My MAM-505 Modular Refractory Oven Installation Discuss My MAM-505 in the Pizza Oven Design and Installation forums; Haney, I KNOW HOW YOU FEEL. I have had trouble getting my 39" oven really hot. Mind you, I could ...

[Lars]

Haney,
I KNOW HOW YOU FEEL. I have had trouble getting my 39" oven really hot. Mind you, I could not comfortably put my pizza in the oven with that short handled peel you have there. But, your turn tool and technique were quite good!!

I would say that each time I learn a bit more, and rarely fire for over and hour. I haven't gotten the sides to 'go white' yet, just the top, say 26" across. One thing I have lacked is adequate dry well split hardwood. I may need to go for two separate firings... get the top white, the shovel out some of the coals and get even more fresh flames in there.

I think they all have good points, there may still be moisture, which, while boiling off cools the masonry ( water continues to boil off at 212 degrees) so that was part of my initial problem. If the wood is soft wood, or damp, can be very HEAT inhibiting.

I decided to cut down several black locust trees and I will be trying that, somewhat harder wood ( which grows like weeds all around my oven area)...


Hard, dry, well split wood. The more surface area ( smaller pieces) the more heat can be given off at once.

Good luck.

lars.

[ThisOldGarageNJ]

Maybe you should consider burning some coal, as James suggests there is still a ton of water in there, A good coal fire going for a day or two might help get a bunch of that moisture out....

Worry not you WILL get it going

[jmhepworth]

I haven't seemed to have trouble getting my oven really hot. After going through the cure, we decided to try some pizza on Labor Day. I started two hours before we wanted pizza with a slow fire and kept adding hardwood to keep the fire reasonable. I would not have described it as the fires from hell. I checked the floor and ceiling temps with my cheap Harbor Fright infrared thermometer and it gave an error message (from which I concluded it was over 1000 degrees F). We burned the pizza. We'll try again tonight with a slow fire and less wood.

[haney007]

Thanks, I'm trying saturday, I think my wood is not small enough as well because it seems to take a long time to get to the "plasma" stage". Wood is quarter split btw.

Thanks again for everyones insight. I will let everyone know how it goes.

[jmhepworth]

I split mine to about 2-3"

Joe