Thoughts on using a pizza oven as a firebox for a brick smoker?

[copper4X]

I have a offset smoker I made from cheap cinder blocks, which obviously isn't very sustainable and will fall apart some day. So I was considering making a new more permanent smoker with brick. And that got me thinking, why not just make the firebox basically the same design as a pizza/brick oven?

Specifically I think connecting the flue straight into a smoke chamber (which would have its own stack of course) would work best. On the smoking side of things I am fairly certain this would work. You can make a smoker out of pretty much anything after all. I don't think the firebox getting too hot would be an issue. You can always control how much heat is going through by how much fuel (wood) you're giving the whole system.

The connection from the firebox to the smoke chamber would be similar to how the goldee's offset works. Where they just have an angle pipe connecting their firebox and smoke chamber. Except of course that's all metal, and this would be brick.


I'm not sure if the flue from a brick oven really has any serious restraints. Outside of needing to draw some air. You see people have all kinds of different flues for their pizza ovens. Some indoors and basically a chimney. And some very short. So I assume as long as the flue is drawing air well, it's good. If having it permanently connected to a smoke chamber is a potentially bad idea, I could simply have a damper to open the flue up right above the oven/firebox. Which might be a good to have anyways, I'm really not sure.

Assuming there is nothing wrong with this idea, any thoughts on what type of brick oven to use?
I sort of naturally gravitate to the more square designs, because that's just what a smoker firebox normally is. But, after reading the forum a little it appears the round design is more efficient at heating up. And I think a round firebox is just fine. Also appears using refractory creates a more efficient design than just brick. Probably the biggest question would be what size to go for. And for that, I am really not sure at all what size I would want.


I appreciate any opinions or concerns about this idea.

[printheineken]

I have a offset smoker I made from cheap cinder blocks, which obviously isn't very sustainable and will fall apart some day. So I was considering making a new more permanent smoker with brick. And that got me thinking, why not just make the firebox basically the same design as a pizza/brick oven?

Specifically I think connecting the flue straight into a smoke chamber (which would have its own stack of course) would work best. On the smoking side of things I am fairly certain this would work. You can make a smoker out of pretty much anything after all. I don't think the firebox getting too hot would be an issue. You can always control how much heat is going through by how much fuel (wood) you're giving the whole system.

The connection from the firebox to the smoke chamber would be similar to how the goldee's offset works. Where they just have an angle pipe connecting their firebox and smoke chamber. Except of course that's all metal, and this would be brick.


I'm not sure if the flue from a brick oven really has any serious restraints. Outside of needing to draw some air. You see people have all kinds of different flues for their pizza ovens. Some indoors and basically a chimney. And some very short. So I assume as long as the flue is drawing air well, it's good. If having it permanently connected to a smoke chamber is a potentially bad idea, I could simply have a damper to open the flue up right above the oven/firebox. Which might be a good to have anyways, I'm really not sure.

Assuming there is nothing wrong with this idea, any thoughts on what type of brick oven to use?
I sort of naturally gravitate to the more square designs, because that's just what a smoker firebox normally is. But, after reading the forum a little it appears the round design is more efficient at heating up. And I think a round firebox is just fine. Also appears using refractory creates a more efficient design than just brick. Probably the biggest question would be what size to go for. And for that, I am really not sure at all what size I would want.


I appreciate any opinions or concerns about this idea.

Your idea of combining a brick oven design with an offset smoker sounds intriguing! The concept of using a round firebox and considering refractory material for efficiency makes sense. The damper idea for flexibility also sounds practical. As for the size, it depends on your smoking needs. Square or round, both can work well; it's a matter of personal preference. Just ensure proper airflow for the flue, and you should be on your way to a unique and efficient smoker. Good luck with your project!

[NewEnglandNewb]

There is a YouTube video of a guy who built a WFO / smoker combo. He did the opposite of what you are suggesting though. The dome of the WFO is the smoke chamber with a separate fire box feeding it. I actually found this forum because he mentions it in the video. I haven’t come across a build thread for his oven on this forum though.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2vuY2kL5bw

[UtahBeehiver]

FYI, A chimney going through the top of the dome is not a very efficient thermal design. Be sure to look at the free eplans from Forno Bravo on dome ovens.

