Closing down at the end of cooking-residential

[Wobster]

Newbie to FB oven. When is it safe to put the door in place after a wood fired session (I have gas burner too)? When it is down to glowing coals? Fire totally out? I want to retain as much heat as possible.

[JRPizza]

What is your door made of?
My door is steel and I close off the oven when I think leaving it open will lose more heat than what the dying embers are providing. I spread out the glowing coals to disperse the heat and plug it up. I have heard folks say you don't want to put the door on an active fire as you can get some sort of backdraft if you reopen the oven while it is still hot, but I have never done so as I like to get all the BTU's out of the wood I can. If you are using your gas burner you obviously want that off and the flame extinguished before closing up.

[Wobster]

My Door is steel (Vesuvio model). Had not thought about spreading out the ashes, good idea! I was aware that one should probably not close down with active flames, but was uncertain after that. Appreciate your reply.

[cobblerdave]

G’day
A good thing is that we you open the oven up when it’s cold you have charcoal. You’ve got to let cool completely and watch the coals still live in the ash. I put it in a 20 litre steel drum to cool completely remove the charcoal and the ashes to the bin or garden later that week
Regards Dave