What is crazing?

[tuscanfoodie]

The only company I know of that claims likewise, and is on record of honoring their warranty to replace a kamado grill that had crazing, to my knowledge, is Vision

 

Interesting: my new vision classic has crazing all over its lid, but none on the main body. I guess I should give them a call?

[Joe M.]

My situation is a little different. I am very happy to say that I could finally purchase my first ceramic Kamado. Upon my first inspection I found no crazing. However, on the bottom half of the bell, just before the midpoint there is a about a 5 ml fairly round area that has no glaze whatsoever. My initial thoughts are that moisture will be much more likely to be forced out at a relatively much greater pressure on that spot because it makes sense to me that the glaze is what makes the ceramic non-permeable.  

 

Should I consider this unacceptable, or should I use some kind of heat tolerable sealant on it? I know I don’t want some kind of heat/moisture blow out. I really don’t know how to handle this. Please give me your opinions.

[keeperovdeflame]

Welcome Joe, I did not see anything that indicated what kind of kamado you are cooking on, but my advice would be the same mfg to mfg. It sounds like this could be something of little consequence, but I would contact the mfg and provide them with pics of the small area without glaze and see what they think about it. I had an old Vision that had a similar spot. Vision sent me a small bottle of ceramic sealant to paint over the spot. The stuff matched the color of my grill. Once applied, I never thought about it again, and cooked on it for years.

[MikeRobinson]

I'd consider the absence of glazing to be a manufacturing defect, albeit perhaps a minor one.  Send a few photos to customer service and ask them what they want to do.  They might well send you a pot of sealant to paint over the spot, or they might pay to replace it.  Either way, I think they need to know right away that a unit wound up in a customer's hands this way.

[Boater]

 @Joe M.. Second Keeper's suggestion - follow up with the maker. And pictures help those folk understand your situation.  I tried to explain what I thought was an easy request without pics, that didn't go as easily as it might.

[Joe M.]

Thanks to all who responded to my post about a small area without glaze. I'm glad that most thought it probably wouldn't be an issue if I can seal it properly. Correction about my comment that no crazing was evident. I went out today to start assembly and upon closer inspection there is quite a bit of crazing that I did not notice before. I don't know how I missed it. The sun was shining at it was very evident on most all the grill. When I run my hand over it I can feel sharp raised edges. I will contact the company to see what they recommend. Thank you for the welcome wishes and you all seem to be a great bunch of people. Very glad I found your Kamado Guru webpage.

[Jack.]

 Joe M.  If you look back to the earliest posts in this particular thread, you'll see that crazing is a very common occurrence across many brands of kamados, including my (now) 9 year-old Primo XL.  Unless it's causing wide spaces between the crazing lines or causing the glaze to come off of the underlying ceramic, I would not be concerned. 

[keeperovdeflame]

16 hours ago, Jack. said:

 Joe M.  If you look back to the earliest posts in this particular thread, you'll see that crazing is a very common occurrence across many brands of kamados, including my (now) 9 year-old Primo XL.  Unless it's causing wide spaces between the crazing lines or causing the glaze to come off of the underlying ceramic, I would not be concerned. 

Yeah, Jack is correct. My current large BGE has crazing on both the kettle and the dome, my old Vision had the same. In fact most, if not all the kamados you will see on your grill dealers floor  will probably have at least some crazing. I worried about it when I purchased my Vision, my first kamado. How could this thing have cracks in it I just paid like $500 for it? But then I noticed it was on most kamados pictured on a number of forums. It is also on most glazed garden pots, and some of them are actually as expensive as kamados. Regarding the unglazed spot, it looks very similar to the one I had on my Vision. I am sure the mfg has some colored sealant. Think about it, those little flaws probably occur on a whole host of kamados across brands. The mfg is not going to trash or re fire a kamado for a spot like that. They will just dab some sealant on it, and if they notice it before they ship it you will never know it occurred. I am thinking that is a Louisiana cause it's blue. I don't know much about them or their customer service reputation, hope they help you.

 

 Just part of the ceramic mystic aura. My advice is cook more, worry less. Happy cooking. 

[Golf Griller]

14 minutes ago, keeperovdeflame said:

My advice is cook more, worry less. Happy cooking. 

Great advice.

[MikeRobinson]

Since the glaze is a surface coating on the ceramic, and the cracks (crazing ...) in that coating might be merely superficial, it might very well be of no genuine concern.  But as I said, if there is a point on the ceramic pot where the glazing is not there at all, I would inquire of the manufacturer and let them "do the warranty thing," whatever that means to them.  You're entitled to a product that is "correctly manufactured," and a bare area doesn't sound "correct" to me.  Let them know and let them deal with it – or, advise you.

 

For what it's worth, I have a few ceramic pans that I have used in my kitchen oven for many years, and some of them show "crazing" yet the surface is still smooth and the pans work just fine.  (Years ago, I also had one that, shortly after I'd bought it, cracked in half ... they promptly replaced it.)