[copper4X]

There is a YouTube video of a guy who built a WFO / smoker combo. He did the opposite of what you are suggesting though. The dome of the WFO is the smoke chamber with a separate fire box feeding it. I actually found this forum because he mentions it in the video. I haven’t come across a build thread for his oven on this forum though.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2vuY2kL5bw

This is a very cool build, and I believe I have seen the video before. What he made is not not dissimilar from a lot french brick ovens. Those seem to often have a firebox. Sometimes right below the main oven, and sometimes kind of to the side and below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oiAbC-wOds
This video is one such example. When I first saw one of these specific brick ovens my very first though was how it was similar to an offset smoker.


The reason why I didn't want to go with that idea is because smoking in a dome would be totally different from a typical steel offset (or the cinder block smoker I made). And I'm not sure if it'd work well for brisket. For brisket (and not just brisket, but it's my favorite BBQ meat, so I'm using it as the example) you want all the hot air to flow over the fat cap. And you want to avoid heat coming form the bottom, or pretty much any other direction. There are also of course direct heat smokers, where you'd smoke the brisket fat cap down, and all your heat would come from the bottom and only the bottom. Either way, you want a very predictable flow of hot air, so you can position your meat correctly. In a dome, I don't even know how the airflow would work. Personally I really would not want to smoke a brisket in a dome oven.

Now don't get me wrong, you can of course smoke things that way. Heck, you can apparently smoke in a normal brick pizza oven. But I doubt I could get as good of brisket in something like that, than I can in the cinder block offset smoker I made. I first started smoking briskets on a green egg. And I made some decent brisket. But once I built the cinder block smoker, the brisket I made was much better. Shouldn't be a surprise, it was purpose built for it unlike the egg.


With my version of having the firebox and pizza oven be the same, the smoke chamber can still be purpose built for good airflow.

[david s]

FYI, A chimney going through the top of the dome is not a very efficient thermal design. Be sure to look at the free eplans from Forno Bravo on dome ovens.

Whilst a central flue at the top of the dome (updraft system) is not particularly efficient , it does have some advantages. Having built a number of kilns, I was fairly familiar with updraft, cross draft and downdraft systems and was drawn to the Roman kiln designs (central flue in the centre of a hemispherical chamber) for a wood fired oven.
When firing their kilns with the chamber full of wares, the flames had plenty of chance to heat those wares before exiting at the flue. Unfortunately firing an empty chamber as we do with our ovens the flames leap straight for the flue and a fair amount of heat is lost. By having a cross draft system as in the type of oven most builders here build and use, the flame is drawn across the roof of the dome then pulled out at the door, before exiting into the flue. This uses the full length of the flame with less heat loss. The downside is that you have an entry to work past making access and management of the oven interior more difficult. The central flue updraft system has no flue gallery and is far easier to work.
Also as all oven owners have found, their ovens are quite smoky at start up until the flue develops enough power through heating to provide sufficient draw to suck the smoke out and prevent it from going out the front.
When visiting Pompeii I was surprised to see many small updraft ovens inside individual homes. I thought they all would be modelled on the famous large oven which was the Bakery, the oven the so called Pompeii Oven was modelled on. Pondering this discovery I realised the reason. You would prefer an oven that was a little less efficient to one that smoked up your whole house. For a commercial bakery that would be fired every day and probably never cooled down, a more efficient system would be the better choice.
Today nearly everyone has their ovens outside, so the smoke issue is far smaller than the efficiency one.
Many, usually first time builders, think they can come up with an improved design without realising that there have been billions of solutions experimented with over the past few thousand years and the popularity of the hemisphere with a front, cross-draft flue, consistently comes out the winner.

[copper4X]

Does anyone have blender models of a fornobravo pizza oven? I searched blender on the site and just got people talking about using an actual blender (go figure).
If anyone has any other modelling software suggestions over blender, that's also fine. I just like FOSS.

I live in an apartment, so won't be able to build anything till this housing market gets better (or if I talk my dad into letting me build a brick oven/smoker at his house). Hence why I'm only just now bothering to work more on this idea conceptually.

In the meantime I want to try and make some basic models on what I'm considering building.