Mortar Choices

[Dutchoven]

Re: Mortar Choices

As it stands now I have 1/2-3/4" of cladding on the outside that was made with the fireclay-mortar homebrew. I guess that's my question to the board as well. Am I good with this cladding or should I put something thicker?

With cuts on each side of the brick or otherwise that amount of cladding should be fine...in truth a cladding is really not necessary unless you want to increase the thermal mass of your oven!
Best
Dutch

[Kemo]

Re: Mortar Choices

My oven used a mix of mortars depending on the availability and my pocket book.

I started with some heatstop 50, then to fireclay because I ran out real quick. Then tried some Refmix and then back to Heatstop 50. So my oven has different mortars at different stages.

when I build my next oven...I will use Heatstop 50 for the main build and Refmix for the arch ways and landing areas. The RefMix is really strong IMO but it comes at a price. I also will NOT be adding any cladding at all, just filling the gaps with Heatstop 50 and straight to blanket insulation and vermiculite.

I have a 42" oven with about 1" of cladding atop the dome and its a good 2-2.5hrs to come up to 900, with the best cooking after heatsoaking the oven over a 4-5hr period.

I made alot of mistakes in my first oven build, but I learned alot too. I also love my oven, but I also look forward to building another one. Lots of things run thru your head during the build...and certainly afterwards


After looking over my rant, I never really answered the original question. I used Heatstop 50 for a 1" cladding on mine with plenty of gaps on the outside bricks up to 3/4 of an inch and possibly larger in some areas. I was just trying to get rid of what I had left over. I havent had a brick fall or any major cracks aside from a loose brick in the arch area thats currently giving me grief. I dont have a way of looking at my external dome since mine is enclosed in a structure of sorts. As mentioned earlier, I wouldnt even clad at all if I were building now.