Large WFO in India

[GarnerAC]

Re: Large WFO in India

Great looking place! Post some photos of your Pies

[Sparky005s]

Re: Large WFO in India

What a terrific addition to your business. Are your other pizza ovens still in use? If so, which oven type do your customers seem to prefer?

[SCChris]

Re: Large WFO in India

How is the bread making going? I know initially you wanted to make several hundred loaves of bread per day.

If I ever am in your neighborhood, I'll make it a point to drop in.

Chris

[1 strover]

Re: Large WFO in India

as promised here are a few pictures of the oven now
the second picture shows a the area behind the door which wasnt used at all and acted as an ash collection area covered up .
the third picture shows the new ss chimney.
added next is a close to 360 degree shot of my restaurant from above the oven.
and the last one is from one of the sides of the restaurant.

[1 strover]

Re: Large WFO in India

Greetings
its been long , very long since i posted.
its been over a year that the wfo has been running without a break. we made a few modifications on the oven during the year.
1) i noticed that the supporting wall on the left of the oven was giving way, we replaced it with a 12 inch steel reenforced concrete wall in place of the old 4inch brick wall. this was done in january.
2) during the same time i also replace the canopy above the restaurant and the oven.
3) also replaced the aluminium sheet metal chimney to a stainless steel sheet metal one with an internal dampener.
i shall add a few more pictures in the next post.

[zapparelli]

Re: Large WFO in India

This has been a great read - I'm looking at upgrading my oven and to see all of this in action has been great - all the best, Zap

[brickie in oz]

Re: Large WFO in India

If you put the damper below the cast iron pipes you shouldnt need to insulate them as most of the heat will stay trapped in the oven.

[1 strover]

Re: Large WFO in India

You cant have too much insulation, each pizza takes some heat from the oven insulation may stop some of the losses.

200kgs of wood is a lot of wood, but it is a big oven.
A door and flue cap or damper will retain more heat, all insulated of course.

Edit:-
Rolling the dough will give you a thin crisp crust, stretching the dough without the rolling pin will give you a thick fluffy crust.

so u will go ahead and order the insulation .
I do have a flue cap but I think the draw is too much as my chimney is tall and is pretty wide too 18 inches by 9 inches, I have made a provision for a dampner which I will put in once I close down for a couple of days as it is crazy hot
. I was thinking of getting a couple of cast iron or stoneware pipes for the chimney ,should I insulate then as well?

[1 strover]

Re: Large WFO in India

This is probably the reason you have a large crack on the left hand side and the fallen arch bricks. Are there similar problems on the back wall?
Now the thing has moved the cracks probably won't get any worse.
1000 pizzas /day is phenomenal
How come the temp is only 275 ?

no crack on the rear wall as it is just a plug to the arch .
the mistake I made is that the wall you see on your left is very thin and now I realise that it wasn't enough for the lateral forces and the wall has moved about half an inch but haseny moved any more after the first day of operation Nd nor has the arch cone down any more.
the temp only shows 275 as the sensor is placed close to the door the dome pemp is close to 700 c.

[brickie in oz]

Re: Large WFO in India

You cant have too much insulation, each pizza takes some heat from the oven insulation may stop some of the losses.

200kgs of wood is a lot of wood, but it is a big oven.
A door and flue cap or damper will retain more heat, all insulated of course.

Edit:-
Rolling the dough will give you a thin crisp crust, stretching the dough without the rolling pin will give you a thick fluffy crust.

[david s]

Re: Large WFO in India

I know it is more difficult to build, but the kiln builders bible "Kilns" by Daniel Rhodes says vaulted kilns of this configuration should have their end walls inside the vault, unless they have steel bracing to prevent the end walls having a tendency to fall outwards. I know this is not a kiln and therefore not subject to the higher temperatures and stresses of a kiln, but are you planning on having any steel bracing to avert this possibility? The length of your vault looks like about
3 m, with thermal expansion of around 0.5% this would be about 25mm of expansion pushing on the end walls.

This is probably the reason you have a large crack on the left hand side and the fallen arch bricks. Are there similar problems on the back wall?
Now the thing has moved the cracks probably won't get any worse.
1000 pizzas /day is phenomenal
How come the temp is only 275 ?

[1 strover]

Re: Large WFO in India

yeah that's a lot of cheese but that's why my cosutomers come back .
the front arch has some visible cracks due to mortar releasing but they are in place as they are tapered .
the temp you see in the display is the floor temp about a couple of feet behind the door on the along the side.
the temp on the cooking area is at about 380 c and. the dome gets at around 700 we took these temps with an ir lazer thermometer.
about holding heat it does that pretty well. I stop feeding it at about 10 pm when the temp is at about 280 and by 7 in the morning the temp is yet at 130 c that's without a door,I should be getting a door in the next few weeks.
the thing that concerns me is that the amount of wood it uses on a busy day when I do about 600 pies it uses about 200 kgs of hard wood,
is this figure high or ok ? considering the size of the oven.
I am considering adding another 6-8 inches of insulating rockwool above the 6 inches I already have.
would that help reduce consumption of wood?
and how big a role does the door play in mentaining the temp?
should I close the door whenever I'm not using the oven?

[brickie in oz]

Re: Large WFO in India

Nice.

Thats a lot of cheese per pizza.

I see there a few cracks and the front arch has fallen.....

I dare say it cooks and holds the heat well.

[1 strover]

Re: Large WFO in India

greetings as promised here is a video of the oven in operation.
we are using whole wheat for the base and about 300 grams fo cheese on our margerita pizzas over the ester weekend we have been doing about a 1000 pies a day.
any questions I will be more than glad to answer .
enjoy the video and feel free to drop in any suggestions addin a few more pictures soon
here is a link to the video in my dropbox.

http://db.tt/9Ul9Zt04

[nrobert]

Re: Large WFO in India

Looking forward to those pics...