Yes am guilty of extreme heating, although I think all these problems stem from it being sat on. As its cracked, folded inwards slightly and the bowl and some of the legs were physically bent . As far as heat goes, I use a lot less now that I do long drawn out bowls, however I was impressed at just how much abuse with a torch this thing can cop. Aside of actual physical destruction (sitting on) I think I'd be lucky to kill one with a torch.
Even after going through its ordeal, for which it has come out looking oval, it still works a charm.
Although I'm not here to tell the creators how to use it I will say it held up perfectly fine until I noticed it was bent. I might keep one of the new ones out to torture test with the torch, was thinking about getting a lotus until word of caps getting killed. Keen to see how much abuse one can cop with the flame, obviously this will mean I'll have to make sure it stays in the egg and stays in shape!