East London pizza oven and grill

[UtahBeehiver]

As Mike mentioned, I start my moderate size stack right under the chimney vent doing a top down burn, when the chimney warms up and is drafting good I push the stack into the dome and cranker up! PS this is after the oven us cured.

[Neil.B]

I think that is fairly normal. One of my friends that had the first oven I ever saw used to say you could burn tires in the oven and as long as your food was below the smoke line you wouldn't taste it. Not something I am going to try
He even had two tuscan style grills, one with long enough legs so his meat could cook up in the smoke area for flavor (hopefully no tires)

I thought smoke clears after a short while

[Neil.B]

Nice video Neil! What you are seeing is a perfectly normal startup. The flue needs to have the "contained air" heated in order for it to rise and start pulling in a good draw. Old timers with wood fired stoves would often light a pine-cone or roll of newspaper and hold it at the base of the chimney to get the flow going. If it's cold outside and you have a tall flue/chimney, the cold air contained in the stack actually resists the warmer air below...just like a plug in the system. That's why if you have a taller chimney it takes a little longer to get the draw started and why the pine-cone/newspaper is almost essential to get things moving more quickly. As the flue heats up, the draw increases and the smoke is pretty much "immediately" pulled up & out.

Hope that explains it well enough. By the way, I have always loved how you can see the layering of air moving in low (cool & clear) and exiting high (warm/hot & initially smoky).

Thanks for the explanation. I didn't realise a cold chimney had an effect on the dome, i thought it meant smoke would have trouble going up and would exit out the arch.

I know it's only a small fire but considering I only had a makeshift chimney that faces the roof of the pergola, i was happy with the amount of smoke that went up. Only the odd wispers of smoke came out the arch, obviously the bigger the fire the more smoke, but i won't be doing any bigger until i add the flue.

I agree about the smoke layer exiting. You can see in my video the way it curves upwards without being anywhere near the inner arch.

[JRPizza]

I think that is fairly normal. One of my friends that had the first oven I ever saw used to say you could burn tires in the oven and as long as your food was below the smoke line you wouldn't taste it. Not something I am going to try
He even had two tuscan style grills, one with long enough legs so his meat could cook up in the smoke area for flavor (hopefully no tires)

[Gulf]

That’s pretty much what it looks like in cold oven, even with a flue.

[SableSprings]

Nice video Neil! What you are seeing is a perfectly normal startup. The flue needs to have the "contained air" heated in order for it to rise and start pulling in a good draw. Old timers with wood fired stoves would often light a pine-cone or roll of newspaper and hold it at the base of the chimney to get the flow going. If it's cold outside and you have a tall flue/chimney, the cold air contained in the stack actually resists the warmer air below...just like a plug in the system. That's why if you have a taller chimney it takes a little longer to get the draw started and why the pine-cone/newspaper is almost essential to get things moving more quickly. As the flue heats up, the draw increases and the smoke is pretty much "immediately" pulled up & out.

Hope that explains it well enough. By the way, I have always loved how you can see the layering of air moving in low (cool & clear) and exiting high (warm/hot & initially smoky).

[Neil.B]

[Neil.B]

Smoke seems to hover half way up the dome, is this normal or is it because I made a makeshift chimney with no flue and there isn't enough draw?

[Neil.B]

Ope-dog the slate is paving that i have under the chimnea and the path/patio (once i lay them), another item i got of Facebook market place for free

[Ope-dog]

Well if your thermo blocks look that snazzy, I can't wait to see the actual slate! :-)

Great job closing the dome!

[Neil.B]

From the inside. Still needs cleaning.
Most builds only have about 1" around the inner arch for smoke to be directed to the vent/flue but are 9" long.
Mine has 5"*8" in most areas. I'm hoping the 6"*3" side channels along with the large area above will allow smoke to exit without coming out the front.


I wasn't originally happy with my brickwork, but after the first fire I think it looks good.

[Neil.B]

Thank Ope-dog , I haven't done the slate yet. All the blue/grey is thermolite blocks that will be rendered.

[Ope-dog]

You're making great progress! That slate looks awesome.. can't wait to see it all buttoned up. :-)

[Neil.B]

Outer arch done.

Need to decide on the landing, I have 30mm slate paving that will look nice but not sure if it will handle the ambient heat. Maybe some thin firebricks underneath to obsorb the heat, rather than insulation.

[Neil.B]

Chimney taking shape. I wanted the smoke chamber large to help stop smoke entering the pergola. No idea if its going to work, but worth a try.