Paso Robles Pompeii Oven Heat Retention

[Novaslo]

Re: Paso Robles Pompeii Oven Heat Retention

Darin-

A few more questions:
-Does the ss buckle from the heat? I'm worried that if the ss is too thin, the seams could open up from movement.
-How tight a fit is the door? I would imagine it should have a little extra room to fit into the oven opening, for expansion of the metal.
-Do your metal handles get hot?

Hi Jim,
Here is some more data on this version of the door.
The SS does not buckle. It is very thin and the gauge was mentioned in my original Thread. I think .22
I don't know that I could have gotten it much thinner, and ultimately it weighs in at 15 lbs.

I worried about it expanding and also buckling, neither of which happened. The welds we did are very tight and continuous. It did burn through but it is a good amount of welding material. The seams will not open up in my opinion as the welds are quite strong. I ground everything down to smooth and it feels really strong.

The fit is pretty tight. It is not so tight that it is difficult to get in, but tight enough that it would be hard to get it much closer. It does not seem to change in size.

With 4 inches of Fiber Board insulation, no the handles do not get hot.
They are warm but not hot.

I believe this door will last for years and if it wears anywhere, I will drop in a weld. It should do well indefinitely.

Finally, my wife cooked by herself last night while I was out of town. She did it all and had fun doing it.
Success!!!

[DavidApp]

Re: Paso Robles Pompeii Oven Heat Retention

Hello Darin

Finished my new 4" thick door. I have not used it yet but I will post any temperature differences I see.
I have several sets of cooling numbers with the 2" door.

I did the pop rivets construction as I knew that welding 22 gauge steel was beyond my welding skills. I used self tapping screws to hold the two parts of the door together.
Made from one sheet of 22 gauge big box store steel 2' x 4' and some home made Oak boards.

David

[Novaslo]

Re: Paso Robles Pompeii Oven Heat Retention

Hello Darin

Finished my new 4" thick door. I have not used it yet but I will post any temperature differences I see.
I have several sets of cooling numbers with the 2" door.

I did the pop rivets construction as I knew that welding 22 gauge steel was beyond my welding skills. I used self tapping screws to hold the two parts of the door together.
Made from one sheet of 22 gauge big box store steel 2' x 4' and some home made Oak boards.

David

Hi David,
Your door looks fantastic....Nearly exactly like mine only with the wood veneer. I will be super curious to hear about your heat retention numbers.

Great Job!

[DavidApp]

Re: Paso Robles Pompeii Oven Heat Retention

Hello Darin

Thank you.
I must admit that I took careful note of your door for my construction. Not having a bender made it a little more difficult but the steel from the big box store bends nicely using the tools I had to hand,

I will be sure to keep you updated on my temp profile. I have graphs from the 2" door so it will be real interesting to see if there is an improvement.

Pizza tomorrow (Saturday) and I will cook lunch in the oven with the retained heat,
I have a new mixer to test. My wife's KA Classic was showing signs that it was not really up to dough mixing. The new mixer is the KA 8 Quart mixer. I think I could probable mix cement in it.

David

[Novaslo]

Re: Paso Robles Pompeii Oven Heat Retention

One tidbit about Kitchen Aides. Coming from a guy that has mixed 100's of lbs of dough. Mine is the big one with the lever to lift the bowl. Challenge is that the screws on mine come loose. I am now using Loctite and that seems to have fixed the issue. Perhaps your old one has a similar problem.

Good luck. Let us know on the temps!!

[DavidApp]

Re: Paso Robles Pompeii Oven Heat Retention

Hello Darin

The old one is the lift head design and the latch no longer holds the head down tightly. Also the pivot pin is becoming a bit lose. I was having to hold the head down to stop it jumping around when I was mixing dough. The drive was beginning to make more noise so I got the new one before I broke my Wife's mixer.

Have done one batch with the new mixer so far and it works much better than the old one.

Checking the temp. with the new door. Started from a completely cold oven and did not fully saturate the oven. The higher temp seemed to bleed off at the same rate as the 2" door but the lower temp seems to be holding better.
Thinking about using the scraps of fiber board from the old door in place of the blanket.

David

[DavidApp]

Re: Paso Robles Pompeii Oven Heat Retention

Hello Darin

I had seen the You tube video of someone with the lose head and the locktite fix.

David

[oblertone]

Re: Paso Robles Pompeii Oven Heat Retention

A note of caution re the Loctite; at some point you will need to split your KA mixer to replace the plastic fail-safe gear, if you've used the wrong type of Loctite then that could be an issue. I've just done this job on my bowl-lift mixer but used deformable spring washers on the four stand screws rather than Loctite.

