curing and keeping dry

[sharone]

Hello. We just received our oven from the factory yesterday, preassembled. The Toscana 100. Now I am looking at the directions and getting advice from other sources and have some concerns. One of my concerns, since we were planning on positioning the oven outdoors, is whether or not we need to worry about rain or water condensation at all. We do get freezes from time to time, and wouldn't any water in the oven..... say if it wasn't completely cured..... cause a crack when freezing??

The other thing another pizza oven expert told me was that the oven needs to be re-cured if it has been sitting for awhile.

So, really two questions:

1. I was planning on putting this outside and let it be rained on and snowed on. Is this REALLY a bad idea.

2. Is just one curing needed? Or, do I need to recure the oven after it has been sitting unused after.... say.... two weeks?

[james]

Re: curing and keeping dry

Hi Sharon,

James here. Welcome aboard.

Your Toscana can just sit out in the cold, rain and snow. It's will insulated and comes with weatherproof stucco. Keep the door closed when you aren't using it, to keep water out. I've said this before, but I've cooked in the snow and rain in a Casa90, and it works fine.

The basic theory is that the insulation that keeps heat in the oven, keeps cold out. The enclosure keeps it dry.

The Toscana has a brand new Casa100 inside, so you should follow the regular 7 day curing schedule. Slow raising the temperature every day, and taking a lot of care to never get the first fires too hot. Tammy has send you the curing instruction as a PDF. You can also find it online here:

http://www.fornobravo.com/forum/f16/...uring-767.html

Once you cure your oven, you don't need to specifically cure it again after a period of damp and not being used. Still, you will want to bring it up to heat a little more slowly, and give yourself more time to fire it and get ready to cook.

Enjoy!
James