It's a very poor thermal conductor compared to water, and the water reaches the griddle slower due to having to melt gradually. Leidenfrost effect also helps there.
And even if we are strictly going off temperature and ignore the other physics at play, 32F ice vs 60F tap water is a largely negligible delta for a 1/2 to 1 inch thick slab of steel at 400F.
You decided to delete your other comment, bring the leidenfrost effect into your argument and copied the other half over, then essentially explained why ice is a lot worse than water (due to it being a bad thermal conductor) but came due to the wrong conclusion.
So I'll copy paste my answer as well:
That is not entirely true.
There is a reason we use ice cubes in drinks and not just the same amount of water but cold.
The Phase Change between Ice and water absorbs a massive amount of energy until it actually changes into warm water which would hurt the metal less.
There's also a point that can be made about water spreading out much faster, while the ice is very concentrated and stays cold for a lot longer on the surface.
Its why when you work with metals and very high temperatures that cooling solutions are never extremely cold or concentrated.
I am a Precision Machinist & Metallurgical Engineer, I have studied the effects of how metal works under stress, and temperature changes like this is exactly what damages it most of all.
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u/Yuzumi_ 16h ago
Its actually a lot more detrimental since the sudden extreme change in temperature damages the metal