[Novaslo]

Re: Paso Robles Pompeii Oven Heat Retention

Hello Darin

The old one is the lift head design and the latch no longer holds the head down tightly. Also the pivot pin is becoming a bit lose. I was having to hold the head down to stop it jumping around when I was mixing dough. The drive was beginning to make more noise so I got the new one before I broke my Wife's mixer.

Have done one batch with the new mixer so far and it works much better than the old one.

Checking the temp. with the new door. Started from a completely cold oven and did not fully saturate the oven. The higher temp seemed to bleed off at the same rate as the 2" door but the lower temp seems to be holding better.
Thinking about using the scraps of fiber board from the old door in place of the blanket.

David

Are you saying that your new door has blanket in it instead of Fiber Board? Depending on your answer, mine is 2 layers or 4 inches of Fiber Board. One is a single piece the second is scraps put in there nice and tightly.

With a saturated oven and shutting the door on a still active fire - Not letting it cool and burn down, I was able to maintain 650+ the next morning. Normally with my old door, I couldn't really cook bread the next morning in that it would be 400-450. Still doable but not ideal.

Now I can hold the heat and it stays hot for about 5 days.

[DavidApp]

Re: Paso Robles Pompeii Oven Heat Retention

Hello Darin

This door is all blanket insulation. 4 layers 1" thick. The old door was Mainly fiber board scraps. I may have to take the fiber board out of the old door. Don't want to buy any more if I don't have to.

I was going to do Pizza on Saturday but we got home late and the dough would have taken too long to make. Nobody wanted an 10.30 pizza supper so I cooked chicken on the grill and heated the oven and did chicken in a pan using the same marinade as I used on the grilled chicken.

Did make some garlic knots with some of the pizza dough while the chicken was cooking. (Strip of dough tied in a simple knot with garlic butter.

The dome got to the mid 700s and the floor 550 but I did not hold that temperature for long and then shut the door an a live fire. Burning embers mainly.
By the time I had the door in place the temp had dropped to 500 on the floor and 580 in the dome.
Next morning it was 370 on the floor and 380 in the dome.
Was still just hot enough to do bread and well hot enough for Roast Beef for Mothers Day.
I think if I had kept the fire going longer I would have had better numbers. Time will tell.

The KA mixer is the one with a DC motor.

David

[Novaslo]

Re: Paso Robles Pompeii Oven Heat Retention

I would think with 4 inches of Blanket it would still be really good. As you said, time will tell.

I cooked steak tonight on mine with the steak set right on the burning coals. Metal rack of course - The steak is so good that way. Tons of heat and it doesn't flare up due to the drippings putting out the fire for the most part.

Crazy good.
I put the door on to close out my evening and had a pretty good fire going. I wouldn't say it was completely saturated like the day I maintained 650 the next day....I will report what it is in the morning.

[Brodek]

Re: Paso Robles Pompeii Oven Heat Retention

Darin,

New here, and just in the stages of drying/curing my oven. Question: door on with the fire still going? Really? Roaring fire? Dying down? Just embers? And what happens to the fire/fuel when you shut-off the air?

Figured that the fire needed to mostly burn down before door went on....wow, I may have really been "off" with that thinking!

Kevin

[DavidApp]

Re: Paso Robles Pompeii Oven Heat Retention

Hello Kevin

I usually let the fire burn down to larger embers then spread the embers out across the floor before closing the door. May help to get the floor charged up as much as possible.

I think there may be some danger of flash over if you were to close the door on a active live fire and were to then open the door a while later.
Happens in house fires when a door is opened to room with a smoldering fire. The room can almost explode as oxygen rushes in to the room.

David

[Novaslo]

Re: Paso Robles Pompeii Oven Heat Retention

Well I have put the door on in all kinds of situations. You can completely snuff a fire that is active by putting the door on. It will not go out completely, at least in my case. It will draw air from all the crevices and keep it smoking.

This is not ideal and burning it down is a better approach.
However if you are trying to hold a lot of heat, putting the door on when it is hot will help.

This is what has worked the best for me and has allowed me to wake up to 600+ degrees the next day.

I have a 42in oven. It is large and burning enough wood in it to get it fully saturated, I mean more than 2 hours and more like 4 for me, put the door on when things burn down and it will stay really hot.

I would experiment. As for the fear of "Flash Over" I always stay clear of the opening, when I open it.

D