How much soot?

[CanuckJim]

Re: How much soot?

Aeaneas, James,

Should have thought to post this earlier. In winter, my inside fireplace, which has a very short total flue, will smoke if I don't roll up a piece of newspaper and do exactly what your fireman friend demonstrated. This isn't a problem with my outdoor oven; the flue seems to heat up right away. Perhaps it's the temp differential between inside, heated air and the cold air of the flue (clay liner) with my fireplace. By contrast, the air temps with the outdoor oven are pretty close to equal most of the time, at least when the fire is first started. Again, though, I put on the draft door once the kindling has caught and the first six or so bigger bits have been tossed on. This really gets the draw going.

Jim

[aeneas1]

Re: How much soot?

i've noticed that if a fire is started in an indoor fireplace or pizza oven the smoke often has a tendency to want to flow out into the living area - however, if you open a nearby door prior to starting the fire, a draft is created and the smoke will immediately make its way to the chimney.

as far as the look of soot on the face of the oven is concerned, i agree with an earlier poster that it adds to the character of the oven. but this is not a look that you want if you are planning to install your oven in a restaurant/commercial environment - unless you want to be forced to shell out another $10k-$15k for a mechanical type 1 ventillation hood fitted with an automatic fire supression system.

for commercial applications many types of refractory wood burning pizza ovens, such as many of the ones discussed in this forum, are allowable (assuming ul/etl certification) and given hood exemptions by environmental health agencies, building departments and fire departments because of their efficient designs which allows for efficient direct venting. but if you want to get such an exemption yanked, one of the best ways to do it is have your oven show signs that smoke is escaping from the front of the oven into the cooking area - soot on the face of the oven would be such a sign.