Cleaning the Oven Dome & Cooking Floor

[southpaw]

Hi all,

can anyone please tell me how can I clean the oven dome & floor from the black smoke, the dome bricks are all black!!!

whats the easiest and fastest way to clean it?

i attached a couple of pics of what the dome looked like before & after curing the oven.

dose the black smoke thats stuck on the bricks effect the pizza or any food cooked in the oven?

thanks.

ciao

[jahysea]

Hi there. Once you are fully cured, you need a hotter fire.

Every time I use my oven the initial fire gets the dome all black looking again, then the fire eventually burns away the soot and the dome looks nice again.

I retain some blackness around the entrance to the dome as it really never gets that hot, but I just live with that.

This is a pic I posted after a hot fire:

[jwnorris]

Ditto what jahysea says. Part of the natural action, during firing, is for a layer of black soot to form on the inside surface of the dome. As the fire gets hotter, the soot burns completely off and you are left with a dome that looks like it did before.

You will start to notice the soot burning off directly below the fire. As the fire gets hotter and hotter, and the oven tempature rises, a larger area goes "white." By the time the dome is up around [and above] 900F and the floor is above 700F, the entire dome should be white.

You are heading in the right direction, just keep the curing fires growing each day and you soon get there.

And before you are ready to cook pizza, you will be ready to roast something - anything. Good Luck...

J W

[james]

Agreed.

Carbon goes clear around 700ºF and its a lot of fun watching an oven dome go white.
James

[southpaw]

yuor saying i just need to heat the oven till it reaches 900F & it will all clear up?

ive been heating the oven for quite some time now, more than 20 but still no sign of thedome clearing!!!!

why is that?

[james]

Does your oven go clear when you are cooking?
James

[maver]

Originally Posted by southpaw

yuor saying i just need to heat the oven till it reaches 900F & it will all clear up?

ive been heating the oven for quite some time now, more than 20 but still no sign of thedome clearing!!!!

why is that?

Variables involved here include how well cured your oven is (I understand you began curing over a month ago, but I found it took about 6 full fires after curing before the oven dome really began to heat up well), how well seasoned your wood is (less dry wood smokes more and continues to add carbon as it burns) and how big a fire you make (if you are not making a big enough fire you may never get the dome hot enough to burn off the soot). I think the last is probably the main issue. Do others have other thoughts on variables that affect how well soot burns off?

[jwnorris]

Originally Posted by maver

<snip> and how big a fire you make (if you are not making a big enough fire you may never get the dome hot enough to burn off the soot). I think the last is probably the main issue. <snip>

I agree that a large roaring fire is needed to get the dome up to temp.

And there is nothing like seeing the flames lick over the dome from the back all the way to the front of the oven. It reminds us of how powerful a fire really is.

J W

[southpaw]

no i didnt cook anything in it yet!

I built a 100cm diameter 39.3'' casa oven, but ended up with 50cm dome height instead of 40cm, also the oven opening is 50W x 32H instead of 48W x 30H!

i insulated the oven with 1" blanket & 8cm of vermiculite cement (5:1)

will the difference in the sizes (interior dome height & oven opening) effect the heating of the oven?

will the oven ever reach pizza heat?

is it insulated enough?

i also installed a gas pipe almost half way threw the oven floor, is that enough for the size of my oven to heat it up?

the idea is to use gas to heat the oven & wood for taste.

[southpaw]

Some more pics of what my finished oven looks like