Cracked fire brick at burn chamber bridge

Hey Guys.
My RMH has been up and running for a season and like most J-Tube setups the first brick over the burn chamber has cracked.  The question I have is, do I care?  I've seen several other J-Tubes, one of which is 20 years old, that have cracked bricks here.  

It seems that once that brick breaks once it's probably not gonna break any more.  But I have nothing to back that up aside from intuition.

Perhaps I could replace this brick with something of higher quality?  Maybe a ceramic kiln brick?

How are others dealing, or not dealing with this problem?

Thanks
Rich

Hi Rich,  A very common occurrence indeed! Here are a few scenarios: 1) Some people don't worry about it as it now acts as an expansion/contraction gap and doesn't get any worse over the years. 2) Some people are concerned that it might cause the brick to fall out, block the air flow and cause the house to fill with smoke so they replace it. With the same type of brick or other but ultimately it does have a tough life.  3) While others have decided to do something about it right from the get go by taking preventative action and putting a metal plate in front of it called a Peter Channel. There has been tonnes of discussion on it so I won't repeat what has been said other than one of its functions is to help block the heat from this first brick and keep it from cracking.

I think this might be the first discussion on the birth of the Peter Channel. A bit lengthy to read but gives you a good background of its birth and implementation:
Peter channel

Peter Channel