Lies, all lies

[cactuswren.livejournal.com]

I can state unequivocally from experience that there is not a single word of truth in this advertisement.

Anyone who ever used the advertised product knows exactly what I mean.



(Good Housekeeping, July 1949)

Comments

[misstia]

do we need a 'bullshit' tag? or a 'BS' tag?? or 'false advertising'???

i hated these ice cube trays....my fingers would always freeze to them!!!

[glass-houses.livejournal.com]

I think we need a "floating heads" tag, tbh.

[manraysky.livejournal.com]

oh wow. My grandmother had these. Not exactly use friendly.

[moonjaguar.livejournal.com]

So did mine! I cut myself on on one of these dang things and bled on the ice cubes. My grandpa said maybe we should make Bloody Marys for a family of vampires.

[effika.livejournal.com]

I was too young to have these around, and none of my relatives had them anymore-- all they had left regarding these contraptions were complaints.

I am really glad for plastic.

[creative-excess.livejournal.com]

I haven't the faintest idea how this is supposed to work.

[cactuswren.livejournal.com]

The lever is attached to a sliding arrangement, so that when you pull up on it, the crosspieces go from tilted to upright, thus loosening the ice-cubes.

In theory: fill the aluminum tray with water, place the gridlike arrangement in it, freeze. When you want ice-cubes, pull up "gently" on the lever: the aluminum crosspieces move and the ice-cubes easily pop free.

In practice: When you want ice-cubes, run warm water over the bottom of the aluminum tray, grab the lever and pull up with all your strength. Swear and swear and swear. Wrench violently at the lever and the grid. You will end up with some vaguely ice-cube-shaped pieces of ice and a great many shards, most in the sink or on the floor.

[kimerastorm.livejournal.com]

Then trick was to run them under cool or barely warm water before trying to open them. They were a bit of a pain, but not too terrible. (I had lots of practice opening the damn things lmgdaro.)

[ticktockman.livejournal.com]

On the plus side, the aluminum conducted heat away from the unfrozen water quite quickly, so the cubes would freeze quickly.

If you were really careful about only filling the trays halfway up, the levers would work reasonably well.

Except ... at some point there will be too much ice in the tray, and your superhuman strength will bend the lever instead of freeing the ice cubes. Once that's happened you might as well through out the tray. The lever will always be bendy from then on.

Twist-and-pop plastic trays work ever so much better.

*daha*

[meezergal.livejournal.com]

But a refrigerator with an icemaker works best of all! BWAHAHA!!!

[jaxita.livejournal.com]

No prying, my arse! lol those things were awful!

[whoseline_wlsc]

I know someone whose Mom had this, and she had said many times how much a pain it was to use!

[holyoutlaw.livejournal.com]

I remember these. I got to like shards of ice cubes. But plastic twistable trays work better.

[19-crows.livejournal.com]

Oh GOD those things are useless! "Magic touch," my ass! My husband is younger than me and never had them around as a kid, and we have one of these because he thinks it's "cool". Needless to say I always use the nice twistable plastic ones instead of this piece of retro crap.

[write-light.livejournal.com]

I got one because I thought it was "cool" too. I froze it once, gave up, and stored it for a few years and THEN TOSSED IT.

[thejackaolf.livejournal.com]

I got I remember these, my mom was a body builder back in the day(I remember her folding a frying pan once.) and even she had problems with this damn thing, it finely ended when she snapped the lever off of the tray all together.

[thejackaolf.livejournal.com]

my gods* even.

[kshandra]

Yep. My great-grandmother had a pair of them. They sucked.

I was prone to using the lever assembly as a fake saxophone.

[zorinlynx.livejournal.com]

Rad icon, by the way. ;)

[zorinlynx.livejournal.com]

Wow, we had one of these when I was a kid, and it was completely useless.

I love how we all stand united here on the suckiness of this product! I don't think I've ever seen a product be 100% fail, but apparently this one managed it!

[misstia]

oh i like the word 'fail'....i think i'll add a 'total fail' tag! :)

[rhonan.livejournal.com]

We had those when I was a kid. My parents never understood why they didn't work like the pictures showed they did. My parents replaced them as soon as they first saw plastic trays in a store, and had the old aluminium ones out again once the plastic ones broke. Now I've got plastic trays that make long, skinny ice for my water bottle and shaking up cocktails, and a new silicon tray that makes these big, almost perfect cubes for my whiskey.

[write-light.livejournal.com]

I hate hate these. They NEVER worked, and either you broke the handle or you popped out the entire block of ice.

"I KNOW, let's freeze a piece of metal inside a block of ice and then tell people to move it back and forth!"

[realpestilence.livejournal.com]

Everyone needs a hobby.

[greatbearmd.livejournal.com]

They worked great for making crushed ice.

[crabofdoom.livejournal.com]

I just bought one of these from a Goodwill, as I watch too damn many pre-50s cartoons. It'll probably end up being a horizontal spice rack or something.

I've sat in the Inland plant's parking lot with my mom and brother many a time, waiting to pick up a former relative who worked there. It was still going strong into the early 90s, but after that, there was no longer a reason to pay attention. I've never seen the plant mentioned as a brand name before.

It would be wild if my tray came from Inland. I bought it in North Carolina, from the same Goodwill where I'd bought an aircraft aluminum muffin pan that was also made in Dayton- as was I.

[hannahsarah.livejournal.com]

*shudders*

I feel traumatized just looking at it. Bad, bad memories.

*shudders*

[mary-shelley77.livejournal.com]

That thing makes my teeth hurt by just looking at it.

[suzycat.livejournal.com]

Well mine were NEVER that bad. They did work but you also DID have to pry. They are not that practical.

But there is the exciting crackling of the ice that always happens. I swear every time I use one, and hear and see that ice crack, I am transported back to when I was five.

[singeaddams.livejournal.com]

I gotta admit, I've always wanted one. The sheer power of RETRO compels me.

[six-dollar-baby.livejournal.com]

Oh man, the vitriol!
i have one of these and i love it.

[ejia-arath03.livejournal.com]

There is so much unequivocal hate about this thing, I'm tempted to try and track one down just to see how terrible it really is.

[meleth.livejournal.com]

It's the Star Wars Holiday Special of kitchen implements, apparenlyt.

[chicklet-girl.livejournal.com]

SUCH a pain in the ass, especially if you're a kid trying to get ice cubes. It would have been easier to chip ice off a block, like in the olden olden days.

[amelia-eve.livejournal.com]

Nobody has mentioned the part where you think you will cleverly protect yourself by holding it with a washcloth, but then the cloth freezes to the proto-cubes and you have to pick off the threads before you can serve the drinks.

[write-light.livejournal.com]

::collapses in a heap of laughter and tears::