To make ice last longer you can put salt in the water before freezing the ice.
The addition of salt to the water will help it last longer.
Using dry ice is also better than regular ice but you have to be careful to not get frostbites from it.
However if you put salt directly on ice it will cause it to melt faster but when added to the water it helps the ice last longer.
Also only open a cooler or icebox when needed and keep it out of sunlight when possible.
You should throw out ice as often as every few months or when the ice has become discolored, crystallized or has absorbed odors.
You should also throw out the first 2 to 3 batches of ice from an ice maker or refrigerator after cleaning it.
After cleaning an ice maker or ice maker in a refrigerator the first to 2 to 3 batches of ice should be thrown out to be sure it's free of any lingering odors or cleaning solutions.
The reason why ice cubes evaporate in the freezer is due to a process called sublimation.
Sublimation is where the water in the ice cubes or ice transitions directly from a solid which is ice to a gas which is water vapor and it does this without first melting into a liquid.
The sublimation and the ice cubes evaporating in the freezer happens as a result of the cold, dry air that is circulating within your freezer compartment.
Essentially your ice cubes molecules gain enough energy to be able to escape into the air as vapor.
It's normal for the ice cubes to shrink and evaporate in the freezer and the dryer the air in your freezer the faster the sublimation occurs.
The inside of a freezer is very dry and the refrigeration process also removes moisture from the air.
You can refreeze ice cubes and other ice as many times as you want to refreeze them.
Ice cubes are just water that has been frozen to create the ice cubes from water.
The ice cubes can be refrozen several times and will not affect the ice cubes at all.
When I take out some ice cubes from my ice cube tray I fill the ice cube tray back with water in place of the ice cubes and put it right back in the freezer so I always have ice cubes available.
The water turns into ice cubes through freezing where the liquid water cools down and the water molecules also slow down.
As the water molecules slow down due to freezing the water molecules arrange themselves into a rigid and crystalline structure and forms ice.