What are the consequences of building your dome too high?

[mrchipster]

Re: What are the consequences of building your dome too high?

And that does not even consider barometric pressure, dew point/humidity, ambient temperature, diameter of flue, length of flue, wind direction and turbulence, starting dome temperature, altitude above sea level, Type of wood, dryness of wood, density of wood, Type of mortar, thickness of mortar, Thermal breaks, flue transition shape, fire brick density, etc... As you can see the variability and possibilities are nearly endless combinations thus Heuristic method design.

Chip

[brickie in oz]

Re: What are the consequences of building your dome too high?

Chip, with all those variables its a wonder that any oven actually works at all..

[GianniFocaccia]

Re: What are the consequences of building your dome too high?

Dang, that's a lot to think about! I just wanna make pizza!

[mrchipster]

Re: What are the consequences of building your dome too high?

Dang, that's a lot to think about! I just wanna make pizza!

I agree I just want to get my oven done and make some great food.

Chip

[shuboyje]

Re: What are the consequences of building your dome too high?

Ok, hoping to put this to rest. Here are a few graphics. The first shows three different door shapes at 63% and the square footage of each. As you can see the arched doorways have areas bellow 90% of the rectangular opening. The second graphic is an approximation of original arch. They are ellipses with an 18" base(my approximation based on pictures) and the 12" actual arch versus the 13 1/4" ideal 63% arch. As you can see the actual arch has 92% of the area of the "ideal" arch. Well over the percentage's in graphic one which all would be recommended on this forum as "ideal". Sorry, but there is much more to this then one simple number being perfect no matter what. Again, 63% works. Built to it, but when small variations occur don't freak out. Wait until it is an actual issue, because this topic is mostly grey area.

[Lburou]

Santino

So Santino, when do you start your curing fires? You will know soon after you begin those fires how your oven will perform.

[GianniFocaccia]

Re: What are the consequences of building your dome too high?

Thanks Sheboyje. I always wondered about the variances of exposed areas of arches with different shapes but my geometry isn't good enough. Your illustration shows the majority of arch shapes employed and regardless of a 17% variance, they all seem to breathe acceptably.

[david s]

Re: What are the consequences of building your dome too high?

There is another consequence of having a high dome that has not been mentioned on this thread and that is the top of the dome will be slightly further away from the food it is cooking. The popularity of the Napoli low dome is presumably to get the pizza closer to the dome so it cooks a bit faster. Doing the opposite presumably has the reverse effect.although minor adjustments as has been previously discussed will make no difference.

[Santino]

Re: What are the consequences of building your dome too high?

Lee, I'm in the process of building my chimney right now so I'm hoping to start a test fire to see how the chimney draws smoke on Sunday. Hopefully it will go well. After that I'll start my dome insulation and stucco for my igloo enclosure and then start my curing fires. I'll respond later on and let everyone know what my temperatures, heatup time, etc. is. I'll leave it up to you guys that know way more than me if it is satisfactory. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

[Santino]

Re: What are the consequences of building your dome too high?

So I wanted to give you guys an update as promised. Today I co-hosted a brick oven pizza cooking class with a former pizzaiolo. We had 16 people there and I ended up making 32 pizzas (also made some for some neighbors and taking 4 to work tomorrow). We ended up with a great menu of pizzas - Margherita, Cheese, Pepperoni, Chicken Pesto, Prosciutto/Salami/Pepperoni/Pesto/Sundried Tomato, Sauteed Spinach/Roasted Garlic, Mushroom/Olive, and finished with a Nutella and Strawberries with a Dulce de Leche drizzle. Amazing! I made all the dough the night before and each person had a chance to make their own pizza and then we would load into the oven for them. They were simply amazed watching their pizza crust expand within the first few seconds!

I started my fire 2 hours before we began cooking and by the time we pushed the fire to the side, the dome had already cleared and stayed that way for the rest of the day. Temperatures at the top of the dome were in excess of 1020F and the floor was in the 600-650F range. After several hours of cooking, the dome was still over 850F and the floor stayed a consistent 575F.

As long as a I had a hint of a flame, pizzas were cooking (with nice brown crusts) in 2-3 minutes everytime. I usually only had to add one new log about every 30-45 minutes or so after the fire was going and that was only to keep a flame.

So I guess up to this point, I can say "so far, so good!" I've got about 50 pizzas made in it so far and cooking times have gotten better each time. And the first couple pizzas were made during curing just so I didn't feel like I was wasting a good fire!

I can definitely say I am so incredibly happy that I took this project on and feel such a great sense of pride for completing it. As soon I can save up some more money, I plan on building a stone patio around it with seating and an outdoor prep area. But for now, I am just going to enjoy cooking and taking a break from construction. Thanks to everyone that helped along the way, because I got most of my advice and ideas from the people on this forum.

[brickie in oz]

Re: What are the consequences of building your dome too high?

As soon I can save up some more money, I plan on building a stone patio around it with seating and an outdoor prep area.

Welcome to the slippery slope.....wmhahahahaha

[benguilford]

Re: What are the consequences of building your dome too high?

Looks great Santino, and from what you said it's performing brilliantly! Just goes to show you don't have to be bang-on with your dimensions to get a good result.

[Lburou]

Looks great!

Santino, your oven looks great! Happy to hear of your success. I guess its a matter of learning the quirks of your oven that will make you a success.

Enjoy

[Santino]

Re: What are the consequences of building your dome too high?

Thanks for the kind words guys.

Al, I'm afraid you're probably right! haha...I am pretty sure my entire backyard is going to get a makeover just to be able to compete with my oven. I guess the good thing about doing it yourself is the ROI is much better in terms of $s and in self-gratification!