Question about oven floor insulation

[wotavidone]

Re: Question about oven floor insulation

It's a male thing. Usually the size of the member is inversely proptional to the cubic capacity of the (oven) or motor of the car you drive.

I have a small 30 inch oven and a small 2 litre engine in my car. I regret to advise the inverse proportions thing seems to have passed me by somewhaat.

[Puma559]

Re: Question about oven floor insulation

I agree with others that this seems fixable. Do what Wotavidone recommends for the floor.

I would not recommend using splits on the floor. Use the firebrick you already have. Splits won't hold heat and if you don't want an oven that holds heat, there's really no sense adding insulation.

Also, I'd remove the red brick from the dome and insulate as others have suggested.

That's exactly what I'm going to do. I'm about to start pulling the layer if red brick off right now

[deejayoh]

Re: Question about oven floor insulation

I agree with others that this seems fixable. Do what Wotavidone recommends for the floor.

I would not recommend using splits on the floor. Use the firebrick you already have. Splits won't hold heat and if you don't want an oven that holds heat, there's really no sense adding insulation.

Also, I'd remove the red brick from the dome and insulate as others have suggested.

[Puma559]

Re: Question about oven floor insulation

I decided to pull the floor brick out and I'm thinking of putting in a 2 inch layer of vermiculite mix. Something is better than nothing by hay would bring my interior dome height to 15 inches. I saw bags of vermiculite and perlite at Home Depot. Is that the right stuff to use? I'm also going to try and remove the top layer of clay brick and add at least a 4-6 inch layer of the mix.

[david s]

Re: Question about oven floor insulation

It's a pretty huge turkey that's 10" high.
Take a tape measure to your supermarket.

It's a male thing. Usually the size of the member is inversely proptional to the cubic capacity of the (oven) or motor of the car you drive.

[BOOMERS WFO]

Re: Question about oven floor insulation

I have a 9.6 inch opening, I would not want it to be any lower than that, but 10 inches should be fine.
.

It always comes done to size!!!

[wotavidone]

Re: Question about oven floor insulation

Mate, you should be good to go. I take it from your description that the floor bricks are inside the dome walls. If this is the case, you just pull the bricks out, add some insulation, and put them back in. For example, if you added two inches of insulation, then your internal dome height would become 15 inches, and your opening height becomes 10 inches.
This brings the oven opening ratio down from 12/17=0.71 to 10/15 = 0.67.
Since most people reckon it should be 0.63 plus or minus a bit, this is good.
I have a 9.6 inch opening, I would not want it to be any lower than that, but 10 inches should be fine.
Then just insulate the heck out of the dome. It will work fine.

[Puma559]

Re: Question about oven floor insulation

As long as I can make pizza and roast different meats I'm happy with that. I'm going to test it out and see how it works. I can easily pull the hearth bricks out and add the insulation.

[Bacterium]

Re: Question about oven floor insulation

Puma559........my first oven was a pretty similar experience to yours - its under a thread. You will most likely get up to good temp and do nice pizza. It's the retained heat the next day where the biggest loss is. I found in comparison to others here you end up having to do pizza and bread in the one days firing, as opposed to a lot of bottom insulated ovens and can do successive loads here they can't really do bread until the next day. This is assuming pizza temps the night prior.


Doing what has been suggested so far will def. bring benefit and worth the effort.

[Laurentius]

Re: Question about oven floor insulation

Hi Puma,

Stop working on the oven, and put up some photos of your construction. Its better to make corrections at this point, than finishing something that be a disappointment forever.
Counting to 10 and allow the panic to subside, it will be alright in the end.

[stonecutter]

Re: Question about oven floor insulation

I think I can still pull the brick out of the hearth because I didn't mortar them. I'm thinking of putting down a one inch thick insulation board on top of the concrete and laying fire brick on top of the board. Do you think that would work?

Yes, it will work...use splits, as mentioned before.

Yah I can do that. The bricks are lose with no mortar. It would just raise the floor about an inch and give me a dome height of 15-16 inches. Is that too short of a dome?

If you built a Neapolitan (low dome) oven, that should be fine too.

[Puma559]

Re: Question about oven floor insulation

Yes you can - it will require more fuel to heat but the heat will stay longer - not a bad trade. In regard to the height, I did a quick google and found someone claiming the ideal height to be the diameter divided by 3.4. For your 36 inch that means a height of 10.6 inches. This is obviously for a pizza oven but there is no reason you couldn't bake in it if the heat is there.

Thanks for looking that up. I feel a little better knowing i don't have to tear down the top brick.

[Les]

Re: Question about oven floor insulation

Can I insulate over the clay brick?

Yes you can - it will require more fuel to heat but the heat will stay longer - not a bad trade. In regard to the height, I did a quick google and found someone claiming the ideal height to be the diameter divided by 3.4. For your 36 inch that means a height of 10.6 inches. This is obviously for a pizza oven but there is no reason you couldn't bake in it if the heat is there.

[Puma559]

Re: Question about oven floor insulation

Is there any reason you couldn't at least remove the center of the floor, then use proper insulation?

Yah I can do that. The bricks are lose with no mortar. It would just raise the floor about an inch and give me a dome height of 15-16 inches. Is that too short of a dome?

[Puma559]

Re: Question about oven floor insulation

I watched a couple videos on YouTube. I wish I wouls have found this forum before I started. I'm afraid of damaging the dome if pull the clay brick off. All I need is 2 more rows to complete the clay brick. Can I insulate over the clay brick? If I leave it as is then that means I'm going to be losing heat from done and floor. That sucks bad long as I can cook pizza and roast stuff I'll be happy.