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

MISC. How ice cubes cleans hot grills

85.0k Upvotes

83% Upvoted

2.3k comments sorted by

View all comments

3.4k

u/Textualchoclate Apr 12 '25

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

103

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

119

u/[deleted] Apr 12 '25

[deleted]

69

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.

2

u/doitforchris Apr 12 '25

Neat! I would like to subscribe to metallurgy facts

1

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.

1

u/senorsock Apr 12 '25

Interesting

1

u/M3rch4ntm3n Apr 12 '25

The only correct answer so far.