Refractory castables are green materials for the development of refractory industry due to their advantages of low energy consumption, simple process and convenient mechanized construction. However, water-containing castables are prone to structural damage and even explosive spalling during the heating process of drying, so as to shorten the service life of components and cause economic and resource losses under the combined action of thermal stress caused by temperature gradient and internal pressure caused by water vapor. From the perspective of the anti-spalling of castables, this review represented the basic mechanism of explosive spalling, the microstructure and spalling resistance of typical bonding systems, anti-spalling means, test methods and numerical simulation, and gave the future related research aspects.