FB Pompeii Oven Kit Pompeii Oven Construction Discuss FB Pompeii Oven Kit in the Pizza Oven Design and Installation forums; James I was looking around the FB store and found a link to the Pompeii Oven kit 110 and saw ...

[mluttropp]

James

I was looking around the FB store and found a link to the Pompeii Oven kit 110 and saw the it was priced at $1,000. This was quite a bit higher than you were shooting for but perhaps worth it. What really shocked me was the $780 to ship it to me in Northern California vs the original target price of $100. I hope I don't have to start shopping for all of these components but at a total price near $1,800 for the kit I may not have a choice. Is it possible to pick up a kit vs having it delivered?

[eprante]

James,
As a new member of the forum, I have a question for you. I am spending more time than is probably reasonable looking at all the build threads that I can and learning about the different approaches that builders have taken. It seems to me that there seem to be two major camps. The "artisan, meticulous, engineering types, who make several cuts to each brick; these builders not only want to build an oven but a beautiful piece of craftmanship. Ironically all of their work is ultimately covered up.

The second group seems to be of the mind that the fewer cuts on brick that are made the faster the oven will go together ("people who thought the earth was flat have been doing this for thousands of years" , plus they didn't have 10" diamond wet saws. Their brickwork is less elegant but again gets covered up and only the bread and pizza see the final work.
So, have you had experience with any of these ovens failing when fire has been introduced and what are the factors that would cause such failure. This project seems to be enough work that it is worth doing right, it just seems that there are several interpretations of what is right. Please enlighten me
Eric

[EADavis]

I am having to agree with mluttropp, the shipping costs may make this a deal breaker. Too bad, at the original $100 target cost for CA, this would be a great deal (too good to be true, I am afraid to say). It is interesting, the Pompeii 90 kit costs $616 to ship 150 miles down Hwy 101, but $968 to ship it 3000 miles to CT. It actually would cost $150 less to ship the Pompeii 110 to CA if you ordered the FB Mortar, Blanket and Board separately and mailed the bricks in 34 USPS Large Flat Rate boxes ($13.50 a box, up to 70 lbs each) - but your mailman would definitely go "postal" if he had to deliver almost 1,700 lbs of brick! One other quirk I found looking at the component shipping data - the more FB Blankets you order, the more per piece it costs to ship (1 costs $17.57, but 3 costs $59.79 or $19.93 a piece). So order the FB blanket three times to save money, instead of 3 at one time. The other components are just the opposite.

Bottom line - I think it is back to local acquisition of bricks, ordering the FB Blanket, FB Board and mortar, and driving the 150 miles to pick it up (and save an additional $160 in shipping costs).

Now I just need to get started...
Ed

[james]

Hi guys,

Time for an update on the Pompeii Oven Kit. Getting all the logistics right for a product launch takes a little time.

First off -- all the materials for the Pompeii Oven Kits arrive this week! Yeah.

Sorry that we got the shipping costs wrong on the quotes that we sent out. We are fixing each of those, and resending them today. Here is the shipping cost schedule from the original posting announcing the kits. We are subsidizing shipping costs on the kits, and it is taking effort getting our systems to accommodate the new model.

NorCal $100
SoCal $150
Northwest $250
Mountain States $300
Texas $350
Midwest $400
East coast $500

If you are looking for a quote, contact Marina via email and fb.com. That's the best way to go for now. We are working on making the FB Store calculate the correct shipping amount, but it taking a little time and custom programming.

In terms of the cost of the kits themselves, I want to note that we have added two additional boxes of FB Blanket (a total of three) to the Pompeii110 kit, which explains the price increase. We made the decision to include all the dome insulation you need, so that you will not have to find a local source for vermiculite or order extra FB Blanket. It makes sense, that explains the price increase.

I think that does it.

If you have any questions, you can contact Marina at 800 407 5119 or send her email.

Enjoy!
James

[EADavis]

Well, I broke down and ordered the Pompeii 90 kit this morning. With the subsidized pricing James is offering, the price is right, so I guess I have no more excuses! Now to get the time to build it...
Ed

[james]

Hi guys,

All the materials for the Pompeii Kits have arrived at the warehouse and we are starting to pack them up for shipment. Everything is looking good!

We will be in touch with folks who ordered Kits to coordinate delivery.

James

[EADavis]

Very cool! Looking forward to getting started...
Ed

[Gromit]

My locally sourced firebrick is not even close to being flat. I had variances in thickness from one brick to the next of about 3/16 of an inch. I had variances of 1/8 an inch from one corner of a single brick to the opposite corner. This made setting my floor the most tedious and frustrating part of my build so far. I tore it out twice to start over.

If I had it to do over again, I would buy this kit (after asking James to assure me that his brick is flat.)

-David

[dinoforno]

James,

East Coast price for shipping is still in affect? In the last post I an update for orders for the kits. Is it to late to order the kids to be sent to East Coast?

Dino

[EADavis]

I received my Pompeii 90 kit yesterday! For those of you contemplating doing the same, here is what to expect:

It arrives on one pallet. It took just under a week to get here from 161 miles away, but for only $100 shipping 1,600 lbs, I will wait! Someone will need to sign for the delivery, and of course, the truck was late. The truck that drove up had several Pompeii kits on it, according to my wife, so I guess there will be an explosion of WFO building on the Central California Coast in the next few months!

The kit includes (from bottom to top) small bricks, big bricks, 2 bags of FB Mortar, 1 box of FB Boards (3 are in the box), and 2 boxes of FB Blankets. Everything is wrapped in plastic wrap. The blanket boxes were kind of beat up, but survived OK. About 4-5 of the 17 large bricks (the floor) had chipped corners, but arrange the bricks right, and it should be OK. All of the 121 (I got one extra) small bricks have nice, crisp edges. Despite what the sales receipt says, you do not actually get the FB CD ROM, they email the Pompeii plans PDF file to you (which, face it, we all have downloaded by now!).

Overall, I am happy I went this way. Yeah, I probably could of saved a couple of bucks if I locally sourced what I could, like the small bricks. But the time to find them, the drive down to Monterey or Santa Cruz, having to load and unload everything to and from the truck, etc. made it all worthwhile buying the kit.

Now I need to get started...
Ed