There are a variety of factors that affect how fast water will freeze. Both the amount, the surface area and the temperature are vey important factors. Obviously the starting temperature of the water is the most important.
Usually people are interested in the amount of time it takes to make ice cubes or freeze a water bottle. This means using a freezer, which usually has a temperature of around 0° F (or at least should be according to the FDA). This means it should take around 2-3 hours to make small ice cubes in your freezer.
Below we go through some common questions regarding freezing water.
How Long Does It Take For Water To Freeze at 32 degrees
As we all know 32° F is the freezing point for water. However, most of the times we are not dealing with completely pure water, as there minerals, chemicals etc. In tap water. All of this affect the time (and temperature) it takes to freeze water. You might not even be able to freeze it at 32 degrees, but most likely it will be solid after around 10 hours for water equivalent to a normal bottle.
How Long Does It Take For Water To Freeze In a Freezer
As the temperature in a freezer is around 0° F you should be able to smaller amounts (like ice cubes) in around 2-3 hours, whereas a water bottle will take 4-5 hours to be completely solid. Flavored water, soup and other things might take a little longer (or shorter) to freeze, as they don’t have the same freezing point as just water.
How Long Does It Take For Water To Freeze In an Ice Tray
Since ice trays are specifically designed to optimize freezing of smaller sizes, as they have a large surface area, and air between the ice cubes. This means freezing an entire tray takes the same amount of time as just freezing one ice cube. This is around 3 hours.
How Long Does It Take For Water To Freeze a Water Bottle
A water bottle will take 4-5 hours to be completely solid if put in a freezer. Sodas and other flavoring can affect this quite a bit (in both directions), so you might add or subtract and hour depending on what exactly you are freezing. You will have to try the first time to figure it out.
How Long Does It Take For Water To Freeze In a Ziploc Bag
A normal sandwich ziploc bag has a capacity of around 12 ounces, meaning it has slightly less than a water bottle. This combined with its large surface area, means you can freeze a ziploc bag with water in around 3 hours, depending on the temperature of your freezer. If you have larger bag, then you will obviously need more time.
Use As a Reference Point
Hopefully you can use this article as a reference point if you need to know how long it takes to freeze something not already mentioned here. Overall, the closer it is to water (i.e. the less things it has in it other than water), the closer you can count on the estimates in this article.