Pyrolite Fire Bricks

[temata]

Hello Everyone,

I am about to embark on building a Pizza oven and am very excited about getting stuck in. I live in New Zealand and the costs of Clay Fire bricks here is a bit crazy I have various quotes but nothing under $4.50 NZD (Approx $3.70 USD) a brick and thats for seconds. I have found a manufacturer of what they call Pyrolite and they make these in the regualr fire brick size but also to pretty much any size you want. For a standard firebrick they charge $2.50 NZD. This is what they claim

230 x 115 x 75mm
(50 x bricks for auction)
Weight: 2.4Kgs ea

Ideal for wood fires, pizza ovens, BBQ's, fire place linings, free standing fire places, umu's, hobby kilns, thermal walls and insulation.


* Compare our price ONLY $2.50ea!
* Will heat quicker (use less fuel) than ovens of clay brick construction, and hold sufficient heat suitable for domestic cooking purposes (Temps in excess of 500 C recorded within x 2 hours. Temps at dome centre est circa 1000 C )
* Light and easy to work with.

Customers throughout NZ have found this product excellent value for money and brilliant for building pizza ovens and the like.

They also have a picture of one that they say they heated to 1000F and put straight into cold water and no deformation or, degradation occured.

Has anyone heard of such things? Is it all to good to be true? The price is attracting me as I could save a lot getting these instead.

Thanks

[stoveup]

It looks suspiciously like a concrete paver, which will not work. Can you find out what they are made of?

[azpizzanut]

Hello temata,

It appears that the bricks lack thermal mass when compared to a full size fire brick. A fire brick made of clay and refractory materials should weigh roughly 3.5kg. Lighter bricks are used for insulating kilns.

I'd be suspicious of any claim of "hold sufficient heat suitable for domestic cooking....." If that is what you want then go for it, but I'd hold out for real fire brick that is proven to hold heat for hours or days after a firing. Just my opinion.

Cheers,

Cheers,

[david s]

Hi TemaTa,
This product sounds interesting. Try to find out more information from the manufacturer. It could be that they are more suitable than clay bricks for our application. Firebricks are designed to withstand much higher temps than we use, but they don't like the rapid heating that we give them. Ie 300 C /Hr In industry they don't push the refractory like this. The rapid heating and resulting Uneven expansion is not good for the material. If it were me I think I'd be inclined to give them a shot. They are a little bit less dense than firebrick, but not by much and you could always add a little more thermal mass over the dome.

[GianniFocaccia]

It looks suspiciously like a concrete paver

yes, but with fireclay added maybe? Ring an existing customer that can substantiate the manufacturer's durability claims. Sounds too good to be true!

[brickie in oz]

Good old Google.

Pyrolite® - Rex Materials Group

Its made of ceramic fibre so is an insulator.

Edit: and here it is.

Originally Posted by temata

Ideal for wood fires, pizza ovens, BBQ's, fire place linings, free standing fire places, umu's, hobby kilns, thermal walls and insulation.

[david s]

[QUOTE=brickie in oz;115792]Good old Google.

Pyrolite® - Rex Materials Group

"Its made of ceramic fibre so is an insulator."

Good find Brickie.
However, just because it contains ceramic fibre does not make it an insulator. Glass insulating fibres are used to make fiberglass insulating bats, but can also be used to make reinforcing for concrete, which is definitely not an insulator. It is the air surrounding the material that creates the insulation. I think this product sounds good and if I had access to some I'd love to try them. These manufacturers seem to know their stuff and presumably have created a suitable product.

[david s]

The density of these bricks is way too high for them to be classed as an insulator.

[temata]

I have been in touch with a guy here in NZ that does training course on how to make brick pizza ovens and he thinks that they would not hold heat and he would be inclined to stick with th tried and true. I still trying to track down somone that has used them to see if they are happy.

Here is a link to the same company with a bit more info on what they are made of


PIZZA OVEN/BBQ/INCINERATOR BASE(S) | Trade Me

[david s]

It sounds to me like they are using an insulating castable. Sounds a bit backwards to me. I think it's better to use a dense material facing your fire and insulation behind it. But maybe their system works. They are describing a material that is different to the bricks.