CLay oven

[ikhan42]

Hiya guys its been a while since i posted. On friday here in Australia they had a special on better homes and gardens on building a igloo wood fired oven out of clay. The show was interesting to say the least. Is there anyone who has any comments on the disadvantages of building a wfo out of clay?

They used Hay or wood shavings in the mix to help bond the thing together but it didnt seem like a sound idea. Then again bricks are made from clay as well. The advantage with this method seemed to be the ease in which the oven can be build/formed as the clay is wet.

From what I can tell there is also fire clay available has anyone had any experience with this ?

Thanks
Imran

[Carl]

Sounds like exactly what I did - but I used a mix of fireclay and grog to build the oven. Big advantage was that I built the oven dome in only an afternoon - pretty good for a 32" wide dome. I didn't want to have to pay out for bricking cutting equipment, expensive firebricks, and didn't have time with other commitments to build a brick dome.

Disadvantages might be that you have to find the clay (or pay for it, like I did), and the clay isn't as robust as brick. You'll need to keep it dry all the time, mind you, I'd expect the same to be true for the brick oven. More info on my build on my other posts here, or on my blog if you're interested.

[Frances]

There are a couple of posts on clay ovens if you do a search. No idea about the pros and cons of clay vs brick, but personally I find clay ovens very cool...

[dmun]

We've heard that firebrick is expensive in Australia: Still, clay is expensive too, or difficult to mine and refine yourself. Clay will never get to the temperature with an ordinary wood fire where it vitrifies, or becomes hard and waterproof, so a clay oven will have to be kept scrupulously dry at all times.

Still, there are lots of mud/clay/adobe ovens out there.

[ikhan42]

Originally Posted by dmun

We've heard that firebrick is expensive in Australia: Still, clay is expensive too, or difficult to mine and refine yourself. Clay will never get to the temperature with an ordinary wood fire where it vitrifies, or becomes hard and waterproof, so a clay oven will have to be kept scrupulously dry at all times.

Still, there are lots of mud/clay/adobe ovens out there.

Dmun,

the fire bricks arent that expensive here they are about $2.70 per brick, my reason for the ? is mor along the lines of what will last longer and be a more solid structure. I will be hosing it in a brin enclosure and then tiling the enclosure with stack stone so am looking at the best optio in terms of longevity. So if I was looking at the clay option then it would need to be done like the modular ovens in sections and fired in a kiln from what I am understanding.

All this came up for me when i saw something on better homes and gardens where they built a clay oven out of normal clay and figured maybe fireclay would be the way to go. Also this is the was the tandoori ovens seem to be made here with fire clay and broken glass.

Imran

[dmun]

I understand that restaurant tandoors have been pre-fired ceramic for a long time here: the raw clay ones have a problem with spalling and cracking.

And FORGET about broken glass, at least as an insulator.