Trying to Get Oven Hot Enough

[Charles Buki]

Dear Cobbler Dave

Thank you for the encouragement! I realized a very embarrassing thing. I was measuring C instead of F!!! Yesterday I was able to fire to 1,050F at more than half dozen locations inside oven along the walls, with a hearth/floor brick temp of 800. Pizzas cooked in 2-4 minutes.

You guys are awesome.

cb

[deejayoh]

Take a look at this post for ideas on how you might modify the oven to work a bit (lot?) better: https://community.fornobravo.com/for...124#post390124

It looks like you have some room at the front or could possibly extend your base another course of CMU to allow an outer arch with a proper pizza oven flue. Combine that with taking up the floor and adding an inch or two of cal-sil, and you should be able to get to temp quite easily. It's never going to hold temp - due to the lack of insulation on the barrel -but should work great for pizza nights

[cobblerdave]

G’day
Dont give up hope yet. Early days and a new ovens got to contain a stack of water. Takes time and heaps of firings to tease that out. Gets you a bit of learning time with the oven too. And that’s a good thing cause you’ll know your own oven best!
Be patient and keep firing that oven. I’m sure it will get dryer in time!
regards Dave

[Charles Buki]

I used firebrick compliant w ASTM C1261. Came in Buff or Red colors. And used refractory mortar rated for 3100 F. And used insulation blanket.

[UtahBeehiver]

Refractory brick comes in all colors, I have seen red, black, brown, tan, yellow, etc.

[BenKeith]

Maybe I've missed something along the way but looking at the picture, that looks like the regular yellow fire brick you line a fireplace with. I though that stuff was not meant to hold heat like a refractory brick does. I've always thought that stuff to be totally wrong for a WFO.

[UtahBeehiver]

Dang, floor insulation along with the chimney in the main chamber are the reasons for lower temps. Nothing can be done now about no floor insulation (heat sink). So as DJ suggest, live fire cooking will be you best option. I seen a couple builders install a adjustable vent plate in their chimney but they were also in a pompeii oven.

[Charles Buki]

JR Pizza...and Cobbler Dave and DJO et al Thank you everyone. I failed to mention that I do not have a layer of insulation between my firebrick floor and the 6" of concrete beneath. This morning, after 16 hours of no activity, that floor, from underneath, it still quite warm. I reckon this failure on my part to put insulation beneath the firebrick is part of the problem. Yes I did use the barrel design as my model from brick wood ovens and fear my second problem is in fact heat loss through chimney. I was able to keep the oven between 650-750 for a long time, but did use more wood than I would have liked, and managing new fuel and smoke is something I will have to learn about.

[cobblerdave]

Yes the chimney is in the oven, all way to the front

G’day
I asked cause a mate has an oven much the same. Main diference is that his has a steel chimney. Once it’s alight he just caps of the chimney with a pot plant base. You want to try that yourself with some tin perhaps a small sheet of fiber cement. Having no entrance you got to be very conscious of the heat out of the front of the oven. You’ll loose your hair and eyebrows before you realise it. The ovens insulated on the top but none under the hearth brick. You definitly have to have a good active fire to keep the heat in the hearth for pizza.
I recon it’s uses a lot of wood and time to get to temperature but it’s not my oven so whom I to pass judgement. He knows it best and I’ve got to admit I’ve been eating a lot more than pizza out of it over the last 10 years or so. Yes and I built his insulated door!
regards Dave

[JRPizza]

Charles, you also mentioned insulation blanket but didn't say if there was insulation between the floor bricks and the concrete below them.

[deejayoh]

Is this a Brickoven barrel design? If so, we've had a few folks come here over the years with the same issue. The chimney coming straight out of the barrel means that the heat has an easy pathway out of the oven - unlike a Pompeii design where the heat has to swirl around the dome before it can find it's way out through the inner arch. Unfortunately, that design is better for live-fire cooking vs. the high heat needed for pizza. It doesn't retain heat.

I'm not sure anyone has come up with a great way to retrofit.

I left that vendor an 'honest' review on Amazon. He was not happy. Looks like they've relisted it now and the reviews all look fake!

real opinions (some from regular posters here) can be found at pizzamaking.com https://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/in...?topic=19186.0

[Charles Buki]

Yes the chimney is in the oven, all way to the front

[cobblerdave]

Gday
is the chimney located in the oven chamber itself, rather than outside the entrance?
regards Dave

[Charles Buki]

I have a firebrick floor (2.5 inch thick). The wall and dome is 2.5 inch thick firebricks. Then an insulation blanket. Then two layers of stucco. Interior width is 27". The length (depth) is 40". Height at center of dome (barrel) is 19". It holds beautifully at 450-500 forever, but getting to the desired 800 seems impossible. The door (opening) is 18 wide and 13 high.

[JRPizza]

Charles, some more information would be helpful. How about posting dome and door height and some details on insulation, both dome and under the floor bricks. Lots of folks built dome ovens following plans that did not use insulation in the floor and those designs take a long, long time to come to temperature.