Used whole firebricks instead of half

[NCMan]

Re: Used whole firebricks instead of half

Is 2 inches of vermiculite insulation enough to hold in the heat? Do you have a door on it? If so,does it make a good seal to contain the heat?

[stonecutter]

Re: Used whole firebricks instead of half

You were told this was going to happen. There is a lot of mass to heat up and even when your masonry is dried out, it will still take many hours to saturate the oven....many more than an oven with half the mass.

[Wambat]

Re: Used whole firebricks instead of half

One good thing is the outside of my dome was cool. No heat at all.

I don't see this as being a "good thing". It means that your bricks still have a long way to heat up before they saturate!

[NCMan]

Re: Used whole firebricks instead of half

I don't see this as being a "good thing". It means that your bricks still have a long way to heat up before they saturate!

I agree. Just as Stonecutter has said before, that's a whole lot of mass to heat up and hardly any insulation to contain what he is generating. It'd be interesting, if he has a door, to close it up and see how it contains heat. I would guess the rest of the unheated mass would just suck it right up, regardless of how much insulation it has.

[Mexman]

Re: Used whole firebricks instead of half

You are right Stonecutter, you told me and maybe I should have listened to you.
My decision to not tear it down and start it over was based on several things.
One, the contractor that was building mine had just built one six months before for a friend of mine. He had never built a WFO before. We live in Mexico and there are thousands of wood ovens down here for baking bread.
He based his design on other peoples bread ovens. He built my friends oven out of regular bricks, 8 inch thick walls with a lava Rock base two foot thick.
This is twice the thermal mass I have. The dome is covered with clay mixed with horse manure.
I was over at his house a couple weeks ago for a Pizza party. His oven got to 900 degrees in two hours.
My oven ( except for the 8 inch dome walls) is built to FB specks
My concrete base floor is floating on rebar , I have a two inch FB slab under the fribricks and I have a very good dome insulation.
I was hoping all this would make a difference
On a side note, my friends WFO cost 4,000 pesos to build ( $350)
Mine cost over 20,000 Pesos to build. Same contractor.
The difference was the cost of materials and extra labor.
Down here in mexico, reg bricks are 20 cents each. Fire bricks are over $3.00 each. Plus, I had a lot of tile around my oven and also it's painted.
I wish I knew how to post a photo, in this forum.
I looked how to post a photo and it said to enter the URL of the photo. Mine are on my computer, don't have a URL

[deejayoh]

Re: Used whole firebricks instead of half

I guess the glass half-full view of this might be that if you plan to use the oven frequently (say every 3-4 days) it should have a lot of retained heat and you'll be able to get it back to cooking temps quickly.

If you let it cool completely between uses, you're looking at long heat-up times like others have said

Edit: Oh, and if you want to add a picture (yes please!) you can upload it from your computer using the little paper-clip icon in the "advanced" post tool

[Mexman]

Re: Used whole firebricks instead of half

My wife and I want to have a pizza party every Friday night. We plan on inviting about six people. So, we will plan to fire up our oven once a week. The retained heat Will not be an advantage to us, as I'm sure it will cool down in 6 days
I hope my photo gets uploaded correctly.

[deejayoh]

Re: Used whole firebricks instead of half

Well, she's sure pretty! Picture showed up fine.

You could fire it up thursday night and get it up to temp then throw on a door to snuff the fire/retain the heat. If it is well insulated, it will probably be 400-500 degrees the next afternoon and only take 30 minutes to reheat. It's really easy to start a fire in a hot oven.

[UtahBeehiver]

Re: Used whole firebricks instead of half

Mexman,

Been following your thread for a while so here is my 2 cents worth. What done is done and you have to work with what you have. That said, with only three cure fires, I agree with Laurentis that you dome may still have quite a bit of water in it. With the amount of mortar used for full bricks and the vermiculite insulation there will be quite a bit of mechanical water left, I think David S. from Aussie land had a formula that steam from water was some exponential volume. Be patient, continue with slow and progressive curing and cook something while your at it.

I was in Cerritos, MX last year and had pizza from a WFO, the oven had zero insulation on dome and floor. They also cook pollo in cast iron pans so all it not lost. Enjoy your oven.

[stonecutter]

Re: Used whole firebricks instead of half

I wasn't trying to sound like you had to do what I said, sorry if it came off that way. All that was said was just information for you to contemplate. Often times build discussion is idealistic, which doesn't always mean the best for every situation. Enjoy the oven.

[Mexman]

Re: Used whole firebricks instead of half

No, I didn't take that way at all and I appreciate your comments. That was what I was looking for.
I'm going to use the oven for a few months until I go on aMonth long vacation.
At that time, if the oven is not satisfactory, I will have the contractor tear down the dome, saw the bricks in half and rebuild it. One nice thing in Mexico, labor is cheap and since I will not have to buy much material the cost will be very little.
Today, after 2.5 hours of fire, the oven was around 600 degrees. I didn't tear it down before because I'm in a hurry and want a Pizza

[Laurentius]

Re: Used whole firebricks instead of half

Hi Mexman,

Don`t tear it down, I wish I had use whole instead of half bricks. Think of it as a deluxe rather than standard! If its insulated properly then you have a winner. Stop worrying, start cooking!

[Mexman]

Re: Used whole firebricks instead of half

I'm getting excited about my oven. Havn't baked a Pizza yet, just building a small fire and curing it. Today I decided to build a big fire and get the temp up to 800-900 degrees. I ran out of wood and stopped today at a roadside vender.
Down here in Mexico, since I don't speak Spanish, I never know what kind of wood I'm getting. He understood the word "pizza" Se, Senior, and pointed to some kind of wood that looked like hardwood.
I loaded my truck up with it.
I don't know if it's the type of wood or my oven is drying out, but the oven temp was up to 600 Degrees in 25 min. It's still going right now, so I don't know what temp it will get to.
My one concern is the firebrick floor. It was installed when I was gone for a few days. When I saw the gaps, I complained to my contractor. It turns out, the brick manuf. Here in Mex. Don't have close tolerance . Each brick is slightly difference in size. Hind site , they need to be sanded to the exact size.
If they cause me a problem with uneven heat, I can always remove them and sand them to fit or use thick tile

[UtahBeehiver]

Re: Used whole firebricks instead of half

The gaps fill up with ash anyway. Move onward.