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Hi,
I waited one week after assembling my oven before starting to fire it up. I started with small fires and let them burn out. Then after seven days, I think I made the fire too big and the temperature reached around 700 degrees on the floor and over 900 on the dome.
Anyway, noticed some long cracks (about 12 inches long) on the back wall, right wall, and left wall. In addition, a piece of the oven fell off (I looked to see where the next day but couldn't figure it out). There is also a crack developing right behind the arch. See pics. Its difficult to get a good pic of the cracks but they dont seem to be just small cracks - I mean they seem to be deep cracks.
My questions:
1. Are the cracks serious? Will it cause the oven to collapse?
2. Do I need to fix the cracks, and if so, with what?
3. Is there a fire hazard because of the cracks (the dome is covered with a ceramic blanket and then layered with 20 cms thick vermiculite granules). Should I remove these layers to see if the cracks have gone through the entire oven (i.e. visible on the outside)?
4. It is the rainy season here - so could this be contributing to more moisture in the dome?
5. Due to regulations here, I am considering changing to gas from firewood - anyone have any experience with this?
6. Oh, and finally, how do we get the ash off the floor really well if we cant use a damp cloth (i.e. there is always ash on my pizza).
Thanks,
Vern
I waited one week after assembling my oven before starting to fire it up. I started with small fires and let them burn out. Then after seven days, I think I made the fire too big and the temperature reached around 700 degrees on the floor and over 900 on the dome.
Anyway, noticed some long cracks (about 12 inches long) on the back wall, right wall, and left wall. In addition, a piece of the oven fell off (I looked to see where the next day but couldn't figure it out). There is also a crack developing right behind the arch. See pics. Its difficult to get a good pic of the cracks but they dont seem to be just small cracks - I mean they seem to be deep cracks.
My questions:
1. Are the cracks serious? Will it cause the oven to collapse?
2. Do I need to fix the cracks, and if so, with what?
3. Is there a fire hazard because of the cracks (the dome is covered with a ceramic blanket and then layered with 20 cms thick vermiculite granules). Should I remove these layers to see if the cracks have gone through the entire oven (i.e. visible on the outside)?
4. It is the rainy season here - so could this be contributing to more moisture in the dome?
5. Due to regulations here, I am considering changing to gas from firewood - anyone have any experience with this?
6. Oh, and finally, how do we get the ash off the floor really well if we cant use a damp cloth (i.e. there is always ash on my pizza).
Thanks,
Vern
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