complete novice

[phil.T]

Just a few questions if I may?
I completely green to wood fired ovens so whats the difference between steel fabricated ovens compaired to brick ovens in the end product?,I don't have the time to make an oven can anyone suggest a good oven? size is a little problem I have a spot that is 1100mm deep & 1500mm wide so that may have to be taken into consideration?
any other advice would be gladly accepted
Thanks Phil

[Fairview WFO]

Re: complete novice

Sorry, you'll have to divide that by 2.54 before we can answer that here in Texas.

[Fairview WFO]

Re: complete novice

check that, divide by 25.4....forgot you gave us mm and not cm. when do you list dimensions in cm? Or do you alway use mm?

Seriously, if you've ever been to a wood fired pizza restaurant you know the difference in wood fired vs. a regular pizza oven...its the wood and the way the stored heat in the masonry cooks evenly. You can buy a cheep metal oven with a heating element in it, but it will not cook the same or tast the same as a wood fired oven. If you don't want to build, check out the prefab ovens Fornobravo offers...good choices and you can find dimensions to check your tolerance. good luck.

[nissanneill]

Re: complete novice

Hi phil and welcome aboard,
the second that I have acknowledged tonight and also from that wonderful city of Sydney.
There are numerous pre manufactured ovens on the market which might suit your needs but unless you make a brick or refractory material oven, you won't get to the required temperatures to cook your pizzas and they won't taste anywhere near as good.
You set a roaring fire in them for around an hour, get the inside up to around 500˚C (1000˚F) and you will cook your pizzas in a minute, NO joke! The bases are made with a higher water content (around 65% hydration) which copes with the higher temperatures and much shorter cooking times.
The mass produced and commercial pizzas cook in electric (or some may even be gas fired) but tale 5-8 minutes to cook and although they tast good, they are not a patch on the wood fired especially the ones that you build yourself.
James (the founder of this forum and owner of FB), says to keep watching this space, as he has plans for opening a branch here in Australia and the range of Forno Bravo ovens at very competitive prices.
However, with your limited space for an oven, I would seriously look at building a slightly wider than deep oven, after all, who s aid that a wood fired oven has to be round!!!
If you are wanting to build one, you will need to decide exactly what you want to use it for, eg. if for pizzas only, you could cut the bricks into thirds and have a 3" thick dome, great for fast heatup and pizzas but not so good for baking as there will be less brick to absorb the heat and release it for baking. My oven is a 40" Pompeii made with half bricks, ie 4 1/2" thick but takes up more room.
What I would suggest is to use the 1/3rd brick thickness and insulate it with 2-3" of superwool thermal insulation so the overall wall thickness would be 3+3" and not 8" thick as mine is (4 1/2" brick, 1" superwool and 3" vermiculite cement and topped with 1/2" render).

I have a spot that is 1100mm deep & 1500mm wide so that may have to be taken into consideration?

This causes a real problem as you could build an oven with 150mm thick walls that is 850mm deep x 1350 wide BUT you need to include a void for your chimney or just let the smoke spill out of the front oven opening and caught and directed into a flue. Nothing is impossible, just needs to work it through
Can you take a pic of the area that you would like to use and post it so that we can see what you are faced with.

Neill

[dmun]

Re: complete novice

43 by 59 inches is a small space for a wood oven. Even with a thinner wall modular oven, and space age insulation, that leaves you with a relatively small cooking area.

[nissanneill]

Re: complete novice

Phil,
check out the posting:

http://www.fornobravo.com/forum/f3/f...lia-10575.html

Forno Bravo is now in Australia.
Have a look at the ovens offered and see if they fit into your space.


Neill

[phil.T]

Re: complete novice

Thanks for that advice Guys .
It seem i may have to do a little more planning, I'm not in a rush so i'll do a bit of re- thinking to see if i can gat a little bit more space
Thanks phil