Ash slot for indoor oven

[scottr]

I'm about to start building an oven, using the Artigiano engine. I read most of the previous threads (that I could find) on the pros/cons of adding an ash slot.

My oven will be open to the inside of the home, with most of the structure being on the outside of the house. My intention is to learn how to use the full heat cycle - fire it for pizzas, then bread, but use it for baking/roasting/etc as it cools down.

We are seriously considering an ash slot in the design, about 2" width, directly under the vent. There would be an angled "shelf" under the slot to carry the ash to the back of the enclosure under the platform, where we would have a small cast iron door (tightly sealing, we hope) to remove ashes from the outside. This would not only preserve most of the space for wood storage - it may also preserve some marital harmony (leaving a trail of ashes around the inside of the house would be bad. very bad.)

Ashes could be swept into the slot immediately prior to baking bread - or as some previous posts recommend - I could just sweep them aside, wait until things cool, and sweep the ashes into the slot later.

Are there any obvious design flaws in this approach? If the cast iron removal door seals tightly, will we have problems with the ashes swirling around? Or will it compromise the convection/draw in any way?

Likewise, we'll have an fairly powerful range hood (about 25 feet away); will that cause problems with the draw? Does the ash slot (again if the door is sealed tight) cause any degradation in this case?

Thanks in advance for design advice you can offer ...

[tschaefges]

Re: Ash slot for indoor oven

Our oven is open to our kitchen. We don't have an ash slot, but I wish we did. It was going to be difficult to get a slot formed in the 1 foot thick concrete base we have under the oven so we did without.

When the oven is cool you can use a shop vac to get the ashes out, but when it's hot and you want to switch from pizzas to bread, it's hard to shovel the hot embers out and remove them from the house safely.

Our range hood is pretty powerful and it's closer than 25 feet. It doesn't cause problems. You'll wind up opening a window or door when you're starting the oven, otherwise you risk not getting a good draw from the start, before the fire is hot, but when it's smoking the most.