True Cubes review

We have not run a True Cubes tray through a season of cycles. What follows is drawn from the published specification, from the mechanism the product uses, and from what owners consistently report over months of use. Where a judgment rests on one of those rather than on our own hands, the page says so.

That distinction matters more in this category than in most, because a mold's real character shows up over dozens of cycles in one particular freezer - and freezers vary enough that even a single hands-on test would not generalize cleanly. How we pick sets out the full method.

The tray is an insulated shell with silicone cube molds in the top. The insulation blocks heat loss from every face except the top, so the water freezes downward in a single front. Air and dissolved minerals get pushed ahead of that front and end up in a sacrificial block underneath the cubes.

You get four clear cubes of roughly 2 inches and one cloudy base block per cycle, and the whole thing takes 18 to 24 hours in a domestic freezer. That is not a slow product; it is the necessary consequence of deliberately freezing from one face instead of six.

The mechanism is worth understanding before you buy anything in this category, because it also tells you why a cheap silicone tray with a lid does not work. How to make clear ice has the full explanation, including the free version with a cooler.

• Anyone who has not tried clear ice yet. It is the lowest-risk way to find out whether this actually changes your drinks. For a lot of people the answer is a decisive yes, and for some it is a shrug - both are worth knowing cheaply.
• Anyone with 9oz rocks glasses. A 2-inch cube fits more glasses than a 60mm sphere does, and it does not roll off a counter.
• One- or two-drink households. Four cubes a day is comfortably enough and the ceiling never appears.
• Anyone who wants a press later. Cubes are the ideal feedstock for an ice ball press, so this tray plus a press covers both shapes.

One cycle a day is a hard ceiling. Domestic freezers need time to bring an insulated mold back to temperature, and a rushed second cycle comes out hazy. If you regularly need more than four pieces, buy a second tray rather than hurrying the first.

The sacrificial base has to be dealt with every cycle. It is perfectly good ice for shaking or for a highball, but it is a chore rather than a feature, and new owners tend to throw it away for the first month before working out what it is for.

And it takes real freezer space. Not as much as a four-sphere mold, but more than a tray - it is a box, it has to sit level, and it has to sit undisturbed for the better part of a day. Measure before ordering. Space is the reason this category gets returned.

If spheres are what you want, the Wintersmiths molds are the direct equivalent and equally good. If you want to understand why someone would spend ten times as much on a machine instead, True Cubes vs Wintersmiths Phantom is that argument in full.

And if your ice is coming out cloudy despite doing everything right, why is my ice cloudy works through the failure modes in the order they actually occur.