winter cooking ? Heat Management Discuss winter cooking ? in the Oven Management forums; Hey Rob. I would stay away from cladding to much. I had mortar on the outside of my dome.... Maybe ...

[asudavew]

Hey Rob.
I would stay away from cladding to much.
I had mortar on the outside of my dome.... Maybe a 1/2 inch or so on most of it. I just kind of added it as I built the dome.

My heat up times push 2 hours!, On the other hand, my oven does retain heat well. A trade off.. Longer heat up times... longer retention...
Just do what would fit best for you.

If you don't mind longer heat up times go for it!


As for cladding to avoid cracks, I've wondered if adding chicken wire over the dome(nice and tight) and then cladding over the wire and dome would help to prevent cracks.
Kind of a reinforced outer layer.

What do you think?

Your oven is looking great by the way~!

Dave

[gjbingham]

Didn't you get your bricks at the same place Dusty did?

You could just hold off a bit and see how long Dusty's takes to get heated, then decide on the cladding issue. As you know, I put at least an inch on mine, and I can get the dome white in an hour +/-.
G.

[RCLake]

Originally Posted by gjbingham

Didn't you get your bricks at the same place Dusty did?

You could just hold off a bit and see how long Dusty's takes to get heated, then decide on the cladding issue. As you know, I put at least an inch on mine, and I can get the dome white in an hour +/-.
G.

What type and how much insulation do you have over your dome. I picked up mine yesterday, 50 sf of 2" and also of 1". So I'm hoping that will be plenty.

[Acoma]

I am going with an inch of cladding, then 2 inches of the blanket, then Matrilite18. True that heat up will be longer, but the goal is to maintain the heat so that I focus more on the fun then the fire.

[gjbingham]

RC,
I used two rolls of 1 inch thick, (50 sq. ft each) over mine. I got at least two inches thickness around the sides, mostly 3 inches, and up to 5 inches on the top of the dome.

They say you can't over insulate. What kind of finish are you planning for your oven??? Mine's a bit mishapen because of the variances of thicknesses of blanket on it. Sounds like you have more than enough blanket to suit your needs.

George

[CanuckJim]

George,

Those wishing to have a symetrical igloo shape for the finished oven might try this approach: apply the blankets, then chicken wire, then a thickish layer of either vermic/Portland or Matrilite 18. I use Matrilite 18 because it's a better insulator at about the same price. Either material can be a bit tricky when trowelling onto near vertical surfaces, but have a spray bottle handy to dampen the blanket as necessary. Once you get the hang of it, it's not difficult to even out bumpy or low spots in the blanket layer. Even if some remain, you can fill them in the next day, once the material is set but not completely dry (alternately, you can dampen it, then apply additional). After that, you can use a stucco prep coat like Durex Monobase and finish with an exterior stucco. Treated this way, the igloo will not only have superior insulation, but it will be very weatherproof, maybe almost bulletproof. I'll post a pic in the gallery shortly.

Jim

[gjbingham]

Thanks Jim,
I did a number of searches for the matrilite 18 on Google, Yahoo etc. I couldn't find much at all, and certainly no distributors.

I went with vermiculite/concrete over chicken wire (and blankets), then stucco. I'm pretty close to symetrical, but certainly not perfect. You can't really tell unless you walk around it and specifically look for asymetry.

George

[CanuckJim]

George,

I thought I posted this link at one time or other, but maybe not. Look at: Manufacturer of refractories and supplier of refractory services for the aluminum industry - Matrix Refractories . Matrix is the Refractories Division of Allied Mineral Products. This is a global company, and the North American headquarters is in Texas. They do have a list of products and distributors.

Jim

[gjbingham]

Oh yeah,
I'd forgotten, you did. After looking around that site, I found matri-everything except matrilite. Maybe I didn't pursue it hard enough. Good resource for others though.

George

[RCLake]

Originally Posted by gjbingham

RC,
I used two rolls of 1 inch thick, (50 sq. ft each) over mine. I got at least two inches thickness around the sides, mostly 3 inches, and up to 5 inches on the top of the dome.

They say you can't over insulate. What kind of finish are you planning for your oven??? Mine's a bit mishapen because of the variances of thicknesses of blanket on it. Sounds like you have more than enough blanket to suit your needs.

George

Well my thoughts are very fluid right now. It will be stone structue at the end like this photo, but just as this has taken time, I'm wondering about a temporary sollution. After the dome is done(hopefully soon!) I'll do the curing, put on the ceramic blanket and I'm wondering if I'll stucco over it to weather protect it? One reason I may not do this I won't be able to add insulation later.