I recently had a new tiled shower installed in my home with a soap dish mounted in a corner with an exterior wall (10" of dense packed cellulose) and an interior wall with a hydronic heater on the back of it. Two weeks ago I noticed the soap dish was weirdly cracked and my guess was thermal stress. The thermal images show at least a 5F difference in temperatures between the wall and I suspect it could be more on a very cold day when the heater is also running.

The tile company replaced it today, under warranty, but used the same installation techniques and materials. My bet is it won't last the rest of the heating season, but we'll see... 

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Thermally Yours,

John
ASNT NDT Level III #48166
The Snell Group
www.thesnellgroup.com
www.thermalsolutions.org
800-636-9820

Sounds like a fair guess and a fun problem, as long as it's someone elses (yours). 

I think you are suggesting it's stress in the dish due to the temperature differential in the dish.  It could also be movement induced stress due to differential growth and movement of the walls at different temperatures. 

Jack

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Jack M. Kleinfeld, P.E.
Kleinfeld Technical Services, Inc.
Bronx, NY
718-884-6644
JKEngineer@KleinfeldTechnical.com
come see what we can do for you: http://www.KleinfeldTechnical.com