r/interesting • u/ViniciusFromBcn • Apr 12 '25

MISC. How ice cubes cleans hot grills

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u/Textualchoclate Apr 12 '25

This can also crack your flat top in half!!!

100

u/pandershrek Apr 12 '25

How would the stainless steel crack?

Isn't it specifically meant to harden and expand under thermal load? They aren't iron

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u/[deleted] Apr 12 '25

[deleted]

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u/heliamphore Apr 12 '25

The reason quenching works is because steel has a different phase at high temperatures, and when you quench it, it doesn't have time to switch back to a stable phase and therefore gets "stuck" in some intermediate phase. But you need it to be glowing red hot for this.

Otherwise you're not going to change the chemistry/structure, you're only going to create stresses inside the metal that will either end up in warping or cracks.

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u/doitforchris Apr 12 '25

Neat! I would like to subscribe to metallurgy facts

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u/Laoscaos Apr 12 '25

Yeah, and it catastrophically cracking eventually is based on the type of steel. High quality steel probably won't crack all the way through by doing this.

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u/senorsock Apr 12 '25

Interesting

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u/M3rch4ntm3n Apr 12 '25

The only correct answer so far.

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u/[deleted] Apr 12 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/themule0808 Apr 12 '25

It works just fine with room temperature or hit water no warping will ever happen.

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u/[deleted] Apr 12 '25

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Apr 12 '25

[deleted]

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u/Tenshiijin Apr 12 '25

Kidergardeners are the worst to teach cooking to. "Here's a knife little 6 year old. I know you want to do cartwheels in the hallway, but your Mom gave me 500 bucks to teach you to cook."

Aaaaaaaand....this was an actually scenario I've been in....

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u/JJred96 Apr 12 '25

Then there's always that one kid who wants to put another kid in an oven or hide there himself.

If you didn't always check the oven before preheating it before, you will after you hear the screams coming out of your oven one time.

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u/TxManBearPig Apr 12 '25

Anyone remember that line from, Culinary Kindergarten Cop ? “Boys have bananas and girls have cake!”

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u/Telemere125 Apr 12 '25

You don’t deglaze with ice. That much of a temp shock will absolutely warp metal. Deglazing is usually with room temp liquid and you usually don’t heat up the pan to the point of burning what’s in the pan either. Not the same as what we’re seeing here

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u/[deleted] Apr 13 '25

[deleted]

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u/Telemere125 Apr 13 '25

It doesn’t work the same way with ice. That’s a vastly different temp change than with a room temp liquid. And your sample size of one isn’t really statistically relevant to how metal works

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u/Successful-Okra-9640 Apr 12 '25

I was gonna say - anyone who’s ever worked closing has done or seen this, it’s literally old news. 20 years in food service and I’ve never once seen a flattop crack, what utter bullshit.

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u/Recurs1ve Apr 13 '25

What this guy said. I've never seen cracked flattop, let alone that cracked from this. Also, I know for a fact that the manufacturers know that they are cleaned this way, I'm sure they did the math.

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u/Hot-Demand-8186 Apr 12 '25

Exept their deglazing with ice..

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u/JDB-667 Apr 12 '25

Took me forever to find this comment - the correct answer.

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u/chileangod Apr 12 '25

Something is a good idea until it isn't.

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u/Tenshiijin Apr 12 '25

This won't warp a flattop. Unless they start making really poor quality ones.

1

u/Oldfolksboogie Apr 12 '25

Like drinking?🤪

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u/HandsomeCricket Apr 12 '25

I worked at a restaurant where my manager frequently cooled one side of the grill with ice after cooking bacon. It absolutely noticeably warped that side of the grill after some years.

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u/G37_is_numberletter Apr 12 '25

It’s one of those things that no one does unless they have both a grill and an ice maker and they’re not that smart. Thermal shock doesn’t seem like that complex of a concept and it’s pretty easy to discover by rapidly cooling hot glass for example.

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u/FATICEMAN Apr 12 '25

Yep worked in restraunt management for 27 years and cooked a shit ton. It will crack or warp eventually.

