Typical heat up characteristic

[hodgey1]

Hello All,

I completed the brick portion of my 42" WFO project about a month ago and have been using it regularly. The oven is working great, the floor and dome are heating up and staying hot nicely. I am firing my oven with seasoned hardwood "Cherry-Oak-Maple" from where I live in NW Pennsylvania and using the techniques described here and in the book "The Art of Wood Fired Cooking".

I thought I'd read along the way that the Pompeii ovens should be ready to cook pizza in 45 minutes, which would be really nice. From cold, my oven is taking around 90 to 120 minutes to clear dome, walls and have floor up to 750*. I'm able to turn out 10 pies before my floor drops below 650*.

While 1 1/2 - 2 hours isn't awful, I sure would prefer 45min. I'm not complaining because it is working great and turning out some beautiful pies. I'm more curious of what other peoples experiences are with their back yard builds that used medium duty fire bricks and the higher dome construction. My dome is 21" high with a arched inner opening is 12" at it's highest. Please respond if you would with the following in addition to any comments you may have.

. Size of WFO
. heat up time
. Your pizza cooking temps
. how often you have to recharge the floor when cooking multiple pies

Thanks,
Chris

[nachtwacht]

Re: Typical heat up characteristic

Probably also very interesting would be:

Which material is your oven dome and floor build of ? (stones, high or medium duty or refractory mortar etc)

Also, what type of oven (round, square, how high dome and entry)

How much and wich kind of insulation did you use ?


My results have to wait a little, I am in the process of curing it but I think between 90 minutes and 2 hours would be normal.

[deejayoh]

Re: Typical heat up characteristic

I don't know of anyone who has said their oven gets hot in <60 minutes. 90 is pretty common but if your oven is new it is probably still a bit moist and would take longer.

I can usually get mine to temp in 75-90 minutes - floor over 800. As to the floor temp dropping - I usually keep mine up around 700 by keeping a good flame going. It shouldn't drop too much if you are managing the fire - I don't generally recharge unless I let the fire die down too much - and then I usually shift the banking to the other side and that does the trick

[david s]

Re: Typical heat up characteristic

Some people make extravagant claims about their oven heat up times like "ready to cook in 30 mins" In practice the oven heat up time is generally a function of wall thickness to time. A smaller oven does not really heat up faster because the chamber volume and therefore fire is also smaller. My oven is 540 mm in diam. hemisphere and has 60 mm walls and a 50 mm floor. If the oven is pretty dry and the wood also dry and good burning stuff then it clears in about 75 mins. This is enough to cook 3 or 4 2 min pizzas which we often do during the week. If cooking for more people I fire for 2 hrs but need to let the oven sit for a bit to allow the floor to cool, then maintain a fire on the side and I can cook 2 min pizzas all night. If cooking a roast I only partially heat the oven i.e.one hour of flame then push aside the small amount of coals left, place the roast and seal the door. The coals die rapidly because of lack of oxygen and the temp drops from around 250 C to 180 C on removal.

[SCChris]

Re: Typical heat up characteristic

It'll clear in 90minutes but I give my oven a couple of hours to come to working temps.. I'm not much for hurrying when it comes to the oven..

Chris

[Tscarborough]

Re: Typical heat up characteristic

I can cook a pizza or 2 in mine in 45 minutes but it really needs a couple of hours for multiple pizzas

[boerwarrior]

Re: Typical heat up characteristic

I can clear my 32 inch oven dome in about 75 minutes - but I try to fire it longer especially if I am cooking more than 1-2 pizza's

[davemartin88]

Re: Typical heat up characteristic

My oven is about the same age as yours and takes about 90-120 minutes to really clear the oven- starts to clear a bit earlier but I've learned to keep the fire roaring for the entire dome to clear. Last time I fired, oven was still showing about 225 degrees about 48 hours later.

[hodgey1]

Re: Typical heat up characteristic

I don't know of anyone who has said their oven gets hot in <60 minutes. 90 is pretty common but if your oven is new it is probably still a bit moist and would take longer.

I can usually get mine to temp in 75-90 minutes - floor over 800. As to the floor temp dropping - I usually keep mine up around 700 by keeping a good flame going. It shouldn't drop too much if you are managing the fire - I don't generally recharge unless I let the fire die down too much - and then I usually shift the banking to the other side and that does the trick

DJ
The under 60 min time came from page 7 of the FB Pompeii oven plans v2.0 , see below.

