape, and I suspect that the relatively shallow cubes may even form more rapidly than those in other trays.

That said, I'd hoped this tray would solve the problem of water dripping all over the place when placing the tray in the freezer, it doesn't. Also, it's somewhat wide and doesn't fit in my freezer compartment's door trays - which is somewhat annoying.

Thus, 3 stars... good and bad, worth a consideration if you want to buy an ice cube tray.

I have four covered trays made by Tupperware, I was trying to save a buck, bought four of these because I have liked other Oxo products. It was a mistake. While these work, the cubes are small, the trays are difficult to fill and cap without spilling water, and they are clunky in the freezer compartment. All I did was compromise, buy and waste my money, and now I need to go pay the full price for the Tupperware trays that work and that I should have bought to start with.

I'm an owner of more than ten other OXO products, and I bought their ice cube tray expecting a five star experience. Unfortunately, this tray falls far short.

Bad:

- As other reviewers have mentioned, I have a very hard time with the covers. It's almost impossible to get them on without spilling water out the ends, and equally difficult to remove them after freezing. I don't overfill the cubes (about 3/4 water level seems right) nor am I impatient - it is a matter of poor fit.

- If you're not careful, the shape of the tray makes it easy to spill water off the ends. Other ice cube trays have a lip on both sides. If you overfill or wobble on the way to the freezer, you will spill water with the OXO tray.

Good:

- The tray material is flexible and durable. It is very easy to get cubes out.

Bottom Line:

- This is a usable ice cube tray that will probably last a long time. If OXO corrects the lid fit problem and tendency for the tray to spill out the ends, I'd give it at least 4 stars. As it stands now, 2 stars.

I have owned two of these trays for about a year and I'm about to buy two more--but why would I do that for a 3-star product? Simply put, they aren't perfect but they're the best of what's out there.

What sets these trays apart from others is the lid, which I've learned to both love and hate. I love the lid for one reason: in a frost-free freezer, it prevents ice cubes from evaporating over time. If you use your ice often, that isn't a problem, so I'd say the benefit of the lid to you is not worth the hassle. (More about that in a moment.) But if you're like me, and use ice infrequently, you'll no longer have the experience of reaching for a tray (usually when guests ask for ice) only to find that your cubes have mostly evaporated. Now I always have ice when I need it, even a couple of months after I've filled the tray. I'd say the lids also make for easier stacking.

And that, for me, makes it worth putting up with the negatives of this product mentioned in other reviews:

1) The lid is a pain to slide on and off--not a big deal after the cubes are frozen, but it can be a real mess-maker when you're filling trays. I now snap the lids on instead of sliding, but I still spill some water no matter how careful I am.

2) The cubes are on the smal/medium size, though some may find that to be a benefit.

Oxo has been taken to task for poor design on this tray, but I'm not sure that's the case. There just may not be a "better" way to put a lid on an ice tray that will protect again evaporation and freezer burn. If you don't see that protection as a benefit to you, then I'd strongly suggest buying a conventional tray. But if you do, then be prepared for the compromises that I and others have mentioned.

Thanks for reading my review--I hope it has given you information that will help in your purchase decision!

After buying several different types of trays to freeze my baby's food, these have been the best. I am amazed at how easily they allow the cubes to slide right out after one subtle twist. I love that they have lids. They stack great too. I toss them in the dishwasher and they clean up well. I am on baby #2 and they are holding strong.

These ice trays work wonderfully, but only when you know the 'tricks' to using them.

When filling, only fill 3/4 full, since water expands as it freezes into ice.

The hardest part is opening the cover, the first time can be a little tough. Sometimes a little flex will free up the ice that inevitably freezes to the cover. The ability to stack the trays in the freeze (with the water still unfrozen) far outweighs this minor problem, however.

When its time for ice, you don't need to flex the tray a lot (like on old-fashioned trays), if it all. Just a little push on one side of the semicircle-shaped 'cubes' will make the other side come up out of the tray, almost flipping the ice out.
Sometimes a little water will spill out of the wells and freeze, all you need to do then is give the tray a little flex to break the ice free. The plastic in the tray has a very smooth finish, so smooth it acts as a kind of non-stick surface for the ice.

The idea of covering ice cubes so that they don't evaporate (a problem in frostless refrigerator/freezers) and don't pick up strange odors is a good one. However, the cube trays in Oxo's design are too shallow and the lid is very rigid. The lid does not slide closed at the outset and once frozen it doesn't slide open. It's a struggle to try to slide or clamp the lid onto the tray a good bit of water spills. After one use in the freezer, the lid seems to have warped a bit so that I have to force it as flat as I can while lining up the lid with the tray.

If you plan on making your own baby food and freezing into cubes these are the best thing out there. It works great and the cover is not a problem when the food is a puree or chunkier. I just slip it on and I don't have to waste any foil. Let the food freeze and then slip the cover off and remove. The cubes come out with ease. Of course if I forget about it and leave them in there for a few days it develops some freezer burn but that is my fault. The cubes need to be transferred to a freezer bag or storage container within 12 hrs to prevent burn. These are so much more economical than cube freezer trays marketed for baby food making.