Maintaining the Floor Temperature

[thestoragebed]

Hello,

I'm a recent member and owner of a Dome 60 WFO, which I am thoroughly enjoying and have produced some of my best 'out of doors' food ever (yes, even in the snow) - makes me wonder why I ever bothered with a BBQ!

Anyway, in my tests, i've made pizzas first and then roasted meats etc which clearly works brilliantly and is good use of the the oven and retained heat etc.

However, my frustration is this, the first pizza cooks very quickly and the dough bubbles and crisps to perfection, the second takes longer etc etc. the floor after the 3rd Pizza is at 250c when ideally it should be 350/400c.

I'd appreciate some advice on keeping the floor temperature high. Does the heat to the floor come from the fire that was on it before being pushed to one side or does it radiate from the roof?

Attachments:

[faz]

It is heated by both radiant heat and from direct contact with the coals. You can always rake some of the coals across the floor for a few minutes before cooking the next batch of pizzas, to get a bit more heat in there.

Are you sure that the oven is fully up to temp - my floor seems to take a lot longer than the dome to reach a decent temperature.

[cannyfradock]

TSB

I agree with Faz's comments but I'm a bit puzzled why you aren't getting better heat retention from the floor. I can only relate first-hand to my Dingley-Dell modular oven. They may be totally different in construction (Dingley-Dell ovens have fire-bricks within a refractory concrete base for a hearth) but Jamie's team would have done a lot of research to find an oven suitable for the UK market. This is how I operate my modular oven.....perhaps you can find some things that I do which are different to what you are doing yourself....

First thing....it's spring but most of us are still in the depths of winter, so when I know that I'm using my oven for a session, I light it the day before to drive any damp out. Don't use your best hardwood. Use any old soft-wood or untreated off cuts and fire the oven up for a few hours. Day of pizza party...remove any ash and start a fire in a clean oven......again.....start your fire with any wood. Let it burn as per Jamie's instructions (perhaps 30 mins?), then spread the coals over the whole surface of the hearth and leave for 15mins. Push the hot embers to the rear or side (I push mine to the rear/right-hand side which leave's 2/3rd's of the oven free plus you still have the full depth of the oven to work with)....I also use a grate/cast iron grating and push against the coals. this also makes it easier to toss the logs into an enclosed area.

This is the grating I use and this is how Jay (Dingley Dell) uses it. I push the grating over to the right when I use it...



As soon as the embers are pushed to your preffered place toss a few hardwood logs on. Even if the embers are quite dull, the logs should ignite straight away with all the heat. Now I wait for 15 mins or so to let the heat dissipate a bit from the hearth. Before baking pizzas I used a piece of copper pipe with one end flattened to gently blow any ash to the rear of the oven. I start baking pizzas as far away from the fire as poss then slowly move toward the fire every 6 pizzas or so. Keep a flickering flame licking up over the dome when the oven is in constant use. As Faz mentioned this should keep enough heat in the hearth to bake many many pizzas before the need to drag the embers back over the hearth again to put more massed heat in the hearth.

There may be a few reasons why you aren't getting the full performance from the oven.....not using dry seasoned hardwood for your flickering fire?......not letting the hearth be saturated long enough with the live embers?.......using pizza trays to bake your pizzas....no need as the hearth will be sterilised by the heat?

Apologies for the long post, but with a little bit of tweaking I'm sure you'll get better performance out of that oven.

Terry

[dougclay]

I embedded thermocouples at the top surface of my floor and underneath. It takes a good 3 hours for the temp to evenly distribute through the floor brick and I find that after the fire is done, the surface temp drops to the same temp as the undersurface but once it reaches this temp it retains that heat very well.
If I fire up "too fast" the dome and top surface can be 400C+ but the underside of the floor brick is still <100C and after 30 mins cooking, the whole floor would drop down to ~100C
My floor brick made from standard size bricks layed on side... Too thick now that I know what I do... Your floor looks thinner, but if it is firebrick, you might find it has similar properties...

