Another update: 7 years later and I still love this stone. Has not chipped or cracked, has made countless loaves of bread, soft pretzels, and pizzas. You want one.
UPDATE 2: 32 months down the road, and this stone is still great. It never gave me a bad smell, it never set my kitchen on fire, it never smoked. I use it all the time. Even if I switch it to a lower shelf and put something on an upper shelf, having the stone in there stabilizes the oven temperature and my food cooks better. I love this thing. It's the perfect size, and it really isn't all that heavy.
UPDATE 1: 14 months later, this stone is still great. It gets a bit discolored here and there from food drips, but you just scrape off any burned on glop after it cools off. At first I was a bit worried that it might crack when I did steam infusion when baking bread ( place a latte cup of boiling water next to the loaves, and throw a coffee mug of boiling water into the bottom of the oven ) but that never happened. No worries.
This stone works really well.
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This thing is amazing! I shopped around online, read a bunch of baking reviews, and picked this one. If the $150 stones are any better, they can't be better by much. This stone is the best deal out there, period.
After reading some of the reviews here, I was a little concerned that it might smell or smoke the first time, so I heated it up in an empty oven. There was a very minor odor that went away after a few minutes. I took it up to 550 degrees, then turned the oven off. EIGHT HOURS LATER the stone was still quite warm, a bit over 100 degrees. Amazing.
The stone fits my standard size 30 inch wide electric oven's shelf perfectly, leaving a bit more than an inch on all 4 sides. It's twice as thick as the round pizza stone I had been using, with at least 50% more surface area. I bought this more for bread baking, so I could make longer loaves. It's solid, but doesn't weigh a ton. Not hard to move it around if I have to.
Kudos also for the packaging: My stone came in a box inside a box inside the Amazon box. The sturdy inner box has firm foam corners and top and bottom padding, so it will be great for safe storage if I decide to not leave it in the oven all the time.
Yes, it takes a bit longer to get the oven up to full heat. I'm OK with that. In return I get a very even heat distribution and a major thermal buffer. Which means the oven holds temperature, even if I have to open the door a couple times. Now I have to start making bigger batches of dough, to bake several loaves in one session, so as not to waste any of that heat.
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Pizzacraft 20"×13.5" meets my needs perfectly with lots of pros and really no cons.
Pizzacraft 20" x 13.5" stone caught my attention because of the resistance to thermal shock, was looking for something that can be kept in the oven on the bottom rack 24/7. The unique size fits the rack in a 30" range perfectly allowing heat to still pass around all sides of the stone dispersing it(heat) evenly and catches anything that would otherwise end up on the bottom of the oven. Don't worry its not being neglected I use it for pizza too (home made and frozen) and various other cooking. The stone is off white and yes its going to stain, I feel this ads to the patina of the stone and adds seasoning. If your ever in a pizza joint, the stone in thier ovens is completely covered in these stains (can't wait for mine to look that way) so stop being squeamish. Making sure te stone is cool enough to touch I scrape all the burnt stuff off with a metal scraper, then use a stiff metal brush to i dont know what word to use "polish" the stone surface and finely rinse it with plain water. I think is a matter of preference when using heat clean the stone before or after scraping and brushing There will be a ton more smoke if you heat clean it first but it will clean more easily. I'm new to using a pizza stone so I really don't know what to criticize it on, some people might wine and cry about it sticking at first but like a quality cast iron skillet once its seasoned I doubt this will still be as much of a problem. There are things like cornmeal and parchment paper that help immensely but would take longer to get your stone seasoned. I havnt had my stone long but I'm including a photo of it dirty to show how well it fits and what kind of staining to expect. I believe this is an excellent quality product and I am highly recommending it.
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bernard dubé
Bien chauffer la pierre et belle cuisson
Reviewed in Canada on July 22, 2019Size: 1-(Pack)Verified Purchase
Branden
Fits my oven perfectly
Reviewed in Canada on April 6, 2020Size: RectangularVerified Purchase
Mark Dalpe
Great stone bad description
Reviewed in Canada on January 31, 2014Size: RectangularVerified Purchase
