Finally blew a pizza stone, why'd it happen?

Stuart

I've read numerous posts about breaking a pizza stone while cooking in the egg and felt fortunate not to have the problem. I've cooked a fair number of pies on it, enough to feel sort, well....immune to the phenomenon. (What next a fire box?....knock on wood!)[p]Tonight while baking the second BBQ Chicken pizza for guests it cracked into five easy pieces. Luckily I was using two stones (Pampered Chef) stacked so the LOWER one caught the pie before it hit the grid. I pulled the broken stone out and finished the bake. So I'm curious, why would a seasoned stone break like that at 600? Why the top stone? Any ceramic engineers out there want to guess? I realize there are many variables and the real reason could be a number of things.[p]More importantly; I'm wondering the success I might have in gluing it back together with High Temp cement and mortaring it to the bottom of the uncracked stone. Perhaps by having a single, thicker mass rather than two thinner would result in a stronger stone. Opinions, experiences?[p]Thanks,[p]Stuart

djm5x9

Stuart:[p]Not all pizza stones are created equal. Many on the market are composed of materials that perform well in an oven at 450º but just cannot handle the direct heat or higher temperatures of the BGE. The BGE stones seem to work well. Stones with a no lead fire brick material such as "cordierite" seem to have long lives also.

Unknown

The local restaurant supply was out of pizza stones so I took the one from my oven. It's about 3/4" thick and is square. It wouldn't quite fit in my unit so I had to shave an inch of the bottom 2 corners. I used my circular saw with a special blade designed for cutting masonry. MAN! that stuff it hard as diamonds! It took forever and I wrecked the blade but it fits. The reason I mention this is it has about 4 layers of some fiberglass type webbing in it. I think that would help it take the high heat. I find the ones available from most stores are very thin and cheap and not able to stand up to high temps. I did bread on mine at 600 with no trouble. My aluminum drip pan didn't fare nearly as well.

Spin

Stuart,[p]The cause of breakage was probably thermal stress. The top stone was well heated by the preheat and cooking the first pie. The cool second pie caused the stress by uneven cooling (even slightly) of the pizza stone.[p]Cooking a stone well above its manufacturer rated maximum temp will always run the risk of breakage. Although a stone does get better with use, its basic construction materials still provide a limit to what it can withstand. For this reason I would recommend against spending the time to rebuild the stone.[p]Stone thickness is not a good indication of stone quality or usefulness in your Egg. A single thick mass (1"+) requires a lot of lump (and time) to heat properly. If you push the temp up to speed heating, you risk overheating a stone that now cools very slowly.[p]Spin[p]

Tim M

<p />Joe F.,[p]Weird sounding stone - filler in it? Do yourself a favor - call BGE at 1-888-929-3447 and tell them you want a pizza stone. Best money you will spend!! [p]Tim

RhumAndJerk

Stuart,
I definitely agree with the previous post. One place to look for top-notch pizza stones is ceramic supply stores. It is important to find a store that carries kiln supplies. They call them kiln shelves I call them pizza stones. It was just this type of off-the-wall looking that led to finding of the plate setter. I do not remember who found it, but the supplier was Daven’s Ceramic Supply in Atlanta.[p]Hope this helps,
RhumAndJerk[p]

JJ

RhumAndJerk,
That was my wife, Kathy, that found the plate setter at Davens