If you had the chance to rebuild your oven, what would you change?

[brickie in oz]

If you had the chance to rebuild your oven, what would you change?

Id make mine 200mm (8") higher so I dont have to stoop over to look into it.
Id add more insulation on top, Id also like a bigger bench out front.

[nissanneill]

I'm pretty happy with mine, ie. height, size, shape, appearance and performance.
The only thing that I might change is to use fired clay pavers rather than the expensive firebricks .

Neill

[echopark]

More insulation under the floor (4" instead of 2" ceramic board), a slightly lower door (12" max), and a bigger opening to vent smoke to the flue.

[kebwi]

I haven't been using my oven very long yet, but I am somewhat perplexed by the challenge to store the numerous peels somewhere relatively nearby. I would give that some thought. Otherwise you have to fetch all these tools from the shed or basement all the time. I can't just leave mine outside, not in Seattle weather.

And learn how to properly pour concrete . Make a few practice "stepping stones" if you've never done any concrete before, as in my case.

Oh, here's a biggie: Place your floor bricks from the opening of the hearth back. If you place them starting from any other point in the oven, you risk having small triangles along the front edge of the floor. Wish I'd paid closer attention to that.

[Tscarborough]

I would not build a house, I would maintain the barrel shape. The roof does serve one purpose, though, it is where I store the oven tools.

[Breven]

Bigger opening to the chimney. I have pretty good draw, but I know the opening is a little too small.

[Les]

I would try and incorporate some lighting from the dome. Maybe use glass block as the plug and use it as a light pipe to shine light from the dome to the floor. Don't know if it is possible but that would be slick.

Les...

[Tscarborough]

I have solid glass block and considered putting one in the smoke chamber, but could not find technical data to support their ability not to explode into shrapnel and kill me, so I moved to plan B.

[Neil2]

I would have built mine years earlier.

[SCChris]

I agree with Neil2, I would have built it sooner.. I might have spent more time thinking about how to get an inner door to swing open in the entry rather than to always have to remove it, and an outer swinging door. I’d have more insulation under the floor, 2.5 inches rather than the two in currently have.

I really need to do a heat saturation of the dome again and see what the data says relative to this. In an early test I had just under 100F on the underside of the oven's support slab 12 hours after soaking the oven and running 850F on the oven floor. I'm betting at this point that these temps would be lower due to the drying out of the concrete since this first test.. I'll get back to you all on this..

I’m so happy with the 43 inch dome, it would be nice to have a second smaller oven for slow roasting, I'm doing a lot of this..

I love the oven!

I’m entertaining doing a series of “Pizza and a movie night” for the patio.. Parents on one side of the patio and kids on the other.
Chris