Advice on oven selection

[sanjosedale]

I recently retired and moved from my house in San Jose where I had installed a very expensive Mugnaini oven. It killed me to leave that behind, but retirement sounded better continuing the the rat race in silicon valley. I'm now looking to have another oven, although on a much smaller budget. My desire would be to have one that I can take with me should I ever move again.

Are the "kits" offered by FB really a DYI project, for someone with no prior building experience (I am fairly handy tough)? I really haven't been able to get a handle on the level of skill needed, or amount of work.

Given I wish to have this sit on a cart, counter or table, does it even make sense to build one myself? Perhaps I really should not even consider the kit?

Thanks for any advice.

Dale

[UtahBeehiver]

Welcome to the Forum and also being recently retired. I did not use either the FB cast modular or Pompeii kit for my build. Based on what I have seen, the cast oven will be lighter, easier to build than the FB Pompeii kit or building a brick oven from locally sourced materials. Most oven builders on the forum are not pro construction people, some are more DIYers others zero experience but most have managed to build their oven and some very nice. There have been several ovens done on steel frame bases and some with casters which make them "transportable" but even the cast ovens will be heavy by time you get done. It is worth the journey if you so chose. Here is a link of the of the more "brick" ovens but there is also a "cast" oven section as well.

https://community.fornobravo.com/for...n-the-archives

https://community.fornobravo.com/for...her-oven-types

[SableSprings]

Welcome Dale! I've helped put together one of the Forno Bravo modular ovens (Casa 2G90) and it was pretty straight forward. However, not what you would call "movable in the future". Yes, it did involve building a base foundation but the oven has been used for quite a few years to bake everything from bread to suckling pig.

Another option you might think about because of the portability issue is the line of pre-built ovens offered by Forno Bravo. If you look at their residential, pre-assembled ovens I think you'll see that several are designed specifically to go with you when you move. I visited the Salinas store front last winter and was pretty impressed with the "portable" ovens on display.

As Russell noted, most of us on the forum have built or cast our ovens having little to no skills or experience in the masonry craft. I think you really need to ask yourself if this is going to be just "I have a wood fired oven" or something you are really planning to use. Lots of help here and lots of satisfaction in building your own...but it is a lot of work (and time) to build one. By the way, I had very little previous brick & mortar experience and took on building my oven as my retirement project. It took me basically the summer of 2009 to finish the oven and a month the next year to build the den around it...but it was worth every penny and minute!

Hope that helps some...and again look at those links Russell put in his post if you want to build.

[sanjosedale]

Thanks Russell and Mike. My passion is the cooking, probably not so much the building. But I find I now have more time than money... Lol

I am looking into the pre assembled FB units as well. There is also a unit from Italy, called Pizza Party. Silly name, but has a big following on the Pizzamaking.com forums. Much more portable than these FB ovens.

Appreciate the advice and links.

Dale

[SableSprings]

There are also several of these "quick & light" pizza ovens available with electric or propane burners built in or designed just to put on top of a gas BBQ. I've seen them at Home Depot and also sold through Amazon. The one I saw a couple years back didn't have much refractory material in it...primarily metal inside on the top and a thin "pizza stone" base...I wasn't impressed with the pizza it produced. I also thought that its barrel shape & size really restricted the wood fire and cooking surface ratio. It all still depends on what you're planning to do with it. If you want to cook a 12 pound turkey, I'm not sure these will work so well.

Even though the Pizza Party oven site talks about the various foods you can cook in it, I think quantity is going to be limited. The focus and design of these units to me is aimed directly at making a couple pizzas. Although, I'm sure baking a couple loaves of bread is possible, the half-barrel design keeps you from putting roasters or pans close to the sides...and that would be a deal breaker for me. If I can't fit a half or full size sheet pan or push in my turkey roaster then I'm not interested.

If you look on Amazon for portable pizza ovens you'll find several for under $300 that run on propane or electricity and make people pretty happy. Just a few thoughts from my jaded perspective. I'm sure the Pizza Party unit and other "inexpensive & lightweight" portable ones make fine pizza, but I think after your Mugnaini experience you'll be better served by something more along the heavier Forno Bravo style portables. If your passion is cooking, I'd be thinking versatility not unitasker...

[sanjosedale]

Mike, I agree with you. I used my oven for many more things than just pizza. My farewell party at the house was a whole 35 lb pig. No way I'm getting something that big again, but the versatility is important. I'm currently back to using my Big Green Egg for Pizza. It does a good job, but not ideal.
Dale