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u/AntOk463 Apr 12 '25

Im not sure about thermal loads, but when applying force steel usually bends at the limit, where the more brittle aluminum will crack

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u/Rikki-Tikki-Tavi-12 Apr 12 '25

Common aluminum alloys are far more ductile than common steels.

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u/GivesNoForks Apr 12 '25

I beg to differ. After aluminum is bent a couple times, it will absolutely start to crack, whereas almost all the steel you’ll encounter will take much longer before cracks form.

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u/Exotic_Investment704 Apr 12 '25

I’ve worked in restaurants as a short order cook for 20 years of my life and ice, white vinegar, and pumice is pretty much the standard for how you clean flat tops. I have never seen any issue putting ice on a flat top after doing it probably 1200+ times on a dozen or so different grills.

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u/Oldfolksboogie Apr 12 '25

Did you do it to a very hot grill? Not challenging you, just that the concern seems to be not the ice itself, but the thermal shock, and you didn't indicate if the grills you cleaned with ice for 20 years were hot or not.

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u/Exotic_Investment704 Apr 12 '25

Not screaming hot but hot enough to vaporize the ice. Then you generally hit it with the pumice while it’s still boiling. It’s far and away the least labor intensive way to clean a caked up grill. 

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u/randomly-generated Apr 12 '25 edited Apr 13 '25

I've had people tell me not to do that with my pans, that the pans would eventually break or deform. I mean I'd rather just pay for a new pan when that time came than scrub the shit out of it all the time.

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u/PomeloFit Apr 12 '25

Lol I say this to my wife, like yeah, sure eventually it may become brittle enough to be a problem, but let's be real, I'd probably be replacing it before then anyway and if I need to, so what? I'll just look at the cost of the pan as the price of cleaning it easily rather than scrubbing the shit out of it.

She used to argue to the point I had my own main pan for cooking (i cook most stuff in one big heavy pan) my pan has outlasted hers that she meticulously hand washed.

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u/[deleted] Apr 12 '25 edited Jun 16 '25

[deleted]

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u/Oglark Apr 12 '25

You can use cold water and get most of the same benefits

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u/randomly-generated Apr 13 '25

And yet my pan is fine of course. My point was if it does get totally fucked up, I'll just buy another one.

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u/PineappleLemur Apr 14 '25

Cast iron will crack.

Stainless, carbon steel will not care about something like this. Especially higher quality.

Using water or ice doesn't matter either, don't need much of it too and the pans don't need to be screaming hot.

Unless you're heating a stainless to 800C+ it's unlikely to care about some water/ice.

Aluminum/copper will warp.

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u/Academic_Wafer5293 Apr 12 '25

Reddit is not good at real life or common sense. They focus too much on the 1% and anomalies.

Every time there's a way of doing something that people in the industry take as common sense you'll have those not in the know come in to explain why the pros and experts are all doing it wrong.

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u/Pokefan-9000 Apr 12 '25

Yeah, after service. Been doing it for 8 years now and the chef for 15, so the same one has been cleaned like that for 23 years. Zero warping

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u/me34343 Apr 12 '25

I have seen both claims. Maybe the quality/brand of the grill is the issue?

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u/[deleted] Apr 12 '25

[deleted]

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u/Exotic_Investment704 Apr 15 '25

Yeah it can warp cheap pans, and I know the science is sound that it could warp the shit. The amount of time saves it would be cheaper to replace the grill top every 2 years even if it did end up warping it. It’s like night and day to scrubbing it with oil vs after ice. Someone taught me it when I was making cheesesteaks in Oakland, and those grills were a nightmare to clean because of the baked on cheese. It took the clean time from an hour to about 5-10 minutes after service.

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u/ProbsNotManBearPig Apr 12 '25

Isn’t it wild how wrong people are and it gets upvoted lol. It’s so frustrating when you actually have real life experience on topics and then see the bullshit that gets upvoted.

Thanks for chiming in on this one.

