The Right Way To Break A Bag Of Ice: 6 Tips That Actually Work

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In a perfect world, every portable cooler would come equipped with perfectly formed ice cubes that remain loose forever and stay perpetually frozen to eternally chill your chosen beverages. In real life, however, bagged ice cubes frequently become one big and dense chunk of ice. 

This is problematic for those who want to use the individual ice cubes, which is pretty much everyone who buys bagged ice. Whether you plan to impress friends at a barbecue party by showing off how to grill a better burger by putting an ice cube in your patty, or simply want to plop a few cubes into a plastic-cup cocktail, we often need to break up a store-bought bag of ice — but that's not easy when it seems solid enough to take down the Titanic. Luckily, there are a few ways to tackle a frozen-solid bag of ice.

It's pretty much impossible to guarantee that a bag of ice isn't going to clump together, thanks to the natural phenomenon called regelation. When blocks of ice are pressed together, the adjoining surfaces melt slightly under pressure, and then freeze together when that pressure is lessened. This means that in a bag where many cubes of ice are pressing against one another, those cubes are bound to melt and refreeze together. Thankfully, several solutions are always at hand. If you want to utilize all kinds of cool ice cube hacks, first check out these tips for breaking up a bag of ice. 

This may be the modern caveman method to break up a bag of clumped ice, but simply dropping it on the ground is also a low-impact hack to get the job done. Using gravity is a quick way to break up frozen-solid cubes without needing to do much work yourself. This is ideal for people who are unable or unwilling to exert much force in the process of breaking up ice cubes. Of course, the bag will need to be picked up from the floor, but this is usually easier than manually breaking the ice.

For those who are looking to make this job as undemanding as possible, while also reducing the possibility of the plastic bag breaking upon impact and sending precious cubes scattering across a dirty surface, place the bag of ice in an unused trash bag before dropping it. Grip the trash bag's drawstrings when dropping the bagged ice, and you can pick it back up without bending over or kneeling down. This is a smart way to break up ice while avoiding back or knee strain. 

Before that clumped bag of ice hits the floor, however, keep in mind that it's a dense and heavy object. Depending on the size of your bag of ice, it could be the equivalent of dropping the weight of a bowling ball onto the ground. Make sure your flooring is made from a material that can handle this without leaving permanent indentations. 

Breaking up a massive hunk of ice is something of a violent act no matter how you go about it, and one of the best ways to approach this task is seemingly the most savage. Smashing the bag repeatedly with a hammer or mallet is a great way to break up ice chunks quickly — all while letting off some steam. Don't get too carried away, though, or you could end up puncturing the plastic bag or crushing your ice a little too much, making a mess out of it either way.

You likely already have either a mallet or hammer in your home, but any solid object resembling these tools can be used. The material that your chosen tool is made of does make a difference, though. A rubber mallet will get the job done, but will take more force and effort. A metal hammer is thoroughly effective, but more likely to tear holes in your plastic bag or crush your ice into smaller pieces. Essentially, using a hammer takes some restraint.

There are a couple of considerations to keep in mind while whacking the heck out of your bagged ice. Make sure that the bag of ice is on a surface that won't be damaged by the brute force. Also, consider enveloping the packaged ice in a clean (but expendable) pillowcase to create a giant Lewis bag, making it easier to control your crushing. 

Whether you are breaking the ice with a mallet or the simple power of gravity, using a towel in the process offers distinct advantages. First, it can help prevent bag breakage. Think about how much force it takes to break apart a big block of ice. It only makes sense that this same force can rip open a thin plastic bag. This is especially true when you consider that once the ice is broken, you are left with jagged ice cubes that can easily tear open a bag when it's hit again. 

If you are dropping the bag of ice on the ground, first lay a towel flat across the impact zone to slightly soften the blow, and protect your cubes from floor filth. If opting to smash the bagged ice with a blunt object, wrap the entire package in a towel to act as a Lewis bag. A towel also helps muffle the sound of violence that will inevitably come with breaking up a bag of ice.

While these hacks could work with one of the best kitchen towels, you're better off designating an old bath or beach towel for this job. With a big enough towel, you can even wrap the entire bag of ice within it before utilizing the dropping method, which can prevent the cubes from shooting all over the floor if the plastic breaks. 

Past generations would utilize an ice pick to break off a chunk from a block of ice to cool their beverage of choice. This formidable tool has also served a dual purpose as a murder weapon, both in popular movies and real-life mafia hits. With the fear of ice pick murder in mind, it's no wonder that a safer version of the ice pick has emerged. The ice chipper is just as effective — if not more so — than an ice pick, as it has three or six short sharpened points instead of just one long spike. 

You won't want to use an ice chipper on a sealed bag of ice — this will immediately puncture the wrapping, and quite likely contaminate the broken ice with bits of plastic that might be ingested with beverages. However, if you first empty the entire frozen block into a cooler or another container, using an ice chipper to break it up is a sophisticated method that provides ample control over the size of your cubes. The six-pronged Winco ice chipper is available on Amazon, with a wooden handle that gives users effective leverage when picking ice apart, requiring less force in the process. Overall, the ice chipper is superior to an ice pick in seemingly every way ... besides committing murder. 

One of the main reasons why a bag of ice clumps together and needs to be broken apart is because of temperature shifts. As soon as you remove a bag of ice from a store's freezer, the individual ice cubes within begin to melt. This melted ice turns into water while you travel home, and then when you place the bag back into your freezer, it solidifies again. This refreezing creates bonds between the individual ice cubes to create big clumps, sometimes fusing the entire bag's contents into one giant block. There is a way to lessen the time-sensitive issue of melting ice, though.

When picking up ice, bring an insulated shopping bag with you to immediately place the bag of ice inside, even before heading to the checkout lane; you can briefly open up the insulated bag for the cashier to scan your frozen purchase. Once back at your car, quickly transfer the bag of ice into a cooler — and then after arriving home, immediately put the ice bag into the freezer. (This means that you should make room in the freezer for a big bag of ice before you head out to buy it.)

If taking this bag of ice to an outdoor event, put it directly from the freezer into your cooler. Using the ice to keep canned beverages cold? Before loading the ice, check out the hack that makes packing your cooler easier than ever. 

Despite your best efforts to keep a bag of ice from melting on the way home, unless you live above the Arctic Circle, melting is bound to happen. As soon as you buy the bag of ice from a grocery store, gas station, or as the secret fast food item you can order from Sonic, the melting process begins immediately. That's okay, because we have another tip on how to get rid of the water that will inevitably be pooled in the bag once you arrive at your destination. Cut a little corner out of the bottom of your ice bag, and that will allow a lot of that water to drain out. 

Obviously, make sure that you're draining the bag over a sink, outside, or over some plants that need watering. Move the ice around while you're draining the bag, as this will allow more water to escape and make its way out from the corner that you've cut. After as much water is removed from the bag as possible, stick the entire package back in the freezer, with the cut corner positioned to be pointing upward. While back in the freezer, your ice cubes will still clump together — but with less water to bind them, the new bonds will be fragile and more likely to break easily.