Wall thickness

[grone]

Hello, new here, first post.

I've searched and found a few threads on wall thickness but they seem to be related so minimising the thickness as much as is possible -- whereas my question is about the largest practical thickness of a dome wall.

I am (or -we- are) at the planning stages of a domed pizza oven and have already reached a stall at the size brick in the walls. Is it a stupid idea to use a full header brick (tapered on 4 sides) as opposed to a half brick in the dome walls? If it comes down to a question of what will be cooked, I imagine it would be a whole bevy of things considering the current state of our electric oven.

I am interested in cooking breads, whilst dad wants to cook pizza, and on top of that we need somewhere to cook anything else you would cook in an oven these days.

Any suggestions will be appreciated,

Thanks,
Hayden.

[Neil2]

Re: Wall thickness

You are certainly asking the right question before you start - what are you going to be cooking in your oven ?.

Most of the pizza ovens on this site will have something like : 4 1/2 inches of refractory brick, a layer of refractory mortar (optional) 1/2 inch thick; 4 inches of vermicrete insulation. This is a versatile design, excellent for cooking pizza, has plenty of heat retention for next day slow roasting and (for something like a 40 inch dome) can easily do 5 to 6 loaves at a time.

Some larger ovens, designed primarily for baking larger batches of bread , may have a thicker brick layer. These, of course, take a lot more fuel to fire.

[GianniFocaccia]

Re: Wall thickness

Hayden,

I'd go with the dimensions indicated in the FB plans. As Neil2 said, the 4.5" wall thickness makes for a versatile oven that allows the home chef to cook pizza, roasts, bread, and anything else you can think of that will fit inside the oven cavity.

Remember, you have to burn wood to heat (load) the oven so it can give back it's wonderful radiant heat. The thicker the walls the longer (and more wood) it takes to bring to temperature. Unless you are planning on cooking and/or baking bread in your oven every night, I think a full-brick wall thickness might be a bit much.

Just my two cents worth.

[grone]

Re: Wall thickness

Thanks for that. I suppose 4.5" is the most practical (hence why everyone uses it). I have too many questions so I will have to open up a new query topic in here.

[wemme]

Re: Wall thickness

I have seen some posts around here in the cast refractory threads using around 50-75mm ~(2" to 3") thick.

[toyota08]

Re: Wall thickness

G'Day Hayden my oven 1/2 brick 4.5" thick works great 45 to 50 mins its up to pizza temp preheat from this give roast for dinner saturday and sunday.
see my build at "aussie mobile base oven thread"also on picasa web albums.
cheers ans good luck Peter.

[dmun]

Re: Wall thickness

One of our members is building a full brick thickness dome:



but it's important to note that this is a huge commercial oven that will be fired every day. I think that for a home oven that was intermittently fired it would take so long to get that thermal mass up to temperature that the effect would be similar to having an oven with no insulation.

Short form: you could do it, but I can't imagine why you would. 4.5 seems to be the sweet spot in oven thickness.