Today for the first time I tried steaming my oven by pouring warm water over hot lava rocks. It works really well but there is a lot of dust from the rocks everywhere. I was wondering I should wash them first? What's your experience with it?
Washing would probably be a good thing. I didn't and by now I've got a lot of dust and probably tiny rock flakes in my steam pan. I expect that's harmless. My rocks aren't lava but the same may happen with lava ones.
BTW, I used to heat my water to boiling in the microwave. Then I tried using water right out of the faucet and I don't notice any difference in the results.
No experience with these rocks in a baking environment - but they or any - should be cleaned before usage - and cleaned well. Immerse them in water - agitate - and remove the "floaties". May take a time or 3 - but eventually they'll be clean. Enjoy!
Years ago when I started using lava rocks I had the same issue. Doesn't matter how often I washed them, they still produced some dust. Probably because of the big temperature change they always produce some dust.
I switched to stainless steel bearing balls (from Amazon) and never regretted.
Washing would probably be a good thing. I didn't and by now I've got a lot of dust and probably tiny rock flakes in my steam pan. I expect that's harmless. My rocks aren't lava but the same may happen with lava ones.
BTW, I used to heat my water to boiling in the microwave. Then I tried using water right out of the faucet and I don't notice any difference in the results.
TomP
No experience with these rocks in a baking environment - but they or any - should be cleaned before usage - and cleaned well. Immerse them in water - agitate - and remove the "floaties". May take a time or 3 - but eventually they'll be clean. Enjoy!
Years ago when I started using lava rocks I had the same issue. Doesn't matter how often I washed them, they still produced some dust. Probably because of the big temperature change they always produce some dust.
I switched to stainless steel bearing balls (from Amazon) and never regretted.