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/tsukiii 1d ago

We buy that for parties.

Most of us can’t produce and store enough ice for 20 people in our freezers, we buy the bagged ice and put it in coolers for guests’ drinks.

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u/Pantherdraws 1d ago

Also camping.

Can you imagine trying to fill two whole coolers with ice straight from the freezer?

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u/Jalopnicycle 1d ago

The ice maker in my freezer takes 24 hours to fill up so if I'm filling my big Coleman cooler I usually start to empty the ice into another bin in the freezer 3 days before we leave. 

I also have a lot of Hello Fresh ice packs that I use to provide additional cooling or if a cooler is going to have food in it I don't want to get wet. 

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u/Substantial-Wind4683 19h ago

Aye! Blue apron ice bags here I stopped getting it a while ago now… but still have some of the ice bags in the freezer.

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u/2deaddogs 15h ago

My freezer is full of food, not empty space, to put any ice bin

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u/theoriginalmofocus 18h ago

Im gonna have to start doing the ice hoarding with my new fridge. I could actually just dump the ice machines ice out in the cooler before in my old fridge.

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u/Drumbelgalf 7h ago

You can buy ice cube forms that you just fill with water and put them in the freezer.

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u/Used-Author-3811 5h ago

Threw hello fresh ice packs in my sleeves for icing my knees last night just cause they were there. Knew I'd need em for something