[Acoma]

James, mine kept up good. I would throw a fresh log in every 15-20 minutes for heat to be maintained. I would keep the hearth in the 800's and it would maintain for several pizzas, 4-5. It would then cool to 700's since the pizzas were always in the same general area, but I would then rake the coals over the area for a few minutes and it would shoot up the the 800's again. As we know, a few pizzas suck up the upper hearth brick heat, but with saturation of the brick, placing some coals over the area bring the temp right back up. This is what I would do when I needed to keep the heat in the 800's for best desired appearance, balance of doneness throughout.

As for the dome and hearth, the dome would stay in the 800's to 900's. The hearth would only loose heat from semi cooling due to pizza's.

As for fires, getting the fires going initially was progressive with flames and heat. After an hour I would get an inferno going. This takes me 2.5 hours to get the dome white and saturated. Afterwards, I keep a log or two (depending on size) in there, running up to the top. Again, this is done every 15-20 minutes or so when doing the pizzas.

When done with the pizzas, I know I have great retention of heat becaue the next day the hearth is in the 400's, with the dome in the 600's.