Ice block have a crack line in the middle

[rtang21980]

Machine: Swan SI-100E

Each time I freeze water in a ice mold (ice bucket, there always seem to be a crack line in the center of the ice block. How can avoid this? It is dangerous because sometimes the round ice block will split when shaving the ice and could fly out from the shaver machine. My ice freezing process is below:

1. Fill ice mold with water (bottled) 3/4 of the way.
2. Place ice mold in freezer at 10 degrees for three days.

[lacey]

Were you able to figure out how to avoid this? My ice blocks do the same thing and I can't figure out why.

[retrosno]

All I’ve read indicates that is from using rigid buckets that don’t allow flexing

[mrjosco]

We make our own ice and don't have frequent cracking problems (although some still crack)

We freeze our ice over 48-72 hours (depending on the mold size. The ones we got from shaveicesupplies.com are smaller and we do 48 hours with them)

1. We use purified/bottled water
2. We only fill the container about 75% of the way
3. We freeze them in an ice freezer that runs at about 22 degrees

I think the higher temp and slower freezing helps, but I am just guessing.