So I thought I'd do an experiment and fire up a paver in my BBQ to see how it went, I'm going to bore you with as much info as i can think of so i give you as much as possible.
the date is 21/7/9 and in melbourne i purchased a 400mm sq by 50mm deep red clay paver from bunnings which cost @ $5, the temperature outside is @ 15 C and I have a 3 burner BBQ which i have taken the plates out of so i can sit the paver right on the burners, actually it sits @ 3 cms above which is perfect i think, the 2 burners completely cover the paver in flame and flame goes around the sides as well.
I put it on full crank then place the hotplates on top of the paver and they sit @ 3cm above the paver, which is perfect i think. i leave some space to the side of the plates to allow oxygen in and out, plus i close the lid.
I have my bbq's thermostat and also i place a temp gauge right on top of the paver, the bbq thermostat reaches 230C but the one inside reaches its maximum of 315C quickly and can't go any higher so I think it got up to 350C ++
I then left it like that for 5 hours !!! , there was no noise, no cracking sounds and then I let it cool down, I also didn't do any pre heating of the paver I just went straight to HIGH.
Heres some photos:
this is the clay paver cooled down, you can see the temp gauge, during the experiment the hot plate was more closed and the grid on th eright actaully has a solid plate under it to maximise heat retention.
Here is the paver turned upside down to show you the effect of the flame on it, the dark bits are just carbon and can be easily removed with a brush, you can see the lighter "hot spots" of the gas rows.
Here you can see the gas burners, you can also see the edge that i sat the paver on and the higher edge that the hotplates went on. You can see the paver really looks untouched by the heat it was subjected to.In conclusion I will be using these pavers for the base of my pizza oven, of course you should stay tuned to see what happens in real life but I think it should be fine.
