Cracked Oven. Possible Home Brew Cast Rebuild

[geoff7877]

Hi everyone-

I’m technically not new here but it’s been at least 7 years since I’ve posted.

I’m in the process of building a block island which will have a built in Santa Maria/Argentinian grill on one side, and my DIY pizza oven on the other side. I built my pizza oven 7 years ago using a perlite/portland/sand recipe from YouTube. I added fire clay, but no lime. In other words, NOT the 3-1-1-1 home brew found here.

The oven is a gym ball oven so it’s pretty small. Inside diameter is 26” and it has been on a wood base with casters since I built it and survive the move from one house to another. My thought was to transfer the oven from the wood base to its new home on top of the block island. I have some cracks that have formed and after this winter, a very large crack has opened up that goes from front to back. You can actually see daylight through the crack in the back when the oven is hot.

My plan was to cut the oven into 3 sections, take it apart, fix the cracks and reassemble it on the island. I was going to use rutland dry mix 211 refractory mortar to mortar the pieces back together, but realizing after reading tons of threads here that it’s not recommended for any application thicker than 1/8”. I’m now at that stage of the build and realizing that the cracks are much worse than I thought and I may not be able to move this thing. My fear is that I’ll get ready to move this thing and it’s going to crumble.

See photos attached

Has anyone ever had success making a repair like this? Is it even worth it given the concrete mix that I used with so much perlite in it? I had not planned on building a new oven, but don’t want to spend the time and energy trying to piece this one back together, especially with all of the cracks I discovered by taking these pics.

Any input is much appreciated.

[Kris S]

Hi,

That’s the first time I see another oven with big cracks as wide as in my oven – glad to see yours is already 7 years old, mine is 3 years.

I can’t help you in answering your question, I’m sure you’ll get advice on here soon enough.

Can I ask you how much, or how intensively, you used your oven during those 7 years – I presume the cracks also formed early on?

I’d like to know so I can have a guesstimate of the expected life span of mine (also a small oven at 28” (https://community.fornobravo.com/for...losure-belgium)).

Thanks!

[geoff7877]

Hi,

That’s the first time I see another oven with big cracks as wide as in my oven – glad to see yours is already 7 years old, mine is 3 years.

I can’t help you in answering your question, I’m sure you’ll get advice on here soon enough.

Can I ask you how much, or how intensively, you used your oven during those 7 years – I presume the cracks also formed early on?

I’d like to know so I can have a guesstimate of the expected life span of mine (also a small oven at 28” (https://community.fornobravo.com/for...losure-belgium)).

Thanks!

I’m using my oven once or twice a month on avarege. I do a ton of cooking outside but the majority does not require me to fire up the pizza oven. I have primarily used it for pizza so it gets ripping hot every time. I’ve recorded temps over 1000 degrees which is much higher than I’m comfortable with.

The cracks stayed small for a few years. I think moving the oven from one house to another did not help the situation. But I’ve also come to realize through this forum that my perlite mixture is not the best for this application strength wise.

when I made it, I thought it would last maybe 3 or 4 years, so 7 is a huge bonus. I had not planned on building another one, especially on the heads of building this island, but thankfully my material cost would strictly be for the 3-1-1-1 ingredients. I can re-use everything else. Although I would love to move this one and patch it up, I think that’s just a bandaid. Starting fresh is probably a more logical option.