I have a bit of a fear of breakage with the ceramic cookers. Does anyone want to talk me off the ledge?
I recently broke my wife's prize pie dish after cooking at just 350F. No warning on the dish...but the manufacture's site did say to not use over 325, a fact my wife didn't know either so she might have set me up after having done a few fatigue cycles herself! But it was a reminder that it's hard to beat cast iron and steel for heat resistance.
I tend to like to move my cookers around a bit depending on size of party etc. I would think repetitive thermal stress, combined with the vibration and shock of transport, may not add up to a long ceramic cooker life. Does anyone take a BGE camping? Or to a tailgate party?
And what about thermal shock? What happens if it starts to rain (or a sprinkler's out of adjustment) when these are at full temp?
And I definitely shed more tears over expensive broken things than cheap ones. I replaced my wife's pie plate with an $8 Pyrex pan...I won't mind replacing that a few times.