Can you use a wood fired oven in Winter?

[Stillwater]

Hello Everyone-

We have decided to build the Pompeii oven in our backyard. I have a question about the use of the oven in extremely cold climates.

We live in Stillwater, Minnesota and it gets extremely cold here (I've seen -60). We are the type of family that uses the Weber in the dead of winter.

Is it possible to use the oven when it is very cold?

We are building it either way, but we were just wondering what to expect.

We are also considering enclosing the oven in an outbuilding. It would still be very cold, but it would be out of the elements.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Doug

[Les]

It get's fairly cold here and I'm planning on using mine. It's not the crazy cold you're talking about though - Doesn't fire freeze around -60 deg?

Les...

[RTflorida]

Freezing fire??? don't know about that.

You certainly can use your oven in the dead of winter, just expect a longer heat up, and more wood usage keeping it up to temp (doing pizza).
In the big scheme of things the temperature extremes you are fearful of really are not that extreme. On an average burn for me right now, I'm taking the oven from an ambient temp of around 90 degrees up to temps well in excess of 1000 degrees during the raging part of my fires.....no ill effects. Starting at 0 or minus 50 really won't cause the shock you may be thinking of.

I would strongly recommend using as much insulation as you have space for and can afford....you can never have to much.

RT

[zorn]

I'm a total newb to this, but I would think if anything, a brick oven would work better in cold weather than a metal grill like a Weber.

[PizzaPolice]

If I could do it over I'd stick mine inside one of those small garden shacks. They're like a small pole barn. If you like shoveling snow and ice, the ovens don't care and work perfectly. Summer around here has mosquitoes and not conducive to mid to late summer deck parties.
It'll be cool whatever you do.
Have fun with it!
PizzaPolice

[DrakeRemoray]

I was using mine a few weeks after this picture was taken...

[CanuckJim]

I live in southern Ontario, and we see temps in the -20/-30 Celsius range in winter. For the last few years, I've baked year round in my oven. Firing the night before is always a good rule in winter. The more enclosed and heavily insulated your oven is, the better off you will be. Make sure the oven mouth does not face the prevailing winter wind.

Jim