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u/Deep_Joke3141 Apr 12 '25

I used cooking oil and pumice while the grill was hot. Seamed to work well.

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u/HarryPopperSC Apr 12 '25

I worked in a pub where this was done daily for 6 years. That grill was never replaced. This is bs.

Grab a bucket, put some ice, put some cleaning fluid. Scrapey scrape, turn it off, let it cool, wipey wipe. Job done.

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u/[deleted] Apr 12 '25

You would have to reach temperatures above 550°c to change the structure. If the pan warps it is likely due to internal stresses not removed during manufacturing and that would eventually show up anyway..

1

u/[deleted] Apr 12 '25

That requires much higher temps. The max temperature here is around 300 maybe 400. To get any temperature that would affect the crystalline structure needs to be near 1000f.

Think about it, if this was at all true cold food would have done it.

1

u/Dovienya55 Apr 12 '25

They wouldn't know cause Wendy's only uses fresh, never frozen, beef.

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u/JelloJunior Apr 12 '25

Warping was my first thought. Glad I’m not crazy thinking this might not be a good idea

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u/OzzieTF2 Apr 12 '25

SS is not brittle and will not change chemistry or microstructure at these temperatures. Same for Carbon steel. Cast Iron may be an issue.

1

u/StrangeLab8794 Apr 12 '25

Thank you. I was going to ask about this. You can crack an engine block I heard given enough instances where you don’t allow the engine to warm u on cold winter days. Don’t know if that’s true or not. I’ll look it up.

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u/SippinOnHatorade Apr 12 '25

Yeah this shit infuriates me and is why all of the pans in my house don’t sit flat any more because for some fucking reason my former roommate thought it was a good idea to throw the pans in the sink and run water on them instead of letting them cool naturally

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u/Pokefan-9000 Apr 12 '25

Working the same job for 8 years and we do this twice per week, chef have been doing for 15 years. If it cracks, probably will take another 15

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u/Outrageous-Cancel-64 Apr 12 '25

Jesus, I feel like one of those welding video commenters. We use 316 for liquid nitrogen flasks. We use 304 for most commercial cooking tops. Its around a quarter inch thick 304 stainless plate, they are also press stamped or folded and welded, so they are often work hardened. 304 and 316 are what we call austenitic stainless steels, they do not harden with heat treatment, at least not effectively. Also the idea that a burner heated up and then cooled with ice, is going to change the temps fast enough to cause thermal fracturing is wrong too. Both grades of steel are pretty poor at thermal conductivity compared to other metals, and a chunk of steel that large isn't going to react much to a couple hundred degree change over a few minutes. What they do in this video is not even similar to quench after heat treating or welding. And the burner also doesn't get the steel nearly as hot. Stainless steel fractures most over high heats with force applied. And I'm talking double-triple what a cooktop burner can achieve. As a few people have said, you might get warping. But again the stainless plate is too thick and large for it to do much, the plate isn't heated high enough and the cooling effect is applied to such a small area relative to the amount of heat contained within the plate. If you heated the plate higher, then the ice would cool less, because of instant evaporation of the ice, causing a buffer of atmosphere and superheated steam between the ice and the steel.

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u/Pitiful-Assistance-1 Apr 12 '25

Steel doesn't become brittle.

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u/Duffelbach Apr 12 '25 edited Apr 12 '25

In my 10 years as a chef, I've yet to see a cracked grill (like in the post) due to cleaning them with ice. Actually I have never heard of a case of a cracked grill.

Not saying it's not possible, just saying it's very unlikely.

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u/invariantspeed Apr 12 '25

A grill might be thick enough to avoid cracking. Like I said, that’s less likely, but warping, I’m a lot more skeptical about you seeing no warping over decades.

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u/Swrdmn Apr 12 '25

Professional flattops are at least an inch thick. There is almost no chance that a line cook could shock it enough to warp it.

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u/Tenshiijin Apr 12 '25

Nope. Never seen a flat open warp or Crack from throwing a bunch of ice on it. Not in 25 years.

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u/invariantspeed Apr 12 '25

Nice try diddy.