Oven Curing Firing Your Oven Discuss Oven Curing in the Oven Management forums; I started checking this thread for curing and James post lists 100 degrees a day for 7 days. Half way ...

[exceloven]

I started checking this thread for curing and James post lists 100 degrees a day for 7 days. Half way through I found a post that said 300 all day first day, 350 all day second day and so on. Two questions what is the current suggested method and where in the dome do you measure the temp.

Thanks Mark

[Acoma]

Mark, several approaches exist. I don't have time right now to look up the details.
1) For a week you progress in heat by 100 degrees starting with 100 until you get to 700 degrees. Each time you obtain this temp you shut the door, keeping the heat inside, and shut down operation until the next day.\
2) Doing a 6-8 hour burn for four to five days.
300
400
500
600
700

You cannot go over these temps, and you must be sure that the heat is consistant throughout the oven. Others will verify my details.

[james]

Agreed. The most important thing is to not go over 300F the first day and 350F the second day. Hold the temperature as long as you can during the first two days. You are essentially trying to slowly bake out all the moisture in your oven, without creating steam.

You oven will have different temperatures and different spots, so look for the temperature in the largest part of the oven. Not directly on the spot where the flame hits the dome, and not the outer reach where the floor meets the dome. Look at the top of the dome, just off where the fire hits.

Hope this helps!
James

[JUBILEE]

We are ready to start the curing fires in our oven but we don't have a thermometer. i know to start with newspaper, but how much or for how long? we don't want to over do it with the first fire. any suggestions?

[Frances]

I did mine without a thermometer, its not a problem. Just remember to go slow... start small and make your fire just a bit bigger each day, keeping it burning for as long as is practical.

It probably doesn't matter what exact temp you reach each day, as long as you don't rush things.

[Johnny the oven man]

Heat beads do a great job on dryouts, allows you to spread the heat out. Slow dry out is the answer.

[david s]

A gas burner also works really well. just leave it on for at least 24hrs. It provides a gentle heat rather than the more difficult to control wood flame, which requires constant tending.

[Dino_Pizza]

I fire cured my oven over the week and if you followed my thread, I got a substantial crack thru 4 rows of brick from the inside to the outside. Cracked thru 2 brick corners too, not just mortar. It's heartbreaking at 1st but it all works out fine. However, here is short (for me) version of how it happened.

HERE IS WHAT I DID WRONG (& what I think you might do right) I did the 100 degree starter fire and increased by 100 deg for 7 days. The 1st day, newspaper only, 2nd day, paper and twigs. Both times I (wrongly-I believe) I kept these fires for a few minutes, got up to the required temp and shut my oven door until the next morning.

Now, a 100 or 200 deg fire, in a large 42" oven for a few minutes basically did little or nothing for curing the oven. On the 3rd day when I went to 300 deg (sometimes hitting close to 400 at the dome peak) it was like my oven got the big heat for the 1st time in the high 300 and that's when it cracked. I can see doing this in a 31" oven might have worked fine, but if you are going with a larger even, I feel (IMHO, just an observation of what I THINK I did wrong) you need to keep those 1st 2 days of temperature at the suggested deg's for 4 hours or more. Enough for the ENTIRE oven to see that temperature. Then, it won't get shocked when you create the bigger fire needed for 300 degrees. This allows for even and well spaced "hairline cracks" for the oven to expand instead of always using the easiest large crack it created in my case. I found the post regarding 300 deg 1st day fire "for as long as you can", "4-6 hours" but did not apply that to the 100 deg/1st fire method which I clearly should have.

Hope this helps, just know that my oven works great in spite of the crack mishap and I know yours would too but best to avoid it. Cheers, Dino

[david s]

Dino,
I agree entirely with your assessment of the curing situation. Because the flame of a wood fire is somewhat difficult to contol the temp is fluctuating wildly. I have a method using a gas burner where you fire it up in a very controlled manner (0-250 C in 24 hrs) which goes through about 6 kgs LPG but it's worth it because the temp is not fluctuating. Then you can go to some more prolonged, but not too serious wood fires to finish off. My experience with firing pottery in wood kilns taught me that the cracks in pottery were created from sudden temp changes. Hope this info can help somebody.

[Johnny the oven man]

Charcoal or Heat Beads is still the easiest managable source for dry outs, along with the BBQ gas ring.