Initial firing heat temps

[edschmidt]

Im hoping all of you with thermocouples can help me with this, and since I havent seen it discussed thought it might be interesting.

Im trying to figure out what cuts would be ideal in a cast dome in order to reduce cracking. Since I theorize most cracks are due to the temperature differential that occurs durring firing I would like to know how the oven heats. Which areas get hot first, and how the heat spreads. Its my theory that the top of the oven gets hottest first and it gradually spreads to the dome to hearth contact point.

Since I dont have thermocouples mounted I cant confirm though. Has anyone ever mapped the progression of heat throught the oven body?

[wlively]

Yes, as a matter of fact mine has TC's. I have only made one data chart so far. I started collecting temps after we had baked our first pizza's, so the starting temp is after 2.5 hours of hard firing and then baking the pizza.

Copy from my oven post:
I have 3 thermocouples all imbedded into the approx center of the bricks. One in the very top center of the brick in the middle of my dome plug, one about halfway down the dome, and one drilled sideways about 9 inches into the floor. If you look closely you can see them in a previous picture. The only data taken so far was my the coast down from the first pzza bake. The curves are very interesting, in that the top temp gradually falls from 594F -223 over 29 hours. The middle actually increased in temp for (382-399) the first 2 hours, then ended up at 226. The bottom rose for 1 hour (312-320) then ended at 177. Interesting that both dome TC's ended up only 3 degrees apart, which makes sense, but good to see. These temps are without a door or anything covering the entry. I have the graph but can't get it sized right to post. I expect the curve to flatten out a bit more over time.