Chris

Why Build a Pompeii Brick Oven

Instead of a Barrel Vault Oven

1. The round Pompeii Oven design heats up much more

quickly than a barrel vault oven -- less than an hour,

compared with 2-3 hours or more for the heavier

rectangular oven. The round dome is self-standing (as is

the Duomo in Florence), so it does not require concrete

cladding to hold it together. Because the barrel vault has a

great deal of outward thrust, it needs a lot of concrete for

buttressing. As a result, the round oven can be much

thinner; 2?-4?, compared with a 9?+ thick barrel vault dome.

[Polo]

Re: Typical heat up characteristic

DJ
The under 60 min time came from page 7 of the FB Pompeii oven plans v2.0 , see below.

Chris

Why Build a Pompeii Brick Oven

Instead of a Barrel Vault Oven

1. The round Pompeii Oven design heats up much more

quickly than a barrel vault oven -- less than an hour,

compared with 2-3 hours or more for the heavier

rectangular oven. The round dome is self-standing (as is

the Duomo in Florence), so it does not require concrete

cladding to hold it together. Because the barrel vault has a

great deal of outward thrust, it needs a lot of concrete for

buttressing. As a result, the round oven can be much

thinner; 2?-4?, compared with a 9?+ thick barrel vault dome.

LOL.........Can you say P-R-O-P-A-G-A-N-D-A

To be fair, I would say that the Pompeii is defintely going to heat up much faster, but 45 minutes is wishful thinking at its best.

[david s]

Re: Typical heat up characteristic

LOL.........Can you say P-R-O-P-A-G-A-N-D-A

To be fair, I would say that the Pompeii is defintely going to heat up much faster, but 45 minutes is wishful thinking at its best.

Yeah, "heat up", but to what degree? Certainly not enough to cook a pizza properly.

[jbruning]

Re: Typical heat up characteristic

My experience is similar to what others have indicated, about two hours for my 42 inch with 4 1/2 inch walls. Maybe a little less once with a wicked big fire, but then it seemed to pant and puff smoke out the front so I don't burn it that wild. It certainly isn't saturated in 2 hours but retains enough heat to cook several pies. One of these days when I get the thermocouples hooked up I'll provide some more detailed results.

[hodgey1]

Re: Typical heat up characteristics

Hello All,

I completed the brick portion of my 42" WFO project about a month ago and have been using it regularly. The oven is working great, the floor and dome are heating up and staying hot nicely. I am firing my oven with seasoned hardwood "Cherry-Oak-Maple" from where I live in NW Pennsylvania and using the techniques described here and in the book "The Art of Wood Fired Cooking".

I thought I'd read along the way that the Pompeii ovens should be ready to cook pizza in 45 minutes, which would be really nice. From cold, my oven is taking around 90 to 120 minutes to clear dome, walls and have floor up to 750*. I'm able to turn out 10 pies before my floor drops below 650*.

While 1 1/2 - 2 hours isn't awful, I sure would prefer 45min. I'm not complaining because it is working great and turning out some beautiful pies. I'm more curious of what other peoples experiences are with their back yard builds that used medium duty fire bricks and the higher dome construction. My dome is 21" high with a arched inner opening is 12" at it's highest. Please respond if you would with the following in addition to any comments you may have.

. Size of WFO
. heat up time
. Your pizza cooking temps
. how often you have to recharge the floor when cooking multiple pies

Thanks,
Chris

It would seem from all the replies here that a 90 to 120 minute heat-up time for a oven is about the norm. Saturday night I cooked twelve 2 - 3 minute pies with a nice live fire. I started with a floor temp of 750* after 2 hr preheat, an 1 1/2hrs later and 10+ pies the floor had dropped down below 600* and needed recharged. Should have I preheated longer or just recharge once the floor temp started to dip?

If people could, please comment on their particular recharging of their oven floors during large events and cooking multiple pies in a row.

Chris

[stonecutter]

Re: Typical heat up characteristic

If you waited a little longer during heat up, the oven will quickly recharge the floor, with a steady flame from a bed of coals. Moving pizza to different spots helps too.

That is the benefit of heating your oven longer before using it. There is more heat stored in the mass, and a steady fire will automatically recharge the floor. A saturated oven is better for oven management during use. And you won't have to shovel coals around and work harder to keep things even.

[deejayoh]

Re: Typical heat up characteristic

If I am cooking a lot of pies I will move the banked fire from once side to the other at some point. Then I can cook where the fire was and the other side gets heated. Seems to work fine and takes 2 minutes.