Increased insulation for Primavera 70

[Steve Denvir]

I’m probably borrowing trouble here. I don’t even have my Primavera 70 up on its foundation (this week), but I’m concerned about it holding heat for bread baking. If I make pizza on Friday night, can I reliably bake bread on Saturday morning? One load? Two?

And if I were to try to add insulation, where would I have the most impact? Adding insulation to the door? Building a superstructure over the oven and adding insulation?

thanks in advance for responses. I’m really excited about getting it fired up and starting to cook, and the info on the forums here, while a little overwhelming, is hugely helpful.

Steve.

[david s]

Bread ovens generally have more thermal mass than cast modular ovens like a Primavera. This is because a brick oven requires much thicker walls than a cast oven,to maintain structural integrity which requires wide mortar joints. They are usually twice as thick as a cast oven walls, which means more than twice the thermal mass. Adding more insulation to an oven that has a lower thermal mass won't help that much if it hasn't enough heat storage in the first place. It's no big deal to start another fire in the morning to boost up the temperature a little. How much bread do you want to bake? I don't fully charge my oven to bake bread. I fire it for exactly one hour, by which time the oven is beginning to clear at the top of the dome. I then let the flame die, push aside the coals insert the bread tin and close the door. 30 mins later have a couple of beautiful loaves. It is important not to have any flame still alight when putting in the bread, otherwise it results in the wood smoking when the door is placed. This gives the bread an unpleasant smoky flavour, fine for a roast but yucky for bread.