[cannyfradock]

Mar 30, 2013 11:00:44 GMT dougclay said:

I embedded thermocouples at the top surface of my floor and underneath. It takes a good 3 hours for the temp to evenly distribute through the floor brick and I find that after the fire is done, the surface temp drops to the same temp as the undersurface but once it reaches this temp it retains that heat very well.
If I fire up "too fast" the dome and top surface can be 400C+ but the underside of the floor brick is still <100C and after 30 mins cooking, the whole floor would drop down to ~100C
My floor brick made from standard size bricks layed on side... Too thick now that I know what I do... Your floor looks thinner, but if it is firebrick, you might find it has similar properties...

Doug......just had a look back over your build ...brilliant. Caught up on your retro thread.....still prefer your mark 1 oven....or rather the brilliant clay design.

Terry

[muddy4x4]

I agree with all that I have read ! I have a Bernito, that really meant just as a pizza oven. I start the fire with bits of soft wood etc and I use a mix of Kiln dried hard wood and O' soi mio logs, depending on the mood ! I have a source for seasoned hard wood. Does the job, but nowhere as good as the other 2 ! How are you measuring the oven temps ? I use a IR thermometer that goes to 550 C. I get my oven to 380 C on the floor before cooking a pizza. and when I am cooking a lot, have to give the oven a moment to recover, before loading it again.
Just wondering, is the location of where your using the oven for pizza a little to exposed, and the cold wind around it just holding it back ?
Just a thought !
Nice looking oven !
Muddy4x4

[h12rpo]

Wasnt someone going to do a review of those o sole mio logs

[muddy4x4]

I have been using the O sole mio logs for 6 month+ now and are very pleased with results. Remembering that I only use my oven for Pizza's I am looking for a fuel that burns consistently. OSM are brilliant for this and make running a busy oven easy, better than kiln dried wood as they are 100% consistent. It does makes teaching some one to use a wfo much easier.
When we use the oven at home, we use a mixture of woods, but when doing an event osm are the best (my opinion).
If I was to fire an oven only a few times per year, I would be a kiln dried wood man.
Hope that helps !

[conic]

I make a mega fire where the devil would be comfortable in the middle, it does take a couple of hrs to heat up the mass but then is very easy to manage just tweaking every half hour with some thin branches, then I sweep to the right and also use a copper pipe to blow any dust away after sweeping with my brass brush ( 15 euros from a market outside of Napoli in the mountains of Avellino)

I used to do the same with a 70cm portablem oven but they cool down a lot quicker so need more tweaking but still easy to learn to manage the heat, just trial & error

Conic

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[h12rpo]

Next time you're outside Napoli then........ :-)

[thestoragebed]

Terry,

Thanks for your reply, I am assuming the your 'heating' procedure is all done with the door fully open?

I'll try your method and report back soon - I'm sure with a little more practice i'll get it soon.

For those interested the Jamie Dome 60 is made by Zio Ciro
www.zio-ciro.com/index.jsp?limba=uk

[cannyfradock]

TSB....

Yes......everything done with the door off. I never use the door for anything when I bake pizzas......

Terry

[thestoragebed]

Thanks Terry,

It's working perfectly now - I think i was concerned about it getting too hot!

[perwaiz]

i am new here and from sub continent...i have built a pompie dome pizza oven myself without any help of masson or professionals...dia of hearth is 30 inch and hight is 23 inches,,,door is 17" wide and 11" high...completely insulated Hearth roof is made by terracotta tiles and under the tiles i have fixed firebricks to keep heat up side.... i started it with first fire and three fires in a week ...today cooked first pizza and not succeeded....i thnk cant maintained temperature...i am sad but try again...

[downunderdave]

Drying a new oven takes time and the last moisture to be expelled will be that which is under the floor. Wet insulation does not work well because the heat conducts through the moisture resulting in a faster drop off of temperature. The cure is continued use where you should see a continued improvement in performance. If you have omitted to insulate under the floor bricks however, you have a continuing problem.