diff --git a/icechunk-python/python/icechunk/xarray.py b/icechunk-python/python/icechunk/xarray.py
index 5f325a554..0aaeed722 100644
--- a/icechunk-python/python/icechunk/xarray.py
+++ b/icechunk-python/python/icechunk/xarray.py
@@ -168,8 +168,6 @@ def write_lazy(
         if not self.writer.sources:
             return
 
-        import dask
-
         # TODO: this is all pretty dask specific at the moment
         chunkmanager_store_kwargs = chunkmanager_store_kwargs or {}
         chunkmanager_store_kwargs["load_stored"] = False
@@ -181,6 +179,10 @@ def write_lazy(
             compute=False, chunkmanager_store_kwargs=chunkmanager_store_kwargs
         )  # type: ignore[no-untyped-call]
 
+        if not compute:
+            # do not execute the write in this case
+            return
+
         # Now we tree-reduce all changesets
         merged_session = stateful_store_reduce(
             stored_arrays,
@@ -188,14 +190,10 @@ def write_lazy(
             chunk=extract_session,
             aggregate=merge_sessions,
             split_every=split_every,
-            compute=False,
+            compute=True,
             **chunkmanager_store_kwargs,
         )
-        if compute:
-            (new_session,) = dask.compute(merged_session)
-            self.store.session.merge(new_session)
-        else:
-            return merged_session
+        self.store.session.merge(merged_session)
 
 
 def to_icechunk(
@@ -211,7 +209,7 @@ def to_icechunk(
     chunkmanager_store_kwargs: MutableMapping[Any, Any] | None = None,
     split_every: int | None = None,
     compute: bool = True,
-) -> Any:
+) -> None:
     """
     Write an Xarray object to a group of an icechunk store.
 
@@ -283,21 +281,7 @@ def to_icechunk(
 
     Returns
     -------
-    None if `compute` is `True`, `dask.Delayed` otherwise.
-
-    Examples
-    --------
-
-    When `compute` is False, this functions returns a `dask.Delayed` object. Call `dask.compute`
-    on this object to execute the write and receive a Session object with the changes.
-    With distributed writes, you are responsible for merging these changes with your
-    `session` so that a commit can be properly executed
-
-    >>> session = repo.writable_session("main")
-    >>> future = to_icechunk(dataset, session.store, ..., compute=False)
-    >>> (new_session,) = dask.compute(future)  # execute the write
-    >>> session.merge(new_session)  # merge in the (possibly) remote changes with the local session
-    >>> session.commit("wrote some data!")
+    None
 
     Notes
     -----
@@ -308,6 +292,9 @@ def to_icechunk(
         should be written in a separate single call to ``to_zarr()``.
       - Dimensions cannot be included in both ``region`` and
         ``append_dim`` at the same time.
+
+    Unlike Xarray's `to_zarr`, this function does *not* return a dask Delayed object
+    if `compute=False`.
     """
 
     as_dataset = make_dataset(obj)
@@ -320,7 +307,7 @@ def to_icechunk(
     # write in-memory arrays
     writer.write_eager()
     # eagerly write dask arrays
-    return writer.write_lazy(
+    writer.write_lazy(
         compute=compute, chunkmanager_store_kwargs=chunkmanager_store_kwargs
     )
 
diff --git a/icechunk-python/tests/test_dask.py b/icechunk-python/tests/test_dask.py
index 19e86a840..031e32f22 100644
--- a/icechunk-python/tests/test_dask.py
+++ b/icechunk-python/tests/test_dask.py
@@ -5,18 +5,14 @@
 
 import dask
 import distributed
-import xarray as xr
-from icechunk import Repository, local_filesystem_storage
-from icechunk.xarray import to_icechunk
 from tests.test_xarray import create_test_data, roundtrip
 from xarray.testing import assert_identical
 
 
-@pytest.mark.parametrize("compute", [False, True])
-def test_distributed(compute: bool) -> None:
+def test_distributed() -> None:
     with distributed.Client():  # type: ignore [no-untyped-call]
         ds = create_test_data().chunk(dim1=3, dim2=4)
-        with roundtrip(ds, compute=compute) as actual:
+        with roundtrip(ds) as actual:
             assert_identical(actual, ds)
 
         # with pytest.raises(ValueError, match="Session cannot be serialized"):
@@ -24,31 +20,10 @@ def test_distributed(compute: bool) -> None:
         #         pass
 
 
-def test_distributed_workflow(tmpdir):
-    repo = Repository.create(
-        storage=local_filesystem_storage(tmpdir),
-    )
-    with distributed.Client():  # type: ignore [no-untyped-call]
-        ds = create_test_data().chunk(dim1=3, dim2=4)
-        session = repo.writable_session("main")
-        future = to_icechunk(ds, session.store, compute=False, mode="w")
-
-        session = repo.writable_session("main")
-        (new_session,) = dask.compute(future)
-        session.merge(new_session)
-        session.commit("foo")
-
-        roundtripped = xr.open_zarr(
-            repo.readonly_session(branch="main").store, consolidated=False
-        )
-        assert_identical(roundtripped, ds)
-
-
-@pytest.mark.parametrize("compute", [False, True])
-def test_threaded(compute: bool) -> None:
+def test_threaded() -> None:
     with dask.config.set(scheduler="threads"):
         ds = create_test_data().chunk(dim1=3, dim2=4)
-        with roundtrip(ds, compute=compute) as actual:
+        with roundtrip(ds) as actual:
             assert_identical(actual, ds)
         # with roundtrip(ds, allow_distributed_write=False) as actual:
         #     assert_identical(actual, ds)