The slow cooker has been my main cooking appliance for the past five years, just simply because it’s convenient and makes delicious recipes. But, when used incorrectly, they are prone to cracking and snapping which is unfortunate.
A slow cooker’s crock (ceramic-insert or glass) is going to crack if it is either defective or mishandled. Common reasons for cracking include drastic temperature changes, using it on your stovetop burner, or setting it down too hard on a flat, solid surface.
5 Reasons Why a Slow Cooker Cracks
While the glazed-ceramic stoneware insert (crock) of your slow cooker is extremely thick and hefty to handle, it is also extremely brittle. This means that it is prone to cracking under numerous conditions, both on and off heat. Let’s take a look at some in-depth reasons as to why your slow cooker may crack under certain circumstances.
If Your Slow Cooker Cracks During the Cooking Process
There are 3 main reasons why your slow cooker may crack during the cooking process.
- Cooking Frozen Foods Out of the Freezer. Refraining from thawing frozen foods before tossing them in your slow cooker can cause the crock to quickly change temperature. This can result in tiny hairline fractures that go unnoticed. These will turn into much larger cracks if exposed to continued stress.
- Refrigerating Your Crock Before Cooking With It. Preparing your slow cooker the night before is a great way to save time, but placing the crock in the fridge overnight is also a great way to break it if you are planning to use it straight out of the fridge. The drastic temperature change will cause stress fractures in the ceramic, which will result in sizable cracks over time.
- Placing Your Crock Directly On The Burner. While the ceramic material of your crock is microwave and oven safe, this doesn’t mean that it can be placed on your stovetop burners. If you place your crock directly on the burner, there’s going to be too much heat along the bottom of the crock and not enough at the top. The bottom of the crock is going to expand quickly while the top half of your crock will not. This results in the entire bottom of the crock either cracking or snapping in half.
If Your Slow CookerCracks Before or After the Cooking Process
While it is rare to have your crock crack during the cooking process, it is far more likely to have it crack or snap due to circumstances right before or after the cooking process.
- Placing a Hot Crock in Cold Water. While it might feel natural to immediately place your crock in cold water after cooking with it to let it soak, this isn’t a good idea. Heat causes materials like ceramic to expand in their warmed state while submerging it into cold water will cause it to cool rapidly.
This means that if you place your hot ceramic crock into cold water, parts of it will shrink while other parts will remain expanded, causing cracks to form that may break apart.
The inverse of this, placing cold water into a hot crock, is also true for the same reasons. The only difference is that any cracks will form on the inside first.
- Placing the Crock Down Too Hard on Solid Surfaces. Although our ceramic crock inserts feel extremely durable and hard to the touch, the material is actually quite fragile and brittle. This means that while it is difficult to scratch the surface, it is much easier to crack or chip it. If you set your crock down too hard on a hard, flat surface, you are going to cause microscopic fractures in the material.
What Does a Hairline Fracture or Crack Look Like?
A hairline crack in your crock is going to look like an extremely thin line, similar to spiderweb cracks. Unlike large cracks that have opened up with a clear space between either side of the crack, a hairline crack has very little room between it.
In most cases, you would simply seal up the hairline crack and move on, but with a crock, this isn’t the case.
How Do You Fix a Cracked Slow Cooker?
Although there are food-safe options out there such as ceramic-cements and glues that are used to repair kitchenware like coffee mugs and plates, these are not meant for extreme cooking temperatures that slow cookers operate at.
When used on a slow cooker, most ceramic-cements and glues will break down, causing the same cracks to form. The only ceramic-cements available that claim to solve this issue are more expensive than what it would be to replace the crock or the slow cooker in its entirety.
A temporary fix that often gets mentioned for hairline cracks specifically, is using simmering milk to repair the surface of the crack. This can potentially seal the crack and make it water-tight, but it is not a fool-proof option and requires the use of a lot of milk. It tends to be just as efficient to purchase a replacement crock.
Are There Replacement Pots For Slow Cookers?
Luckily, many companies offer replacement crocks for sale to replace those that have been damaged by cracks and fractures.
The popular brand, Crock-Pot, offers replacement parts for most of its slow cookers, making it easy to get your slow cooker back up and running with minimal effort and cost.
Is It Safe To Eat From a Cracked Crock-Pot?
There are several problems with using a cracked slow cooker that make it unsafe to cook with.
- Cleaning. Cracks are notoriously hard to clean properly, meaning food will get stuck in them between uses, spreading bacteria into future meals.
- Compounding damage. Just like in your car’s windshield, a crack can easily grow, and eventually cause a break, leaving your crock in pieces.
- Contaminates. Some older brands of slow cookers (pre 2005) contain trace amounts of lead in the ceramic and/or glaze of the crock. If there is any damage to either of these, this carries the risk of lead leaching into the meals cooked within. This can cause long term harm to anyone who then eats the meals over a long period of time.
Companies that produce modern slow cookers have released statements that their ceramics and glazes do not contain lead.
These statements are backed up by a list released by the FDA of appliances that do contain lead in their materials, to which no slow cookers were present by any major brands that manufacture slow cookers.
What to Do If My Slow Cooker Lid Cracks?
Just like the crock portion of your slow cooker, the glass lid is also prone to cracking if it is hot and placed on a cool counter, if it is dropped, or if it is placed down too heavily onto a hard surface. You will need to purchase a replacement lid if yours cracks.
If you cannot replace your cracked glass lid right away, you can use other pot covers from around the kitchen if you find one that fits snugly to your slow cooker. It is important that the lid does not slide off and prevents both heat and steam from escaping.
If you cannot find a pot cover from around the kitchen and are waiting on a replacement lid to come in, you can use aluminum foil. Simply cut two pieces of heavy-duty aluminum foil, lay them across the top of the slow cooker, and crimp them around the outside of the appliance.
The foil needs to be crimped tightly so that it is a snug fit. Crimp and place before turning on the heat and use oven mitts to remove it when done.
Can You Put a Slow Cooker in the Oven?
While you cannot put your slow cooker’s crock onto the stovetop, you can put the crock (not the heating element) into the oven. The main difference between the oven and the stovetop is that the oven will distribute heat evenly throughout the crock.
This allows the crock to absorb and dissipate the heat at a more favorable speed throughout the entire unit, greatly reducing the chance of cracking.
When removing the crock from the oven, however, be sure to place it on a rack, towel, or wooden block, as placing it on a cool surface could result in you fracturing your crock.
Will My Slow Cooker Catch Fire?
If your slow cooker is in good working condition, it is not likely to catch fire even if you leave it on throughout the day. If you are using a slow cooker that has frayed cords, broken switches, or faulty parts in it, this is much more likely to cause a problem.
This is simply because any type of appliance that gets plugged into a wall socket can catch fire if the electricity is routed into the appliance properly or is routed into an appliance that has faulty parts that cannot hold the electricity correctly.