pompei vs prefab domes.

[steve]

hi All. New member.

have not started project and looking for some general info.

I want an efficient oven. Is the pompei as good as the prefab ovens from fornobravo i.e. the casa 90. They have told me the casa 90 will heat up in 45 min. not hours. Is the pompei as efficient or should I just build the slab, stand, and enclosure and buy the dome? I do think I could probably save at least $1000 and have the satisfaction of building the whole thing but I would like the best functioning oven. 4 kids and limited time!

Any thoughts?

Steve

[christo]

effiencies

I'm pretty sure James will reply, but here's my opinion on a pizza oven.

If I was not so bent on doing things my self - I'd go the prefab route.

I can see how the cast ovens can heat up much more quickly. Strong and thin.

Not so good for baking bread.......

If you are a bread baker you can increase the thermal mass (cladding) as well. so that's not so bad, either.

I'm pretty sure by the time I put all the labor into my oven, it would be cheaper to buy the prefab unit...... But I'm having a really good time planning it all out and learning from this list!!!


Christo

[steve]

reply on prefab domes

thanks for the info christo. I think I would use the oven mostly for pizza but haven`t thought much of baking bread. I do like the idea of doing the whole thing myself but I need effeciency and if the prefab domes heat up alot quicker I would probably go the prefab route. thanks.

P.S. nice TR-4. I have a TR-6, carmine red, overdrive. Sold a TR-3 last year.

[james]

Precast vs. site built

Hey Steve,

The Forno Bravo precast ovens (including the Artigiano, as well as the Casa and Premio) are definitely a more secure and reliable choice. The oven chambers are perfect shaped, the cooking floors are smooth, pie-shaped pieces, every oven is made with high-end alumina refractory materials (no portland cement and no clay), they come with the vent and door, etc., so you really can't go wrong. Guaranteed fast heat up, even cooking, good high-heat retention (essential for cooking pizza) and good baking heat retention. I don't think it is fair to say they aren't good at bread -- you can make 20+ loaves from a single firing, and you get even heat and great oven moisture and bread spring. I wouldn't run a commercial bakery from one, but other than that, they are very good at baking and roasting.

If you install a precast oven yourself you will definitely get the thrill of "doing it yourself" -- complete with sore muscles and a couple of scraped knuckles. Plus, you can focus your energy on the enclosure, not the dome and vent.

That said, you can save some money building your own oven chamber, and you get the thrill of building your own dome and vent. There is a definite "I did that" factor. Still, biting off the oven dome and vent requires commitment -- the pizza of gnomes don't keep working on your oven when you aren't doing it.

I worked in Silicon Valley in the early days of networking, and we joked that the "enthusiast" in IT was the guy who liked it when the network broke so they could de-bug it and learn more. Those same guys owned MGBs. I get the feeling from this group that there are folks who love setting every brick.

As you can see from our group, we have both happy Forno Bravo precast owners and happy Forno Bravo Pompeii oven builders. That's the good news; you really can't go "wrong", and however you go, you will love your oven, use it all the time and make better pizza than you can buy in any restuarant. You choice is "good" or "good".

Hope this helps.
James