oven door Newbie Forum Discuss oven door in the Good Background Information forums; which is a better door wood or steel..or aluminum?...

[APOCALYPTO]

which is a better door wood or steel..or aluminum?

[Les]

Good question. I would stay away from wood - It will char. I believe that the oven kits have plate steel. I went with aluminum - I made it out of .062 material. It's made 1.75 inches thick with vermiculite poured in between the walls. Seems to be working pretty well. I can feel heat on the outside so obviously thicker would be better. Our doors seems to have a personality like our ovens - to each their own.

Les...

[DrakeRemoray]

I would stay away from wood...
http://www.fornobravo.com/forum/f17/...door-4304.html (Burned up my door!)

[Jed]

I had good success building an insulated door.

The door is built with a wood frame, but wrapped on the wood is sheet metal - front and back and the core is filled with left over perlite...

Seams to work fine. My oven doesn't stay hot any longer than the others report, so I don't know that the insulated door improves performance...

JED

[texassourdough]

As a chemical engineer I would have to vote against both wood (charring as indicated) and aluminum. Two reasons for aluminum...First, it conducts far better than steel or iron so is more of a heat window and should have insulation. I am also a bit concerned about the potential temperatures involved. Aluminum melts at about 1220 degrees F. While your oven should never be that hot...you could be reasonably be close to it. My concern is not for melting but because Aluminum has some minor health concerns and the potential for contamination would be higher at elevated temperatures.

As an aside, zinc should be avoided also for it melts at about 785 degrees F so if used to hold a door together could literally melt.

Methinks iron or steel - preferably with some form of insulation (tile, refractory blanket, etc) would be quite preferable and potentially safer.
Jay

[david s]

I like the look of a wooden door, it's also traditional. If insulated it wont char.

[APOCALYPTO]

thank you all for the info..it is all a real help..I think I will go with a steel door on a hinge..My original idea was a steel plate with 2x4s coated in concrete bolted to the other side

[wlively]

I prefer the look of wood as well. Easy to do and very cheap.

I took a scrap piece of durock cut to shape 1/4 larger than opening on 3 sides (not bottom). Made a flexible form to shape of opening, drilled 4 large screws tthrough frront of durock to give perlcrete an additional anchor and then mixed up a batch of Perlcrete (4-1 to make it stronger) and layed it on about 2 inches thick. Let it dry a couple of days and then dried it the oven overnight. Wrapped the door in heav gauge aluminium foil. Then cut and screw cedar 1x4's to the face. I attached the handles to the wood first.

Door works very well, face stays ambient temp, looks like a wood door and only cost me $4.00 for the fancy handles.

[jcg31]

The wood door below has been in service for nearly a year, has sealed in temps as hot as 800 degrees and has survived a particularly harsh Wisconsin winter. Does a wonderful job of keeping the heat useful for the better part of the week.

I did a fair amount of testing with wafer board before committing to raised panel oak and the key to keeping the wood from charring is fairly obvious, do not to allow the wood to touch brick anywhere, and from the insulation perspective bring down the heat of those screws that connect the insulation component to the wood. Oh, and no metal casing for the insulation.

This door incorporates a couple of layers of insulation board sandwiched between three sheet metal layers that act as "heat sinks". There is a channel around the edge of the door that holds a fiberglass cord (standard wood heater stuff that can be found in most home centers) and then 3" (by 1/8" by length to fit) fiberglass tape encloses the insulation board (see second photo below).

I vote for wood, makes a nice and traditional contrast to the brick.

Jim

[texassourdough]

Hi Jim!

Lovely! As you demonstrate, properly done, wood can be great!

Well done!
Jay