Reds / clay / pressed / paver/ clay bricks long term performance

[pepe]

Hi, I have wondered for many years, I have searched with no luck, so I think it might be a good idea to start a thread.

I built a 36” clay brick pomepeii, I used local red clay extruded and fired to 1000c bricks. I used the oven regularly for 1 year, and I was verry happy with heat up times and performance. I Have nothing to compare it to. Anyone built one and has evidence that it is still standing? Long term evidence? Would you build it again?? Are we over engineering this milenia old oven?

Cheers

[fox]

I am sorry but I dont quite understand your question, are you saying you made your own bricks from clay you dug out from the ground and fired them yourself?
Did you build an oven with insulation or just the clay bricks?

[pepe]

I am sorry but I dont quite understand your question, are you saying you made your own bricks from clay you dug out from the ground and fired them yourself?
Did you build an oven with insulation or just the clay bricks?

Oh no no no sorry, my engligh is a bit rough. I used local clay redbricks, and homebrew as mortar. I built a 36 inch oven with 3 inches of fireblanket insulation and 4 inches of pcrete on top of that, I also set about 6 inches of pcrete under floor. Since I am building another oven (moved from that house and couldnt take it with me) and I only used mine for a year, I wanted to see if anyone has had a longer expierence with red clay brick ovens.

[MarkJerling]

A friend of mine built one from ordinary red bricks. It performed better than expected, except for the top of the dome which did deteriorate after a few years. He said that, if he did it again, he'd use fire bricks for the part of the dome higher than the door opening.

[fox]

I think that is a difficult one to answer because I dont think there is a standard for red clay bricks, so some may survive better than others.
I understand that reds are a lot less expensive than fire bricks but at what risk I can not say however there are folk who have successfully used storage heated bricks.
Stoarge heated bricks seem to be in between a red and a fire brick..

[MarkJerling]

I think that is a difficult one to answer because I dont think there is a standard for red clay bricks, so some may survive better than others.
I understand that reds are a lot less expensive than fire bricks but at what risk I can not say however there are folk who have successfully used storage heated bricks.
Storage heated bricks seem to be in between a red and a fire brick..

I can confirm that storage heater bricks show no deterioration at all. Maybe it depends on the type of storage heater bricks but I used three different types in my oven, one type for the dome, another for the floor and a third for the chimney gallery and I have seen no deterioration at all.

Red bricks are interesting in that modern bricks are made in gas fired ovens where the temperature is controlled carefully and all the bricks coming out of the kiln have had the same heat profile. With traditional brick making, there is a wide range of temperatures in the fired brick mass, so some bricks will have been over fired which, in terms of our usage, would make them very good to use while others are decidedly soft making them entirely unsuitable.

[UtahBeehiver]

Through the years there have been several builders that have used solid clay reds, several from the UK and a number from the NZ and AU where the reds were from old sailing ships and used as ballast. The builds went together like any other WFO brick oven but the forum has not really seen any long term follow-up on the brick durability. A few newer builds in the Central America and Mexico areas used more modern clay reds but again not much feedback. So it is a crap shoot.