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Post by lovepizza on Jun 15, 2016 20:40:46 GMT
Looking good Mike!
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Post by barry on Jun 17, 2016 9:44:50 GMT
Stuart, i used the oven for the first time yesterday. A bit impromptu, but the oven was ready to use after about 40 mins. Still maintained a fairly small fire as this was the first time I'd got it up to temperature and didn't want to over do it. Started fire in the middle, moved it left for 10 mins then right and ready to cook. Oven floor was around 400c and retained heat just long enough for 6 pizzas, which as I wasn't well prepared in advance, took about 45 mins! (Lots of running in and out of the kitchen, stretching bases, adding the toppings etc). It seemed to cool faster than I'd like, but I suspect there is still some moisture in the render, under the oven and possibly in the oven itself. I'm guessing all of this will cool the oven faster? Hopefully I'll use it some more over the next week and I'll try and be a bit more methodical about timing and measuring temperature etc
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Post by oblertone on Jun 17, 2016 12:44:53 GMT
All ovens require time to become 'heat soaked' before they give the best results; yours, being precast will need a shorter time than a brick dome, but it still requires time. As a rule of thumb the heat travels at about an inch an hour, so a two inch thick dome still requires two hours to become fully saturated. I'm not saying you need to wait that long to cook pizza (as you have found) but to cook loads, without depleting your heat reservoir you do need a bit of restraint. My oven often cooks better towards the end of a session than it does at the beginning.
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Post by spudgun666 on Sept 6, 2016 9:28:11 GMT
I have just stumbled across this post, I have the same modular oven (although mine was via an ebay seller) what fun it was moving over half a ton of pizza oven, just wanted to compare how you are getting on with it.
I dried mine out with a couple of low fires and have since had 4 cooks in it, what I have found is the outside gets pretty warm and the temperature inside fluctuates (maybe my management of the fire). I am not sure how much having the central chimney effects the cooking of the top of the pizzas as the heat is not being drawn over the top of it (as it would if the chimney was at the front).
When I get it right the pizzas are great, I have had chicken thighs at the back while cooking at the front this worked well.
I think getting consistent results will be a LOT of practice so any tips are appreciated.
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Post by lovepizza on Sept 11, 2016 6:36:17 GMT
Hi Spudgun
I don't know these ovens that well so the guys on here who own one will be better placed to respond. With regards to the central chimney, Is the chimney and Flue in the middle of the oven or have they somehow constructed a flue at the front that vents to the middle and out the chimney?
I would have thought if there is a middle flue then you would need to keep a substantial fire going to cook pizza consistently after a good heating up period. Are you heating the oven until all of the soot falls off the inside of the oven and turns a light grey/white colour? At this point, you know that it is ready for cooking Pizza. Alternatively, buy a digital thermometer gun (I got mine off EBay for £15) and wait until you are at 425-450 degrees c on the tiles before cooking pizza.
Stuart
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Post by spudgun666 on Sept 13, 2016 7:16:12 GMT
Stuart
Thanks for your reply, the chimney is in the centre of the dome with a damper, I used it for 20 people on Saturday here is what I found.
Due to the height approx. (600mm I think this is pretty high) of the dome it takes a while to get to a good temp, I eventually got it to burn the soot off with a decent sized fire.
I closed the flue and the top half of the front door leaving just the bottom door open approx. 200mm high, this allowed the heat to curl round the dome and escape through the open door thus grilling the top of the pizza.
I found again a lot of heat escaping through walls which leads me to believe these ovens are pretty poorly insulated, the floor also lost heat pretty quickly. The pizzas were awesome but I found I could cook 2 before having to reheat the floor.
It eats logs like my friends were eating pizza.....
Next year I plan to remove the render down the internal brick and re-insulate the dome and maybe take the floor up and see what I can change about that.
All in all its a good oven but I have noticed different models now being sold on ebay, some with \ lower dome which would be better for my needs. I wouldn't recommend the oven for a WFO purist but for throwing out a few pizzas and roasting pork belly it did its job.
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Post by djkrime on Sept 29, 2016 9:35:28 GMT
A bit late to this thread but I have decided to take the plunge and build a oven. The items for the base are arriving this weekend and have decided to go with the 750 kit from Pizza Oven Supplies. My only real question is did any of you put secondary insulation under the supplied oven base or is the heat retention good enough without?
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Post by pizzaovenman on Nov 28, 2017 21:12:17 GMT
Stuart Thanks for your reply, the chimney is in the centre of the dome with a damper, I used it for 20 people on Saturday here is what I found. Due to the height approx. (600mm I think this is pretty high) of the dome it takes a while to get to a good temp, I eventually got it to burn the soot off with a decent sized fire. I closed the flue and the top half of the front door leaving just the bottom door open approx. 200mm high, this allowed the heat to curl round the dome and escape through the open door thus grilling the top of the pizza. I found again a lot of heat escaping through walls which leads me to believe these ovens are pretty poorly insulated, the floor also lost heat pretty quickly. The pizzas were awesome but I found I could cook 2 before having to reheat the floor. It eats logs like my friends were eating pizza..... Next year I plan to remove the render down the internal brick and re-insulate the dome and maybe take the floor up and see what I can change about that. All in all its a good oven but I have noticed different models now being sold on ebay, some with \ lower dome which would be better for my needs. I wouldn't recommend the oven for a WFO purist but for throwing out a few pizzas and roasting pork belly it did its job. Hi Stuart Are you sure it's one of our ovens? Our chimneys are not at the centre of the dome and we dont have a split door. Our ovens are in wedding venues,restaurants,lots of domestic places and a cookery school, none of these have reported your problem, which leads me to believe that it is not one of our ovens. If anything our ovens are over insulated to make it suitable for the British weather. Our customers have cooked over 40 pizzas per hour and have reported back good heat retention. On this subject you will only get out what you put in. If the oven you purchased is inefficient it is probably because the chimney is in the centre. Could you please confirm it is one of our ovens as we would like to help you out as much we can. Thanks, Nick
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