Cracking

[beddy666]

Hi guys,

Just a stupid question. When the oven cracks fill with fire cement obviously. But my oven sits on a square block with a whole in the middle as the oven was bought as one piece. I noticed a cracking between the tiles when cooking and wondered how often this happens? Once filled is fine until the next time.
But underneath the oven base it has cracked slightly am I best to fill it again or place it on a slab so it's covered?

Matt

[spinal]

Is that the hearth tiles inside the oven? In which case, ash is a good (compressible) filler. You don't want something right, or as it expands with heat it will cause the crack to get larger.

Or have I totally misunderstood where the cracks are?

[beddy666]

You are right its the cement in between the tiles. I'll see if I can get a photo online to show to get as much help as I can on it.

I see that people upgrade ovens etc every few years Is this common? As it seems that people have problems after a few years then upgrade.

[beddy666]

Here is the oven...

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[beddy666]

There is cracking between the two tiles when heated obviously. So wondered how common this is.

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[cannyfradock]

Beddy

It's not common practice to upgrade ovens every few years.....over the years you will get hairline..or small cracks in the dome but this is usually from the outer waterproof layer failing. They will still go on working for years and years.

The hearth tiles/bricks are always butted up to each other without cement. It may help Spinal if you took a picture from the top of your dome looking down on the whole hearth (if that's possible.) It will also help if you know the suppliers name (we would never contact anyone...but it may give a better idea for a solution)

Terry

[spinal]

Apr 1, 2014 14:55:31 GMT beddy666 said:

There is cracking between the two tiles when heated obviously. So wondered how common this is.

That's an interesting hearth - I've never seen one with "grout" between the tiles! The conventional method is to put the tiles side by side with nothing in between.

As long as the grout (I'm assuming fire clay or cement?) doesn't flake away and end up in your crust, it shouldn't be an issue. Previous comment stands, just let some ash fall in. This will compress as the oven cools and the gap shrinks, and expand (keeping other ash out) when the oven heats up

Nothing to worry about though!

M.

[tonyb]

Provided, the crack doesn't run through a tile I think you will be ok as its probably just the tiles expanding and contracting with the heat, so unlikely to be anything structural.