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Re: Early planning, not so insulated
You don't have to use heatstop. You can go with the "homebrew" mortar referenced in the plans. You don't have to use the ceramic blanket insulation. You can go with the vermiculite or perlite, either mixed with portland or loose, depending on the kind of enclosure you want to make.
I used both heatstop and homebrew, and I didn't see much difference at all- either in the use or in the result. I have both blanket and vermicrete- I think the blanket's the cats meow, but I think the verm. works fine, you just need more inches of it.
Both of these options save you a lot of money- and if you don't think you'll use it for retained heat cooking, use the cheaper insulation- but NOT less of it. Dmun's right- use a smaller thickness, like 3 inches, to save heat up time. You will get 3 pieces out of every brick that way, too, and use fewer. If you use less insulation, you will have a heck of a time getting it up to temp- we've seen sooo many folks on here who didn't insulate enough (or at all!) and had to burn for hours to get one unsatisfactory pizza.
I built a 36, and I only cook one pizza at a time. It's too hard for me to deal with more than that- they're cooking in about 90 seconds, and I just can't keep them turned and not burned. I do bake bread in the oven, and I use my accumulated home made charcoal to grill- on my lovely FB tuscan grill. I also do beans, roasts, stews, beer can chickens, you name it.
If I were you, I'd go with the Primavera- really not that expensive when you consider that it's complete- stand and all- costs less than my double oven did! (and probably works better, but that's another lament...) The other choice would be a smaller than 36 inch oven. There's a whole foot's worth of difference between the 36 and the primavera- you could go with a 30! You can move a Primavera around, too. Not easily, but much more easily than the Pompeii.
I have a pizza stone and I also have unglazed quarry tiles for my inside oven, but they don't make pizza nearly as well as my Pompeii! They make good bread, though, when it's too rainy or too hot to fire up the Pompeii.
You don't have to use heatstop. You can go with the "homebrew" mortar referenced in the plans. You don't have to use the ceramic blanket insulation. You can go with the vermiculite or perlite, either mixed with portland or loose, depending on the kind of enclosure you want to make.
I used both heatstop and homebrew, and I didn't see much difference at all- either in the use or in the result. I have both blanket and vermicrete- I think the blanket's the cats meow, but I think the verm. works fine, you just need more inches of it.
Both of these options save you a lot of money- and if you don't think you'll use it for retained heat cooking, use the cheaper insulation- but NOT less of it. Dmun's right- use a smaller thickness, like 3 inches, to save heat up time. You will get 3 pieces out of every brick that way, too, and use fewer. If you use less insulation, you will have a heck of a time getting it up to temp- we've seen sooo many folks on here who didn't insulate enough (or at all!) and had to burn for hours to get one unsatisfactory pizza.
I built a 36, and I only cook one pizza at a time. It's too hard for me to deal with more than that- they're cooking in about 90 seconds, and I just can't keep them turned and not burned. I do bake bread in the oven, and I use my accumulated home made charcoal to grill- on my lovely FB tuscan grill. I also do beans, roasts, stews, beer can chickens, you name it.
If I were you, I'd go with the Primavera- really not that expensive when you consider that it's complete- stand and all- costs less than my double oven did! (and probably works better, but that's another lament...) The other choice would be a smaller than 36 inch oven. There's a whole foot's worth of difference between the 36 and the primavera- you could go with a 30! You can move a Primavera around, too. Not easily, but much more easily than the Pompeii.
I have a pizza stone and I also have unglazed quarry tiles for my inside oven, but they don't make pizza nearly as well as my Pompeii! They make good bread, though, when it's too rainy or too hot to fire up the Pompeii.
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