Built a Brickwood Oven, Now what?

[brickie in oz]

Re: Built a Brickwood Oven, Now what?

You have plenty of room out the front of the oven to build an entry arch at the golden mean of 63%, that may help keep the thing hot, but I doubt it.

The perimeter of the hearth bricks are sitting directly on that HUGE concrete slab and will suck every last kilojoule of heat right out of the sucker.

You know you want to.......so...........pull it down and do it properly.

Unfortunately that same bad design has made its way over here too.

Outdoor Brick Oven, Great for Pizza, Breads and Meats - From Glenthompson Bricks

[Tscarborough]

Re: Built a Brickwood Oven, Now what?

Close the vent off and make an entry arch 63% and you will be OK.

[Les]

Re: Built a Brickwood Oven, Now what?

I would think that it would be pretty straight forward to fabricate a stepped (insulated) plug for the vent and do the same for the entry. I assume you are thinking of using the heat for baking.

[pastorryanhayden]

Re: Built a Brickwood Oven, Now what?

The interior is 32" x 22". I did use standard size firebrick.
I was contemplating trying to make an insulated double door. (A door that covers the whole thing with a door inside of it that opens 60% of the front.) but I don't know if I'll be able to swing it.
I'll look into the insulated damper thing.

[Gulf]

Re: Built a Brickwood Oven, Now what?

Brother Ryan,
The first thing that comes to mind is an insulated damper like Brickie installed on his build. Or maybe, some type of insulated cap that could be just placed over the chimney to keep the heat from form escaping. For the entrance I am, I am trying to get an idea of the dimensions of your oven. Did you use 4.5" X 9 " fire brick? Or you could just post the inside dimensions of your oven.

You have the insulation underneath and above, so there is no reason that you can't make this oven perform very well .

[pastorryanhayden]

Ok.
So I built a brickwood oven. Just got it finished, then I came to the forum and found that there are many here who are not fans of the Brickwood and with good reason. But I am a poorish pastor whose already got my spending money for the year tied up in the thing, so building something else isn't going to happen.
I've noticed that many of the complaints from earlier threads have been addressed. I used insulation below the oven floor, I used only one level of firebrick for the ceiling and covered that with two layers of ceramic fiber blanket and stucco.
My question is what would you do in my situation to make it the best it's going to be. I'm not interested in people telling me to tear it down and start over, but tips on how to close off the front, adjust the chimney, etc.