Answers · Ice that comes out wrong
Why Is My Ice Cloudy?
The short answer
Cloudy cubes are air and dissolved minerals trapped as the water freezes, which is normal for an ice maker that freezes still water, and not a fault on its own.
Check in this order
- Run a glass from the cold tap; Tacoma Water calls milky tap water harmless trapped air.
- Look for white flecks or a blue or green tint, which point at the water instead.
- Change the filter only if its indicator shows or the ice also tastes off.
- Have the last cleaning date ready for an undercounter ice machine.
Past this line it is a technician's job Sub-Zero Repair Tacoma, (206) 472-1140
Behind the answer
As water freezes, dissolved gases come out as tiny bubbles, and once ice skins over the top they are trapped. Sub-Zero adds that minerals in the water show as the ice dries out.
Clear-ice machines keep water flowing over the freezing surface so the bubbles wash away; a freezer ice maker fills a mold and leaves it still.
Related questions
Does cloudy ice mean the water filter has failed?
Not by itself. Sub-Zero's Classic guide lists the signs of a spent cartridge: the indicator, bad-tasting or discolored ice, small or hollow cubes, slow dispensing and a year's use. Cloudiness is not among them, so with no indicator showing, the cartridge can stay.
When is cloudy ice worth a call?
When it arrives with something else: cubes shrinking or turning hollow, an odd taste, flecks, a tint, or water where it should not be. Cloudiness alone can wait. With any of those beside it, Sub-Zero Repair Tacoma is on (206) 472-1140.
- Signed
- Marta Fennimore
- Role
- Refrigeration technician — ice systems and water supply
- In the trade
- 12 years
- Holds
- EPA 608 certified
- Checked
- Sep 18, 2026