cracking Firing Your Oven Discuss cracking in the Oven Management forums; so I finished my oven. went through the curing proccess and made pizza about 10 times. then yesterday I made ...

[matty]

so I finished my oven. went through the curing proccess and made pizza about 10 times. then yesterday I made pizza for at least the tenth time and this morning I have all of these hairline cracks in the dome. they are hardly noticable but im still very disapointed.

it was fairly cold outside (appx 40 degrees F?) I guess it was a combination of that and getting the oven too hotttttttttt? I swear I heated the oven with a small fire over the course of about 3 hours before getting the fire really hott.

any suggestions for repair or prevention?

thanks guys. :

[Les]

Matty - Is your dome covered with a blanket? It certainly doesn't sound catastrophic. I don't know if anyone has gotten away with no cracks.

Les...

[gjbingham]

I wouldn't sweat it unless serious smoke is coming out of the cracks. If that was the case, I might consider repairing the problem. Cracks happen! Enjoy the pizza.

[texassourdough]

I agree with the above, not a big deal and everybody gets them! I took cement and mixed it a hair thin and rubbed it on the cracks to fill them. While I don't think small cracks serve as a significant source of water into the oven and insulation (my sandstone ledge is a much bigger culprit) I have used waterproofing on the dome to reduce moisture intake. Longer term I will probably build a metal roof over mine to truly keep it and the sandstone ledge dry.

Enjoy the oven!
Jay

[gjbingham]

and another thing..... If you truely spent three hours warming the oven up to cooking temps, then you did everything you could have done. Not many are that patient.

I firmly believe that most of the ovens have cracks. Many are never found or noticed because the insulation is often installed before curing takes place, so the faults are not nearly as noticeable.