Rear door for fire access

[CroMagnon]

I am looking at building a Pompei oven. I see that the only opening is in the front. I like the idea of having a door in the back to build and tend the fire. It would have a heavy steel door of course. I imagine there would be some heat loss with this, but is it a terrible idea?

Thanks,
Cro

[DrakeRemoray]

Re: Rear door for fire access

Yes.

I believe this is a terrible idea.

[DrakeRemoray]

Re: Rear door for fire access

Seriously, you will lose way too much heat out that door and it just is not necessary.

[CroMagnon]

Re: Rear door for fire access

So when you build a fire in one of these how does that work? Do you build it in front and push it to the back or build it in the back? What about cleaning out ashes?

Thanks,
Cro

[Millstone Man]

Re: Rear door for fire access

I believe a lot of the allure of these ovens is the comunal time gathering around and watching/tending the fire while prepping the pizzas. You don't want to be stuck around back while the party and view is out front.

[Tscarborough]

Re: Rear door for fire access

Thousands of years of experience wager against it.

[splatgirl]

Re: Rear door for fire access

I agree with the above and will add that I'm not clear on how adding a door on the back to "tend the fire" will make it any easier or get you any closer to said fire than the front opening. We are talking about a circle after all. You'll be building your preheat fire in the center of the oven, and you'll tend your cooking fire to one side of the oven. A second door at the back gets you exactly nowhere closer to the fire in either of these cases.

[dmun]

Re: Rear door for fire access

The final consideration is that the fire isn't in the back of the oven, it's on the side, and the process of "feeding" the fire is one of putting individual pieces of wood on top of the coals.

[CroMagnon]

Re: Rear door for fire access

Thanks for the replies. Do you vaccum out the ashes? Or sweep when you're cleaning up?

Cro

[CroMagnon]

Re: Rear door for fire access

Also to clarify, the door would be a heavy cast iron with an oven gasket seal.

Cro

[splatgirl]

Re: Rear door for fire access

You will find that there is very little ash to deal with. Unless I am doing a big load of bread, I don't bother cleaning out the ash more than once in a while because there's just a tiny bit from each firing. My BIL who heats his home with wood swears it's easier to start a fire with some ash still hanging around...but who knows on that one.
To clean, most people have some kind of rake and shovel for ash and embers, and a brush for sweeping down.
A cast iron door will be a big heat sink. You'd need to figure out a way to insulate it. It would also pretty much dictate that your exterior finish is an igloo style vs. a house style enclosure unless you also want to mess around with making some kind of insulated tunnel from the proposed access door to the exterior face of the enclosure. Seems like a whole lotta work for, at best, zero gain.