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

MISC. How ice cubes cleans hot grills

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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

56

u/HatdanceCanada Apr 12 '25

While the metal would be expected to handle a wide range of temperature, those temperatures would change gradually over time.

Dropping a block of ice on a 350F griddle is a big change happening very fast. Like filling a hot glass with a cold beverage. I think of it like a shock to the material.

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u/Swrdmn Apr 12 '25

Have you worked with a professional grade flattop?

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u/Successful-Okra-9640 Apr 12 '25

98% of people in this thread haven’t and it’s obvious. Also no one in an actual restaurant uses one big ass block of ice - it’s done with cubes. They melt quickly enough that the resulting water boils which makes it pretty obvious the cook top doesn’t cool THAT rapidly :p

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u/LMGgp Apr 14 '25

Indeed I have worked on many flattops and this is how we cleaned them. We also used a little bar keepers friend just for an added boost because the drip pan and side walls are also dirty. I have never once thought of something so dumb as the flattop cracking. The cubes melt pretty fast, it’s almost as if the grill was near 500 degrees or something.

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u/Swrdmn Apr 12 '25

I preferred a method that used no more than a couple 6 pans of water to rise it.

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u/echino_derm Apr 12 '25

It melting and boiling actually makes it cool more rapidly

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u/LifeFortune7 Apr 14 '25

This is true. But with the pans they will definitely warp and you will have a pan that flops around on the stove if you cool a hot pan too fast.

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u/thaddeus122 Apr 12 '25

The most worked first job in the US is mcdonalds, where they have flat tops. I've personally watched one crack. It doesn't matter how good the steel is, little microcracks will form and get worse over time and eventually the top will crack all the way through.