Rocket pot oven

[PsychDoc]

Re: Rocket pot oven

First things first, I appreciate all the feedback. And I can take a joke as well as the next guy. So no worries about my fragile ego- I can both diagnosis and treat myself, but don't tell anyone

And apologies to Wiley, it was Al who was cracking wise about my yard

Tscarborough - Really, double the temperature, does it really need to be 1000?? Actually I found it rather easy to double my temperature. I just put another thermometer in the oven and instantly I had two thermometers over 500?. There you have it 1000? plus. Actually I did Max out one thermometer at 600+. I'm hoping to get higher than that with improvements in my design. I hope you'll talk to me even if I don't get up over 1000?.

I think I'm going to go with as small of a door as possible. Since I don't need the 63% to burn, All I really need is a chimney on top to allow the rocket to vent.
I have already experimented with blocking the inlet on the rocket to help her Serpi. The floor does cool rather quickly however I think that is in part my lack of patience and not allowing it to get fully up to Temperature.
As far as pots go I actually had two stoves in the pictures the taller pot was removed in favor of the lower dome of the same circumference. I'm hoping this reflects more heat back on to the cooking surface.
I believe I will need insulation over the pot of some sort. I attempted to find insulation for a furnace but all I could find was fiberglass. I may have to go back to perlite or vermiculite and concrete.
I think this rocket stove idea all boils down to time versus mass versus efficiency and is a plausible idea however when it comes time for me to build a permanent woodfired up and I will end up going with the old tried-and-true.
David is your oven only 21 inches internally? do you find it difficult to have space for a fire and a pizza?
I shall make one more attempt to attach multiple pictures they should demonstrate the difference between the large pot the small.
Okay that didn't work I guess this will serve as a quick picture of my lower domed pot/oven

[Tscarborough]

Re: Rocket pot oven

If you want NY you only need to hit 600 (6-7 minutes), 750-800 for NY elite 4-5 minutes), but you are going to have to have a floor of 800 and walls/ceiling over 900 for a Neapolitan (60-90 seconds).

I will still talk to you anyway, I make all three, and even Detroit style at 450 (12 minutes)!

[shuboyje]

Re: Rocket pot oven

In my area lots of hardware stores have began stocking Roxul brand insulation. Roxul is a mineral wool insulation, and would work perfectly for your oven. Not sure how easy it will be to find in a warm climate, but they do use it for acoustical insulation so it is possible you may find it locally.

[david s]

Re: Rocket pot oven

Roger,
Yes my oven is 21" internal diam. I usually remove half the coals once it's up to temp and then maintain a fire on the side, cooking 90 sec pizzas one at a time. I usually make the bases about 9" in diam. We find that pizza parties of up to 35 are really easy provided that guests share whatever comes out of the oven rather than wait for their individual pizza. We prefer this sharing method and I've done parties of up to 80, but this is getting to be a struggle cooking one at a time.I can't fit a whole pig in my oven, but I have cooked a 5 kg turkey. My oven is has about the same floor area as most domestic kitchen ovens and we feel it is perfectly adequate.
Regarding the mineral wool insulation, because it compresses quite easily you may find it difficult to do the stucco layer straight on to, compression reduces the insulation value. This only applies if you are planning to finish the oven in an igloo style. If you are making an enclosure style the mineral wool is quite suitable.
Dave

[brickie in oz]

Re: Rocket pot oven

I just put another thermometer in the oven and instantly I had two thermometers over 500?. There you have it 1000? plus.

You stick to helping ppl with chips on their shoulder and Ill do the jokes......

[PsychDoc]

Re: Rocket pot oven

Okay I think it's time for an update. During a busy weekend I had another opportunity to fire up the rocket stove and try my hand at cooking more pizza. I'll give you the details in reverse order. The pizza stone actually broke. I found that the heat was enough to cook this off the pizza stone and partially off the dome on the flower pot. I'm going to have to make some modifications to retain the heat. I'm not sure what all information you care to know about. However if you have any questions feel free to send them along. The temperature inside the oven was well over 650?. That is the maximum on my little oven temperature gauge. I may have to go to the store and invest in a laser temp gauge so I can be more accurate. Fire management inside the rocket stove has been a bit tricky. If there's too much fuel it begins to smoke. I believe my burn chamber is too short and doesn't provide sufficient time for all the smoke to be consumed. At this point I am going to cut up some firebrick splits and make a new cooking surface. Step two in my plan is to insulate the dome. Probably just using Perlite or vermiculite cement mix.

