New Pizza Oven in Beijing, China - Help!

[Dutchoven]

I like James would suggest insulating blocks or insualting firebricks...I have found these in the past listed on Ebay...make sure they say insulating firebrick...they are more porous and much lighter in weight than normal firebrick...this method would ease your correction because the insualting brick are virtually the same size in most cases as normal firebrick...
All the best!
Dutch

[DaveHI]

If you get stuck and can't find insulation materials easily, find someone in the refinery/chemical plant industry. Insulating furnaces is very common. Ditto glass production operations.

[Lukeinjapan]

Originally Posted by humble-mike

Thank you very much for the excellent replies. Your advice is much appreciated!

What you have both said makes a lot of sense. Running the oven as it is at the moment is going to prove way to costly - I need the oven going for around eight hours a day, and the amounts of firewood I'm going through right now just doesn't make it affordable.

I guess that this Christmas I'll be doing a tear-down and rebuild job!

Here's what I'm planning on doing:
1. I'll remove the layers of firebricks on the floor and lay an insulating floor. I'm not sure where I can find vermiculite concrete here in China, but it should be available.
2. I'll then rebuild the dome and cover with refractory blankets. On top of that I'll recover with cement.

I'll post some photos and let you know how it goes.
Thanks for all the advice!
Cheers,
Mike

Hi Mike, I live in Japan and much of the vermiculite that is sold here comes from China, not sure if that is much help, though.

Don't end your search at just the building supply depots, vermiculite is used to make potting soil and it is also used in kitty litter, pond soil for fish tanks (almost 100% vermiculite) and it is sold in nearly all garden supply stores.