Metal heat diffuser for oven

[vinmaker]

Hello all,

I was looking through the treads on using a pizza stone to diffuse the heat in the small RV ovens we use. There were so many comments on how easy they have cracked. Many said they did not care it was cracked as it still worked fine. But I am not a fan of having a bunch of pieces.

The general advice was to heat it up slowly or even leave the door open a bit so the stone can slowly heat up. But many of us find ourselves pressed for time and this seems like something that is easily skipped in our haste.

I was wondering if anyone has simply used a sheet of 1/4" plate steel to place in the oven. My wife likes her Caphalon pans because they are thick and disperse the heat much better than cheap thin pans.

The metal would not crack and would need no special slow warm up process. The plate could remain in the stove during travel as well. Just "set it and forget it".

Thoughts?

Vin.

[richp]

Hi,

As others have done, rather than go with one large piece, I bought four separate unglazed 6" square tiles at Home Depot, and set them in loosely. Years later, none of them have cracked.

FWIW.

Rich Phillips

[Prothos]

we have the pizza stone, 3k miles and no cracking. Some roads were a bit rough also.

[cstover]

My stone cracked first time using it. Right down the middle. Guess what......still using it. No issues.

[whj77372]

I have never had a pizza stone crack?

[pennypoppins]

We use an "air bake" cookie sheet in our oven and it works well to even out the heat.

[edcronin01]

I too use a air bake cookie sheet no problems with item burning.

[oxcamper]

Our oven is used to store skillets. Too small to do anything else in.

[OldCoot]

1/4" steel plate might be a little heavy for the rack.

[davel1971]

Originally Posted by OldCoot

1/4" steel plate might be a little heavy for the rack.

my thoughts too. That would be very heavy. About 10 lbs per square foot so would probably be around 25 lbs.

[DaveSchwartz]

Originally Posted by cstover

My stone cracked first time using it. Right down the middle. Guess what......still using it. No issues.

x2... exactly the same... cracked first time - still use the two pieces and no further cracking. I don't travel with it in place.