Loam Oven

[Lester]

Does anyone have any experience with these plans:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Stone-Loam-oven-...QQcmdZViewItem

I bought this auction a couple of weeks ago to add the knowledge to my brain-pan. Anyone here have any experience with the pros and cons of this kind of oven construction?

[james]

Hey Lester,
Now there's an idea -- we should charge for our plans.

Let us know what you find out, both about the oven design itself and how the plans are presented. I'm a little dubious about a home-mixed oven chamber. Choosing either a precast oven, or building an oven from firebrick, gives you a higher level of security in the quality of the oven chamber material, which is essential, as well as the shape, which is equally important. There are designs out there for clay ovens (adobe and cobb), which I am not that excited about either. If you are going to all the effort of building an oven, you should at least build the dome from real brick. You have more control over the dome shape and the quality of the material. I cannot stress how important heat up time, reaching high heat and heat retention are to how much you will enjoy your oven.

So, what have you learned from your new ($$$) plans?

James

[Lester]

I have read through the plans and the CD-ROM came with TONS of pictures. It sounds easy enough -- I just question my ability at making the 'loam' the correct consitiancy to be most effective. I am sure the oven heats and I am sure it cooks well, but maybe it only lasts a year before needing replacement; ESPECIALLY if it is not constructed perfectly. Those are my concerns. I was hoping there was someone here with some experience with this kind of oven construction so we could spark a discussion. I value my time and my pizza too much to go off building a loam oven instead of researching and building a perfect oven.

[james]

Lester,

Can you think of any advantages of doing a loam oven compared with a brick oven?

They have been building brick ovens around the Mediterranean for hundreds, if not thousands, of years. Today, there are millions of them in Europe and a growing number of happy builders/owners in the states. The Italian brick oven cooks great, heat up fast, hold heat well, cooks great and will last forever. The plans work and there is a community of builders to support you. I'm not sure I see the down side.

Unless you can think of a compelling advantage to build the loam oven, it would seem like the brick oven is the better option.

James

[Lester]

Lester,

Can you think of any advantages of doing a loam oven compared with a brick oven?

They have been building brick ovens around the Mediterranean for hundreds, if not thousands, of years. Today, there are millions of them in Europe and a growing number of happy builders/owners in the states. The Italian brick oven cooks great, heat up fast, hold heat well, cooks great and will last forever. The plans work and there is a community of builders to support you. I'm not sure I see the down side.

Unless you can think of a compelling advantage to build the loam oven, it would seem like the brick oven is the better option.

James

The only advantage I can think of is cost and [i]maybe[i] ease of construction. You make the dome, according to the pictures on the CD-ROM by rolling the loam in to balls and stacking them around the perimeter (like bricks but soft until they cure). Also, the loam, if you have a source for the clays necessary, is free. For eleven dolars, it was worth seeing those plans, if for no other reason than to satisfy my curiousity and feed my insatiable desire to know everything there is to know about baking pizzas with wood.

I want a great oven. I don't know anything about building one and am willing to consider everything, twice, before I start investing cash and sweat. What I would LOVE to have is this:



Unfortunately, Mrs. Lester isn't as fired up about an outdoor over like I am and is not willing to let loose of the dollars to put one in. So, I gotta do it the old fashioned way by building the sucker myself.

[Fio]

I want a great oven. I don't know anything about building one and am willing to consider everything, twice, before I start investing cash and sweat.

Don't spend another penny on plans. Everything you need to know is here. Speaking only for myself, I didn't know squat about building one before I did, and yet I built one. I think most people here were novices before they built their oven. It's a blast.

[DrakeRemoray]

I read the Bread Builders book by Alan Scott and paid Alan $100 for his plans (that also allows technical support calls and emails while building the oven). I ended up not using those plans, since I am buling the Pompeii oven from this site. I really do no think they were a waste of money, because I got some good information from them (That said, I will sell them to you for $50 ). I also paid a landscape designer $650 to draw a landscape and patio plan that helped me sell it to Mrs. Remoray...Again, money well spent.

Drake