Rear door for fire access

[CroMagnon]

I am looking at building a Pompei oven. I see that the only opening is in the front. I like the idea of having a door in the back to build and tend the fire. It would have a heavy steel door of course. I imagine there would be some heat loss with this, but is it a terrible idea?

Thanks,
Cro

[DrakeRemoray]

Yes.

I believe this is a terrible idea.

[DrakeRemoray]

Seriously, you will lose way too much heat out that door and it just is not necessary.

[CroMagnon]

So when you build a fire in one of these how does that work? Do you build it in front and push it to the back or build it in the back? What about cleaning out ashes?

Thanks,
Cro

[Millstone Man]

I believe a lot of the allure of these ovens is the comunal time gathering around and watching/tending the fire while prepping the pizzas. You don't want to be stuck around back while the party and view is out front.

[Tscarborough]

Thousands of years of experience wager against it.

[splatgirl]

I agree with the above and will add that I'm not clear on how adding a door on the back to "tend the fire" will make it any easier or get you any closer to said fire than the front opening. We are talking about a circle after all. You'll be building your preheat fire in the center of the oven, and you'll tend your cooking fire to one side of the oven. A second door at the back gets you exactly nowhere closer to the fire in either of these cases.

[dmun]

The final consideration is that the fire isn't in the back of the oven, it's on the side, and the process of "feeding" the fire is one of putting individual pieces of wood on top of the coals.

[CroMagnon]

Thanks for the replies. Do you vaccum out the ashes? Or sweep when you're cleaning up?

Cro

[CroMagnon]

Also to clarify, the door would be a heavy cast iron with an oven gasket seal.

Cro