Kiln into wood fire pizza oven?

[Jlk1964]

I am curious to see what the thoughts are on turning a kiln into a wood fire pizza oven. Could this work or not?

[david s]

Give it a shot. I've heard of potters using their electric kilns to cook pizzas successfully. Simply crank up the empty (leave in the kiln furniture) kiln to around 400 C and cook pizzas directly on the empty shelves.
I've done it around the other way turning a pizza oven into a kiln.
See here
#1

[Chach]

I would say why not. If your going to do a more permanent install you can build a flue gallery and raise the floor with ceramic fiber board and install fire brick for the floor so it will be more like a barrel oven or just do as David said so you have best of both worlds.

[Jlk1964]

Thanks for the input. I haven’t bought the kiln yet. The seller will take $200 and nothing less. It measures 36”W x 40”L x 30”H. I’m sure it’s a beast. Does the inside lining look to be cement?

[david s]

It is a gas fired downdraft design. Heat goes up then is drawn down to exit at the base of the walls on each side, producing excellent circulation and the ability to achieve high temperatures (+1200 C) The inner lining looks like insulating castable, which is probably relatively low thermal mass which is why you need the props and shelves to act as high thermal mass to store some heat. Does it come with kiln furniture? If not it doesn’t come cheap. Kilns are generally not as well insulated as ovens because you don’t want to wait a week for them to cool down, the wares inside store sufficient thermal mass on their own.
The down side is that it will chew through a fair amount of gas to operate because of the large volume, mass to heat and heat loss. Also the large door will not be easy to open and shut frequently.
For $200 you could build your own homebrew castable oven that would operate far more efficiently using free wood.

[Jlk1964]

Thanks for your help identifying this beast. I don’t have clue just been wanting to cook pizza outside. What are your thoughts on using this as a wood fired pizza oven? I didn’t plan on using gas just forgot to mention that. I thought I could possibly cover three of the vents and use one for venting. I could line the bottom with fire brick.