Bigger ovens

[gjbingham]

Re: Bigger ovens

Edschmidt,
50 - 100 years seems hardly a proven design compared to say a couple of thousand years of use of the oven provided on this site. There's nothing wrong with experimenting with existing or new designs, they might be better. If they proved to be significantly better, no one would be using the older designs at all. At least, that's how I see it.

Man dreams, builds, modifies, then discards those ideas that don't work as well as their existing model. You can make even a poorly designed model work, (my oven for example), but no one would do it that way again for very long, say.... 50 - 100 years?

Another devil's advocate, back at ya!

[edschmidt]

Re: Bigger ovens

And gas indoor ovens pretty much killed wood fired outdoor ovens as well, I guess were all just living in the past and need to keep up with technology. My point on the 50-100 years is that they did this for generations AFTER having full knowledge of the roman design. It must have done something better for it to be built that long. My guess is that it heated quicker, but probably lost heat quicker as well, but before highly efficient insulation it was probably not that significant.

[JayP]

Re: Bigger ovens

After looking at squirrel tail ovens I have decided that I don?t want to put the flue at the back. Our oven will no longer have a hole in the back, thank you for correcting my misdirection. I will post a design with the flue at the front when I have designed it. Or no flue as the oven is outside? Will search the forum, thanks again!

[Dutchoven]

Re: Bigger ovens

I think you will be happy with it and will have a very efficient and long standing oven!
Dutch

[CanuckJim]

Re: Bigger ovens

Guys,

Years ago, a friend of mine purchased an 1820 square cut limestone farmhouse north of Kingston, Ontario. It's a lovely building, but it was in need of lots of masonry repair work. (No matter what, it remained a refrigerator in winter.) Part of the work was to restore a limestone beehive oven that had fallen in. Most of it projected from the outside wall. It shared a flue with the six foot wide cooking fireplace next door, and the flue was in the front but not isolated from the bake chamber. The limestone construction blocks were an average of six inches thick. It WAS possible to get it up to baking heat, but not for long, and it took enormous amounts of wood to get there in the first place.

Ruth, the lady who did the baking in it, was a dedicated historian and definite believer in the old ways. That didn't keep her from cursing the design. She ended up not using it very often, mostly around Christmas.

Jim

[dmun]

Re: Bigger ovens

Or no flue as the oven is outside?

First, congratulations on your decision to put your flue in the front. It's the proven technology, and will make for a better oven.

You do want a chimney in the oven. At start-up your oven will produce a lot of smoke, and that's when you have to do most of the face-to-oven work of building the fire. You can build an oven with no flue, but you will have a lot of smoke in your face, and the front of your oven will be covered with soot.

In addition, the flue will improve air-flow, and will get your fire going more quickly with less frustration. That's why serious boilers have tall chimneys: the draft supercharges the firebox.