dome height reduction test

[Neil2]

"to the best of my understanding the 63% door height was determined by a study done on the bread ovens of Quebec"

You will find much the same ratio in many of the traditional pizza ovens in Italy, Sicily and Croatia.

[james]

Hi guys,

I think the 63% door height to oven dome height is one of those urban legends, where if it keeps getting repeated enough times it becomes fact.

Oven dome to oven door height depends on the type of oven you are talking about. There is a large, mainstream Italian wood oven manufacturer based on outside of Rome who makes a "traditional" oven with a 47.3" floor, 22.7" dome and 11.8" door opening.

The dome is 48% of the floor diameter (a little less than the radius) and the oven opening is 52% of the dome.

I think they would be really surprised if someone told them that a Quebec bread oven was more authentic than their Italian wood oven.

Equally, our 47.3" Modena oven has a 16.5" high dome and 10.6 high oven opening -- which are 37% of the floor diameter and 64% of the oven dome height.

These are two very different ovens, both made in Italy.

I think the most interesting point is that there is no one "right" oven design. The high and low dome ovens each have their own strength. It's also interesting to point out that I don't think that the great people in Quebec were trying to make Pizza Napoletana 100 years ago.

For DIY brick oven builders -- I think you can relax and not stress an inch or two here or there (within reason). :-)

James

[fxpose]

Originally Posted by james

For DIY brick oven builders -- I think you can relax and not stress an inch or two here or there (within reason). :-)

Thanks James, I agree.
I think I stressed over my entry height during my build and ended up with about 60%. I agree there are several variables like dome shape, dome volume, entry shape, etc.......but at the end if your entry and dome look about right against each other the oven is probably good for the most part and you'll be happy with it.

My 60% entry is non-arched and is rectangular. I think my oven may behave differently if instead it had a 60% arched entry as the arch can choke off more hot gasses from escaping at the corners and into the flue. Who knows...? I can always add a sheet metal arch without altering the 60% ratio and see what happens......maybe my oven will each operating temp quicker....

George

[sjmeff]

Thezaman - how much more time does it take to get to pizza temps with the additional 1.5"?

S