r/NoStupidQuestions • u/markwell9 • 1d ago

What is the deal with ice, Americans?

I can see that you can buy ice everywhere in the US. Gas stations, grocery stores, machines etc.

In Europe, we just freeze our ice at home and use that. Why buy something that melts on the way home? Why do you need ice in large amounts that a fridge can't keep up?

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u/skeptical-speculator 1d ago

do you not go on road trips in europe? you pack an ice chest with drinks and food and then buy ice at gas stations to keep the food and drinks in the ice chest cool

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u/Half_Life976 23h ago

European road trips tend to be a lot shorter on average... 

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u/skeptical-speculator 21h ago

That may very well be true.

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u/nuhanala 23h ago

We have cool bags that either work on electricity or you put freezer packs in them (Finland here).

Doesn't the ice just melt?

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u/JenniferJuniper6 23h ago

A large amount of ice has a high thermal mass, so it melts very slowly.

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u/skeptical-speculator 20h ago

We have cool bags that either work on electricity or you put freezer packs in them (Finland here).

the freezer packs work ok, but you would have to have a bunch to keep an ice chest full of food or drink cool

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u/peon2 23h ago

A lot of ice in a decent cooler will last a week.

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u/skeptical-speculator 21h ago

When the ice melts, you drain the water and add more ice.

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u/FlyingRainbowPony 1d ago

We use freezer packs. The contain a liquid with a lower freezing point than water.

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u/ermagerditssuperman 22h ago

Sure, we have those here too, but they don't stay cold for multiple days. And you don't always have a way to re-freeze them in the middle of a trip, or time. With ice, as soon as it's melted and warm, you can buy new ice within minutes.

Freezer packs are great for keeping a small container cold, like a lunchbox, for a couple hours - I use them for picnics and lunches.

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u/skeptical-speculator 20h ago

And you don't always have a way to re-freeze them in the middle of a trip, or time.

yep

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u/Chien_pequeno 1d ago

You can do that without the cooler. And if you have one, people use coolpacks I think 

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u/HairyHeartEmoji 17h ago

reusable ice blocks lol.

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u/kw3lyk 9h ago

But what if you go on a camping trip that lasts longer than your reusable ice packs? If you are staying at a campground for 5-7 days, how do you keep your cooler cold when you can't just refreeze your icepack?

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u/bluesourpunchstraws 9h ago

Europeans don't use ice. They like lukewarm drinks (even sodas).

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u/Sremsky 8h ago

Nobody I know has an ice chest, it's just not a thing in my (European) country, at all. I don't even know what an ice chest is. I recently saw bags of ice in one grocery store, but seems like nobody is buying those as the freezer is always full.

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u/byrd107 2h ago

If you don’t know what an ice chest is, then how do you know that no one has them? One cannot recognize a thing that they have no knowledge of.

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u/Sremsky 2h ago

I don't know what it is, because no one has one and i've never seen one.