flue, from back or front?

[hewynz]

hey i was just wondering what the difference is in running the flue/chimney from either the oven opening or the back/top of the oven?

[asudavew]

By running the flue from between the two arches, cold air will pull through the door. Then it will heat up the oven as it circulates under the inside of the dome, and then exit through the flue.

If you put the flue over the middle, the cold air will pull in, but exit before fully heating your oven. It's much harder to reach pizza temps, not sure if you would hit pizza temps at all.

[maver]

You can hit pizza temps with the flu off the top of the dome but figure 2-3x as much wood use (my dad's oven is built this way).

[Dutchoven]

You can angle the flue liner back along the dome to the very top...most building codes won't allow sharper than 30 degree angle in flue but I think you could swing that without much trouble. You could even contstuct that lower angled portion using firebrick as opposed to terra cotta or steel. I would recommend widening the throat from 5 or 6 inches to 8 or 9 inches to lessen the amount of smoke that might sneak out of the outer doorway during firing. Do a search for "squirrel tail oven" and you might see some examples of how you would do it...the Amish used to do it that way.
Best
Dutch