Ice machines work by circulating a compound (liquid or gas) which is good at drawing heat from other things/its surroundings and then venting that heat away from the focal point. So, in the ice machine, hollow metal rods filled with one of these effective heat transfer compounds are submerged in water, and when we switch the machine on, the compound is circulated. This “heat sink” in the pipes absorbs some of the heat energy of the water when it passes through the submerged section, goes through the system to the back of the machine, passes through some form of radiator which is cooled with a fan (which then expels the heat from the compound out of the system), and then gets pumped back to the water section. With each cycle, the water loses energy and heat until it reaches freezing, and the process continues until the ice reaches the desired size.
