Help with Brick Oven

[zjocko]

Hi,
My name is Zac and I am new to this whole brick pizza oven thing. I recently moved in to a house that has one. It is an inside gas brick oven. I have attempted to use it a few times and have had a hard time getting it to get hot enough to cook the pizza. I have had it on for as long as 4 hours and still need to get the pizza within 1 inch from the flame to be able to cook. Any thoughts or advice would be great. In the bit of research I have done I wonder is this a gas assist oven and we still need to have the wood burning? I have only tried it with gas. And sorry about the halloween photo. That is the only photo I had with the gas lit. Thanks.

[Gulf]

Hi Zac,

Welcome to the forum. I advise you to get with a local licensed plumber/gas technician about the gas burner in your oven. It and/or your oven may not be up to code. Ours is primarily a wood fired oven forum so I have no experience with gas. From what I do see, the oven is not designed very efficiently. If using wood, the damper must be open, to keep the house from filling with smoke. That means that a major amount of heat will be going out the flue and not heating the brick. If you are gas heating the oven with the damper open the same is happening. If you are gas heating the oven with the damper closed, you may be depleting the oxygen in the room and introducing carbon monoxide. All of that is above my pay grade so, please get a a local inspection. It may save someones's life.

Also, If you weren't filled in by the previous owner about the oven's construction, you may not have insulation under the floor and around the cooking chamber. That would make it impractical to ever heat the oven to pizza temps. Just from the pics, it's not looking very safe and efficient to me.