Ice Melting Times

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huve

Ice Melting Times

Post by huve »

Hi

Just a thought that occured to me, it would be useful to everyone if members could share their experience with ice melting i.e. how long it takes to melt. I've not used an ice release before (the clock usually suffices) however I'm getting interested. Could anyone with information please reply with:

Size of ice cube (either length, bredth & depth or volume)
Time in hrs & mins it takes to melt.

Cheers
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curious_sb
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Post by curious_sb »

I am presuming we are talking about ambient room temperatures here? I guess otherwise it would depend on several environmental factors.
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Post by neo »

Yipes...
Look you just have to trust me on this one... I've looked in to it a lot! It's very complicated!
It's all to do with heat transfer. First you need enough energy to change the ice to water (which requires a certain energy depending on how cold the ice is), and then there's the math to melt the mass of ice from zero deg C to water.
Take a simple ice cube at 16DegC... put it in a stocking and expect around 2 hours (ish)... but...
If the ring your stocking has to go through is metal, it will be quicker than if the ring is rubber or something. The metal provides a heat sink.
If it's breezy where the ice is it will melt faster. A very still atmosphere transfers less energy.
The ambient temperature isn't constant over two hours or so, so that also affects the melt time.
If you're using an ice in bottle method rather than ice in stocking, the melt water surrounding the ice affects the melt time.
Even just using a sock instead of a stocking changes the heat transfer.

It's still a very reliable method, but the only way to test it is to set it up without being tied up and timing how long it takes. If it's colder and less drafty the next time, it'll take "longer". This doesn't matter so much with single ice cubes, but if you start playing with larger blocks of ice it can make a difference. A half litre of ice can melt in 3 hours in the summer, more like 6 in the winter just because of the lower ambient temp!

I've developed a spreadsheet in the past to tell me what the ice "should" do. But it never does, so I gave up.

PS. The adventerous may want to play with icecrete... a mix of wood pulp and ice. It retains it's structure for longer, possibly adding 1/3rd to the melt time. But it's very unpredictable and gives you next to no clue as to when it's about to let the key free.

Errr... think I'm done!
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Post by billynomates »

I did a little experiment with ice melting times.

i took a small plastic box, internal diimensions were 78mm long x 48mm wide x 23mm deep

i filled it with approx 50ml of water

i then got some string and put a couple of loops into the water, leaving the end outside of the box, then i put it into the freezer.

once it was frozen (after about 3-4hours) i took it out of the freezer, and left the box on the worktop, it took about 2hours to thaw out enough for the string to be free of the ice, at a room temp of 19c
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Post by anna »

This is something Neo and I have discussed quite a lot before and the more we discussed the more complicated it became. There are simply far to many variables to reliably calculate the melting times for ice before your scenario. The best way is to find the amount of ice that does it for you by trial and error and remember that even very small variations in the variables can have big impact on the final result.
huve

Post by huve »

I see now that this is something that cannot be predicted and I will experiment to find out for myself what the melting times are like.

Thanks all!
loreetv

Post by loreetv »

SEE SCREEN NAME LOREE
Last edited by loreetv on 30 May 2006, 19:55, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by LoRee »

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PostPosted: Sun May 21, 2006 11:35 pm Post subject: Senerio spicific ice melt Reply with quote
In my latest story posted to BoundAnna I used the ice release method and made reference to the experiment I did prior to it's use. Here is a more detailed acount of that experiment. The sock was a standard 35 danier ankle high nylon stocking. I used 14 ice cubes equal to 42x30x27mm square. I used a "Master" luggage lock key, a 22mm diameter (All such measurements I refer to are outside diameters) standard metal key ring coupled to a 50mm diameter brass ring. The room tempeture was between 70 and 75 degrees Fahrenheit. (you will have to do the conversion yourselves). This set up took four hours and fourty some odd minutes for the key to drop. It is not difficult to guess-timate the variables, but I find it far more preferable to know approxamately when, as opposed exactly when I am released.
"I find it far more annoying when the universe makes me work for damnation. I prefer it just gave it to me and save me the effort"
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Post by neo »

Heh...
Now try it with a rubber O-Seal or one of those foamy washers you get from the top of a CD stack as the ring in contact with the stocking / ice. I think you'll notice rather a difference in the melt time!

Basically I agree with you on the knowing roughly when it lets go, not exactly when. But when you use a lot of ice, you can be looking at a large difference in time. I was in a "free to move" seld bondage type of thing and locked what I thought was a 3-4 hour lump of ice away with the key on it. That was in the summer though. In the winter after 6 hours of torment, I managed to break the wire holding the ice release and melt the rest of the ice under hot water. I've still no idea how long it would have taken, but I guess 8 to 10 hours!

And one last point. 14 ice cubes will melt much faster than a single lump of ice of the same mass.

(I know wahhhey to much about ice!)

Oh and btw. The wood pulp / water mix is Pycrete, not "Icecrete". Try http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pycrete for info...
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Post by Mason »

...
Last edited by Mason on 07 Mar 2020, 22:07, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by TieMeTighter »

I've never used sock or stocking with ice, visions of unpredictable behaviour of soggy stockings or string put me off so my "failsafe" experiments with ice have been limited to using the ice to join 2 pieces of string (under tension provided by a weighted keyring or something similar), with knots at the end to provide each with more grip in the ice. When the ice melts I know for certain the two pieces of string WILL separate will no chance of entanglement.

Typical room temp varied from 16 - 20 degrees.

Using a single ice cube time approx 45 mins, just not long enough as it has to be set before you begin tying yourself into your bondage scenario, which can take over half that time if elaborate.

Using a block of ice made in a "tupperware" drinks container time varied between 3 and 5 hours depending upon amount of water used and room temperature.

Too unpredictable for me (and messy, arranging bowls to catch the drips and keep the carpet dry and such) hence my extensive research into electronic timed release, which Anna will put on the site sometime soon when she updates.
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Post by LoRee »

I agree to a certain degree with TieMeTighter about most ice release methods. However I like the stocking method because the sheerness of the stocking maximizes the ices exposure and I own a five gallon bucket which controls the melted spillage nicely.
As for our resident chemist Mason, you would think so but have you ever noticed how loose cubes will melt into each other forming a larger solid piece as they continue to melt? Depending on how they fit together loose cubes of the same volume as a solid piece can actually take longer to drop a key from a stocking than the solid.
FYI humidity plays a bigger variable on how quickly ice melts than air temperature. Another reason I go with approximate time rather than trying to get it exactly on the money. This is only self bondage, not rocket science. You can get elaborate with it and still keep it simple.
"I find it far more annoying when the universe makes me work for damnation. I prefer it just gave it to me and save me the effort"
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Post by curious_sb »

Sorry guys I just got a big headache readin all this calculus, can we just go back to basics here and take a key in a block of ice, the calculation is as follows.

ICE (MELTS) = KEY (RELEASED)

hahahaha sorry im in one of them moods tonight.
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Post by LoRee »

GOD I hate it when you this right! :lol:
"I find it far more annoying when the universe makes me work for damnation. I prefer it just gave it to me and save me the effort"
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