Below, I have attached a link to another post about this subject. I responded with some pictures and descriptions of our experience.

A professional who demos and installs flooring will likely do a more efficient job in less time. If you choose to DIY, it can be done. Advil and access to a Jacuzzi is highly recommended : )

-Laurie

Best case scenario was very smooth/shiney concrete with a non-modified thinset mortal, which the tiles pop easy and the thinset can be scraped with a standard flooring scraper.

Worse case scenatio was rough concrete installed witha modified mortar. Tiles come up in little pieces and the thinset is now a part of the concrete where you take off the high spots and feather it out with floor patch or you need to grind it.

There is middle ground if the concrete was shiney and smooth and they used modified mortar.

Do a test with a hammer and cold chisel to see how easy it will come up and scrape. If its very tough, go rent a small demolition hammer with a 3" scaling bit.

It may pop off intact (or at least in larger pieces).

Portland products are weakest in tension, use that to your advantage.
popping the tiles upwards with a wedge (chisel) at the edge) is the weakest direction.

How are you planning to refinish the area?

Small surface damage will be buried in the thin-set if you replace the tile.

DD13 had to write a paper for science class on Dry Ice and what it was used for. Upon research, we discovered one of its uses was to separate tile from concrete! Maybe it’s one of those closely guarded secrets of the pros??? :-)

Vinyl or composite tile, not ceramic.

Vinyl and composite change size enough with temperature (large tempco) to break the glue bind with dry ice shrinking the tile.

Ceramic barely moves (low tempco) so dry ice will not be very effective.

It is the temperature coefficient mismatch between the tile and substrate that allows dry ice to work.