[PsychDoc]

Re: Rocket pot oven

In the previous picture you can see some of the modifications I made to the stove. I put a Vent in the top of the pot and inserted another small flower pot. The aluminum foil is just to keep the hard surfaces from abusing each other. I have a spiffy handle on the door but it melted. So I just stuck a screwdriver in the hole. It works for now. You'll also see a picture here of my pizza stone having turned white I don't recall what the temperature requirement is for that. I believe it was 600+.

[PsychDoc]

Re: Rocket pot oven

And finally a picture of the mildly distorted product. I'm beginning to get the hang of cooking these things. What's better is that the bottoms didn't get scorched. At this point I think the biggest challenge is less the stove and more the cook. It may not be authentic but it sure tasted good. We also made cinnamon rolls, bananas Foster cake, and the cherries jubilee cake, the cherries Jubilee ended up burned because I just left it in there for too long.
So far this project has been a great way to learn about some of the materials used for the ovens, think I would recommend it to anybody who would want to tinker and learn about the various materials that are used. It's not very expensive and at the end of the day you can produce a pizza. I'm sure it's not as good as an authentic Pompeii but again it was a great experience. And for what it's worth I'm wonderfully humorous so I'll be making plenty jokes along the way.

[Laurentius]

Re: Rocket pot oven

Hey Doc,

You're psyching me out! Please rotate your photos, they're driving me insane!

[PsychDoc]

Re: Rocket pot oven

That's what we call job security. At least I know you are looking.
Believe it or not I'm trying to get the photos straight I can't seem to figure my own equipment. ( note to self... Use iPad sideways) Another problem I can help others with but can't help myself. Anyway here's a picture of my new cooking surface. It's difficult to cut around shapes straight to but you guys already figured that out.

[PsychDoc]

Re: Rocket pot oven

For what it's worth the oven is performing quite well. Last weekend we did some pies with the official dough recipe. They came out very well. We will give it another try on Sunday. The temp in the dome was 750+ and broke my oven thermometer. So I had to dig up an alternate. Pic attached.
Seems that a little foil insulation made a big difference. I have since used a 9-10:1 vermiculite Portland insulating layer and will see how it goes. Again a great small project to test supplies and gain skills.

[PsychDoc]

Re: Rocket pot oven

And we made focaccia.

[PsychDoc]

Re: Rocket pot oven

Well alrighty. When last we left our hero he was cooking pizza and singing the praises of his rocket stove pizza oven. Now we have an update. It seems that after a few uses the stove has become more efficient. I have been able to get the temperature well over the range of my thermometer. Have a look at the picture below. It cleared nicely and held heat quite well. I have added insulation and a chimney, which is supposed to resemble a wine bottle but I may have missed the mark on that one.
The cheap Mexican flower pot has held up very well, for what it's worth. Time will tell.
If one looks closely they can see the orange glow of the rocket emanating from below the cooking surface. Ant the Temperature gage has gone full circle. For reference the maximum reading is 750? at the bottom of the orange triangle.

[PsychDoc]

Re: Rocket pot oven

I almost forgot. Here's a picture of the whole stove. I still have some final render to apply. But it should give you an idea for those that care.

[Scotpunk]

Re: Rocket pot oven

Hi Doc! I have been thinking about doing the same thing with a flower pot and stumbled on your post. It has been great fun following your trials and tribulations all the way to ultimate success. I just want to make sure I understand your current method of heating the dome. It looks like your rocket oven is firing directly up on the firebrick and there are also heat exhausts around the circumference of the cooking surface. Also, it looks like you have your dome flower pot resting on top of another cut flower pot that is insulated with vermicrete. Am I seeing this correctly? I believe your base tower is constructed of regular brick and mortar. Do you have any concerns over not using firebrick instead? Thanks and keep the pictures and stories coming.