If the ice ball melts slower than an ice cube doesn\'t also cool the drink less? Isn\'t it the heat absorption from the drink that melts the ice?
I think it is and this makes the ice balls not very good drink coolers.
If you want something that cools your drink well but doesn\'t dilute it I would suggest pink plastic elephants filled with salt water.

An interesting fact was pointed out to me the other day. It is always better to put more rather than less ice in your drink. More ice cools you drink quicker, and therefore melts more slowly. Actually I just remembered, I say no ice when having a fizzy drink from a tap, otherwise I end up paying for a load of ice and not much drink.

\"Less diluted for longer\" I\'ll believe, but \"cooler for longer\" isn\'t so clear to me. If the ice ball absorbs heat from the surrounding liquid more slowly, the liquid won\'t ever get as cold as faster-melting ice would make it. The article could use a graph comparing the temperature and dilution of two drinks, one with ice cubes and one with these things instead. It\'d make a nice example for a thermodynamics college course :-)

Cool idea, but the claims of spherical ice balls being superior to cubes are extremely dubious, IMHO. That, and they seriously expect people to pay $184 for a small chunk of billet aluminum that\'s worth about 30 bux, even with the machining time and other parts installed (ie; the two dowels and the little mold release lever on the lower half). Looks easy enough to make, maybe I\'ll bash one out with some scraps at work to try it...

Haha, my 13 year old daughter just finished her science fair project comparing the rate of ice melt for constant volume shapes. Yes, the sphere does melt slower than a cube but does not result in a cooler drink... sorry.
Also, we made a 30mm sphere mold (plus the molds for a cube and rectangular prism) with ~$20 worth of urethane. Perhaps I should put this on Ebay, I could undercut the market.
Either way making 1 ice cube per freeze is a rather inefficient process...

seems pointless... totally pointless novelty. unless I\'m studying behavior of whater or maybe it\'s structure in the for of Ice, why would I spend anything to have sperical ice?

The freezer in my kitchen fridge does not pump out ice cubes big enough to be used in this device...and I suspect that most people\'s fridges don\'t either!

In Japan, they are meticulous about their cocktails, especially in the (many) high-end bars. They have a dedicated \'ice boy\', who (honestly!!) labourously carves ice-cubes from large blocks of ice. Ice cube trays or ice machines don\'t work. They use only the clearest ice, which must be frozen in large blocks in order to BE clear. In the end, although rather larger than \'standard\' ice cubes, they look nearly the same, but totally clear. They believe each element of the cocktail must be perfect, from the glass it\'s served in, to the ice to the booze and any mixers. Of course, they don\'t use tap water to prepare the ice. Sometimes it\'s brought in from mountain streams, other times it is at least filtered and purified. Yes, one pays \'through the nose\' for these drinks, but Japanese businessmen often bring their clients to these places, and insist the client have as many drinks as he wishes. (When I say \'expensive\', I mean the cheapest of these drinks would be about $30 American. And, one had BEST tip the barman appropriately.) Sadly, few of these clubs allow women, so I\'ve mainly had to go on descriptions by others. (Of course, quite a few of the clubs ALSO don\'t allow \'foreigners\' either. At least if they\'re not with a Japanese person.)

LoL silly you can make any size by rolling square ice cube in hands.

Clearly, most people here don\'t understand the point! It\'s not about being efficient or fast. When you drink $50 to $100 scotch, and take it seriously - you don\'t really care how long it takes to prepare one ball of clear ice from scratch. To get the best experience everything should be perfect. And if it takes $500 machine to prepare one ball of ice that will melt slower - so be it.
Some people prefer luxury cars, when geo metro can take you from point a to point b.
Although it should be quite simple to make this particular machine for cheaper. Even if custom made from scratch. It\'s suche a simple design.